Psychoanalytic Theory and Infant Development

The experience of psychoanalytic clinical work with adults has long supported the conviction that adult patients' current ways of func­ tion4lg have a complex history dating back to early childhood and indeed to infancy. This gave rise to an interest among psychoanalysts in early development. This interest was at first pursued mainly through clinical work with adults and children, but from the beginning there has also been an interest in directly observing childhood and infancy unfold­ ing in its natural setting in order to study early modes of mental functioning and the quality of infantile experiences (Freud 1909, 1920; Klein 1921, 1952a; Winnicott 1941).h In 1948 Esther Bick,2 with the support of John Bowlby,3 established Infant Observation as a central part of the training of child psychotherapists at the Tavistock Clinic <Bick 1964).