Infant observation and its applications still constitutes the bedrock for understanding the origin of the human mind, and the training of all the authors is rooted in this method of observation as well as in the work of later object relations clinicians and theoricians (Klein, Bion, Winnicott, Meltzer etc). The authors from the São Paulo Mother-Baby Relationship Study Centre, working in the fields of infant, child and family psychology, cover a variety of interesting settings, such as: the seminar room where Esther Bick herself led a discussion group; the homes of observed babies; the consulting room with parents and children in therapy; a nursery; a child psychiatric hospital department; and a neonatal intensive care unit. The book ends with an innovative and timely chapter on research on the link between maternal reverie and the development of symbolic play in babies. Reviews: "Meltzer referred to this stage of life as the 'great combine harvester of adolescence'. In essence: all have to go through it; some find it hard to emerge from it. Theory and clinical material bring alive the political and ethical states of mind of adolescents as they re-evaluate their child knowledge and understanding. The tension builds through the book, leading froim imaginative descriptions of ordinary pubertal states of mind to the destructiveness of perversity. The case discussions in the book provide a master class on tehnique and clinical understanding."
- Ellie Roberts, consulting child psychotherapist "Marisa Pelella Melega came to Rome in 1988 to celebrate the foundation of the first Centro Studi Martha Harris, and to establish a link between the Centro Studi and her initiative in São Paulo. The link with the Centro Studi and with the Tavistock proved very fertile and this book is a witness to it. The valuable work documented here exemplifies vividly Martha Harris’ own often-cited statement that 'psychoanalytical ideas have travelled… and found a home in which to flourish'."
- Gianna Polacco Williams, Psychoanalyst and child analyst; founder , Centro Studi Martha Harris "What an interesting collection of descriptions of Infant Observations and applications of the method of observing babies pioneered by Esther Bick in the seventies! Infant observation and its applications still constitutes the bedrock for understanding the origin of the human mind, and the training of all the authors is rooted in this method of observation as well as in the work of later object relations clinicians and theoricians (Klein, Bion, Winnicott, Meltzer etc). The authors from the São Paulo Mother-Baby Relationship Study Centre, working in the fields of infant, child and family psychology, cover a variety of interesting settings, such as: the seminar room where Esther Bick herself led a discussion group; the homes of observed babies; the consulting room with parents and children in therapy; a nursery; a child psychiatric hospital department; and a neonatal intensive care unit. The work and observations are described vividly and with the precision of refined observers who share their experience generously and openly. The book ends with an innovative and timely chapter on research on the link between maternal reverie and the development of symbolic play in babies. This is a book which I indeed recommend to all those interested in infant observation and its broad application."
- Maria Pozzi Monzo, Consultant child and adolescent psychotherapist; visiting lecturer , Tavistock Clinic Table of Contents:
Foreword
Daisy Maia Bracco Introduction: Esther Bick’s infant observation method
Daisy Maia Bracco 1. Esther Bick in South America: supervision of the observation of a baby girl from birth to eight months
Esther Bick 2. Aspects of supervision: an observation seminar about a ten-month-old triplet
Marisa Pelella Mélega 3. The flame of psychic life: reviewing a two-year observation twenty years later
Mariza Leite da Costa 4. Early feeding difficulties: risk and resilience in early mismatches within the parent-child relationship
Mariângela Mendes de Almeida 5. Psychoanalytic observation: the Esther Bick method as a clinical tool
Magaly Miranda Marconato Callia 6. The psychoanalytic observer as model for a maternal containing function
Marisa Pelella Mélega 7. The psychoanalytic observer at the nursery
Ana Rosa Campana de Almeida Pernambuco and Maria da Graça Palmigiani 8. The psychoanalytic observer in paediatric assessment
Marisa Pelella Mélega and Maria da Graça Palmigiani 9. Joint parent and child therapeutic interventions
Marisa Pelella Mélega 10. A family assessment based on the Esther Bick method
Ana Rosa Campana de Almeida Pernambuco 11. The observer in the neonatal intensive care unit
Mariza S. Inglez de Souza 12. Infant observation and its developments: working with autistic children
Mariângela Mendes de Almeida 13. A research methodology for the study of symbolic activity in infants
Marisa Pelella Mélega and Maria Cecília Sonzogno References and Bibliography
Index About the Editors: Marisa Pelella Mélega is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst in private practice and a Training Analyst and Supervisor at the Brazilian Psychoanalytic Society of São Paulo. She founded the São Paulo Mother–Baby Relationship Study Centre in 1987, receiving accreditation from the Centro Studi Martha Harris, in Rome. She teaches at the Brazilian Institute as a child psychoanalyst, 1996. Her clinical and research interests include applications of the Esther Bick observation model, as in assessment and therapeutic interventions with parents and children. Mariângela Mendes de Almeida is a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist in São Paulo, Brazil, She has been working in the field of mental health and child development since 1982. Between 1988 and 1993, she was a Clinical Associate at the Child and Family Department, Tavistock Clinic, where she received her MA in Psychoanalytic Observational Studies (from the University of East London). She is currently training as an analyst at the Institute of the Brazilian Psychoanalytic Society of São Paulo. She specializes in early interventions on primitive states of mind in children with severe emotional disturbances. Mariza Leite da Costa trained as a Clinical Psychologist in Brazil before training further as a Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist at the Tavistock Clinic. She is a member of the ACP and holds an MA in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. She is a former Fellow of Essex University, where she taught Infant Observation at the Centre for Psychoanalytical Studies. She has a particular interest in autistic spectrum disorders and is in full time private practice. | 
