Infant Observation and Research

• Introduction. Part I: Epistemology and Infant Observation as Part of the Learning Process. Price, Cooper, The Baby in Mind: The Practical and Clinical Relevance of Debates about the Epistemological Status of the Observed Baby. Rustin, Infant Observation Research: Questions of Method. Music, How Do We Know the Ways in Which Infants Experience the World? Lessons From Child Development Research. Sternberg, Infant Observation: Why it is at the Heart of Training. Trowell, Miles, An Account of an Application in the Training of Front Line Professionals with Children and Families. Part II: How Infant Observation Can Inform Understanding and Influence Practice. Urwin, Observing Cultural Difference and Observing Ourselves. Reid, The Experience of Babies Born After a Perinatal Loss. Shallcross, What Can be Learned from a Single Case of Psychoanalytic Infant Observation? Wakelyn, Infant Observation in Foster Care. Rhode, Infant Observation as an Early Intervention: Lessons from a Pilot Research Project. Part III: Psychoanalytic Infant Observation and Other Methodologies. Jones, A New Way of Helping a Traumatised and Emotionally Frozen Mother Observe and Be With her Baby. Briggs, Behringer, The Links Between Infant Observation Research and Other Paradigms. Bradley, Selby, Urwin, Group Life in Babies: Establishing a Method. Datler, Trunkenpolz, Lazar, Observing in Nursing Homes: The Use of Single Case and Organisational Observation as a Research Tool. Shuttleworth, 'Faith and Culture': Community Life and the Creation of a Shared Psychic Reality. Miller, Afterword.

This original book shows how 'infant observation' creates a greater capacity for tolerating stress and for reflective practice- qualities much needed by today's beleaguered social workers and mental health professionals. The riveting examples of observation in richly vivid settings, from a new-born baby, to a mosque, to a dementia care home, enable the reader to think about the feelings and defences stirred up by work, or just being, in many settings. This wider context makes a valuable link between contemporary sociology and psychoanalytic thinking - Dr Dilys Daws, Hon Consultant Child Psychotherapist, Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust, previously Founding Chair of the Association for Infant Mental Health-UK