Arranged by EFPP delegates in the Child and Adolescent section of EFPP:

Britta Blomberg, Sweden, Effie Layou-Lignos, Greece, Simona Nissim, Italy, Miriam Rosenthal, Israel, Anne Holländer (member of the executive)

During the latest EFPP-conferences, presentations on infant observation have formed an ongoing theme. Since December 2005 special workshops on this subject have been arranged. The first one took place in Athens. The second one was arranged in February 2008, this time in Pisa. As usual it was advertised at the EFPP-website and also through direct e-mail to all delegates within the EFPP, who were asked to spread information on this event in their countries and sections.

The topic this time was: How can Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy make use of the method of Infant Observation?

Some 40 interested participants arrived from Belgium, Estonia, France, Greece, Israel, Sweden, Turkey, UK and of course from Italy. The conference, beautifully arranged by Simona Nissim, took place at an old convent in Pisa, Santa Croce in Fossabanda, which made it possible to keep the participants together during the days and spare time. And some very nice meals were arranged by Simona at local restaurants.

Invited main speaker was Jeanne Magagna from UK who presented a most interesting paper on “Thinking about crying; crying and not thinking: The link between infant observation and psychotherapy”.

The workshop aimed at reaching out to participants from all sections within the EFPP.

Programme

After this a small Group Observation Seminar worked with Jeanne as seminar leader where Silvia Trevisani, Italy, presented a baby observation in a family with twins. Similarities and differences in the communication between the babies and between them and their parent were discussed in a small group of some 6-7 members, while the rest of the participants of the whole workshop remained observing the processes going on in the group as well as in the material.

The first day ended with a workshop on Infant observation and Adult Psychotherapy where Miriam Rosenthal from Israel, presented a session where she talked about holding infant observation in mind as a “live company” in a psychoanalytic psychotherapy with a 35 y.o. male patient. The man went on talking as if the other (i.e. the therapist) didn’t exist and there was no option for asking questions or getting more details from him. Miriam referred to André Green’s concept of the “dead part of his mother” with a “non existent” receiver of all his words and actions. The experiences of infant observation and what is going on in a non-verbal way in psychotherapy were linked in the presentation and later on lively discussed by the rest of the participants.

On Saturday Piet Visnapuu, Maie Kybarsepp and Valvas Tiina, from Estonia presented a clinical material on a mother infant psychotherapy. Piet read a session, from just one week before the Pisa workshop, with a mother and her newborn child, and the participants in the workshop could by this means take part in the ongoing, very vividly and movingly described process. It was fascinating to imagine the following session that was to take place just after the workshop had ended.

After coffee break Maurizio Gentile from Sicily, gave his thoughts on group processes in a school with children with severely contact and behavioural disorder. He started by going back some 20 years ago when he first did some baby observation and talked about how this experience has influenced his following professional practice especially with groups. To observe, to “see” without being blinded was a central theme. And how a therapist gradually can find a “good distance” from the object so as to carry out an emotional-space condition in which a clearer “vision” is possible. Maurizio exemplified this double level in perceiving (in reality and through our senses) from a group of 8-9 y.o. children with severe disorders in affective and relational adaptation.

Denis Mellier, France, gave some very interesting thoughts on the topic of the workshop: How can Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy make use of the method of Infant Observation? He presented some theoretical points of view concerning infant observations and the psychic work of attention linked to theories expressed by Freud and Bion. The “natural, spontaneous” therapeutic tool, that comes out of two years of following a baby in his/her family “the breath from the unconscious to the unconscious” (the somatic transfer), from one person to another was envisaged in Denis paper. The capacity of not only observing, but trusting what we are feeling, and how this capacity can be developed via infant observation was discussed as well as the capacity to wait without expectations and the links to psychotherapeutic work.

Each day ended with some reflections of the day and on Sunday with a discussion of future workshops.

Future workshops

Next time for infant observations within the EFPP will be at the Prague conference in May 2009, where a workshop will be held on group processes in a seminar group working with an authentic observation of an infant in his/her family.

The third workshop (2 days) on Infant Observation will be held in Stockholm in spring 2010. Further information can be obtained at the EFPP website.

These notes were summarized by Britta Blomberg, EFPP delegate from Sweden

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