Report from the First workshop on Infant Observation

The Workshop took place in Athens, 9-10 December 2005. Effie Layiou-Lignos from the Hellenic Association for Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, was the local organiser.

There were 18 participants from Israel, Cyprus, Greece, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden and the invited main speaker was Prof. Didier Houzel from France, who presented an extremely interesting paper on "Infant observation and psychic receptivity". The conference had as its special goal to address delegates from countries who have just started or are about to start training, while the main focus was on the teaching of infant observation and the work of the seminar leaders. Each part of the workshop started with a short presentation, but ample time was allowed for the mutual exchange of ideas and thoughts among the participants.A sun-blushed winter-Athens welcomed the participants, who were escorted to the venue.

The programme

After the welcome and introductory words by Dimitris Anastosopoulos (vice chair of the EFPP and Child and Adolescent section coordinator), Effie Layiou-Lignos (Greece), presented video clips on infant observation, which brought us vividly in touch with the actual observation and our own primitive feelings that a close contact with a baby can evoke and opened the discussion among the participants.

The next presentation, by Miriam Rosenthal (Israel), was on "The observational approach: learning from experience". To endure "living in the question" (as J. Keats initially put it), was the focus of many of the presentations and the discussions among the participants. This quotation was linked to how the seminar leader can help students to avoid premature, anxiety-ridden interpretations and interventions and attentively wait and collect fragments of comprehension without jumping into conclusions. Students learn from breathtaking experiences in their own observations, but also from sharing and discussing the other observers' written reports in the seminar group, as these experiences are not always from "happy" and well functioning families, but occasionally from parents who scarcely reach out to their baby or vice versa. This was the case from the observation material that Miriam brought and it was intensively discussed how one, as a seminar leader, can facilitate the processes in the seminar group under such circumstances.

The last presentation of the first day was from Britta Blomberg (Sweden), who focused on "Beginnings and Endings and creating a setting" in infant observation. The structures around a seminar group, the setting-up of the observation and how to approach the family, as well as the moment of good-bye, clearly presented and illustrated by observational material was discussed thoroughly in the workshop.
An interesting and thought provoking first day ended in a local restaurant with a typical Greek dinner for the participants.

The second day started with professor Didier Houzel ( Caen, France), who presented a paper on "Infant observation and psychic receptivity". In his very interesting paper, Prof. Houzel referred extensively to Esther Bick, (emphasizing that the observer should refrain from making any selection as to the material observed, and put to one side anything, including any prior theoretical references, that might interfere with his or her receptivity), and elaborated on the 'oxymoron' (:contradictory yet in conjunction) state of mind of the observer of evenly-suspended attention. He suggested the term unconscious attention - another oxymoron - as a description of the kind of receptivity in our mind that is not confined to our conscious attention, to the data picked up by our five senses and to what is immediately meaningful. 'Putting unconscious attention into practice requires a well-defined setting in which everything that is expressed by whatever means - speech, of course, but also silence, facial expressions, stiffening and relaxation of the muscles, behaviour, etc - can be taken in and held until it becomes meaningful'. The extensive discussion that followed facilitated an in depth understanding of the theoretical issues and their clinical relevance.

Effie Layiou-Lignos (Greece) followed with a presentation on "The effect upon the observer - containing primitive emotional states, the relevance to clinical work". The clinical material of an observation gave rise to a vivid discussion, which allowed nearly all the participants to contribute, not only in relation to the gains of the observer but also in relation to the containing function of the seminar group and the role of the seminar leader.

The workshop ended with a presentation by Anne Holländer ( Denmark), who focused on how we, within the EFPP, can promote Infant Observation. The presentation led to an extensive discussion about promoting infant observation training, not only within the Child &Adolescent Section, but also for all psychotherapists who aim at working on a psychoanalytic basis.
In the summing up of the workshop, all participants expressed the fruitfulness of such an occasion like this, when one can meet in a rather small group and really exchange ideas.

The workshops in infant observation will be continued within the EFPP (as part of the Child and Adolescent Section Conference, Berlin November 2006, the three-section conference in Copenhagen May 2007; but also as special events).

Britta Blomberg

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