Infant observation

Domain I · Psychodynamic & depth psychology · Esther Bick · 1964

What it is

Bick's method is a training method for clinicians, not a treatment. An observer visits an ordinary family at home and watches the baby and its relationships without intervening. The aim is to grow the observer's capacity to perceive primitive emotional states, bear them, and think about them.…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Version followed: Esther Bick's 1964 Tavistock model, as described in her paper "Notes on infant observation in psycho-analytic training" (IJP 45:558–66), and as Margaret Rustin (2009) and current Tavistock courses report it: one-hour home observation each week from birth (or before) to the second birthday, detailed process notes written afterwards, and a weekly small-group seminar. The therapeutic adaptations…
• What it is. Bick's method is a training method for clinicians, not a treatment. An observer visits an ordinary family at home and watches the baby and its relationships without intervening. The aim is to grow the observer's capacity to perceive primitive emotional states, bear them, and think about them. Throughout this guide, "client" means the observed family, and the person learning is the "observer". Therapeutic…
• Training (Track A): the observer gains clinical capacity by repeatedly taking in raw emotional experience without acting on it. They then write it down in detail and think about it with a seminar over time, waiting for meaning to emerge rather than applying theory first.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• the same as for infant observation.
• it is working when escalations de-escalate faster over the weeks.
• it is working when the child treats you as a person with intentions.
• it is working when you notice the child's capacities that you had missed.
• it is working when parents can voice worries and use the observer's visits.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.