ABSTRACT
In evaluations of the validity and usefulness of research, the literature often refers to "reproducibility". Experience sensitizes the researcher to significant problems and issues in the data, and while it is important not to treat such experience as statistics, the researcher can use it to select and order the data in a conceptual way. The author has demonstrated that infant observation initiates or at times catalyses processes of development in its participants. The external situation, the emotionally charged atmosphere of an observation, arouses something in the internal life of the observer, which opens out into a reflection on one's self and one's own relationships and history. Awareness of the complications of family life as seen in infant observation—as well as often experienced personally—can help the child psychotherapist to avoid rescue fantasies by maintaining a more balanced attitude towards parents who may themselves be very damaged and deprived.
