Infant observation – a source of knowledge about personality development
Grażyna Lewko1,2

The article presents infant observation as an essential part of the psychotherapeutic training. An observer takes part in a very intimate relationship between a mother and her child. He or she has an opportunity to witness the emerging model of a mother-child relationship. The author examines the way in which traumatic experience of a mother can affect this newly formed relationship. During the observation the observer identifies with mother’s inner experiences of which she is not consciously aware. The observer’s state of emotional freeze is analysed at the meeting of a supervisory group. The mother wants her baby to be very independent and fearless. She is convinced that the lack of fear will protect her child from psychological pain. An example drawn from author’s own clinical practice involves a six month old child with eye focus problems. The analysis of the mother-child relationship revealed the mother’s traumatic experiences and her fear of becoming attached to the child. The mother made an subconscious effort to prevent the baby from looking at her face. She protected her child from despair that could be seen on her face. She was afraid of allowing her child to become attached to her as it would expose the child to psychological pain. The grief after the death of her previous child affected her relationship with the baby – a relationship she considered a betrayal of her dead child. The main point of the article is the necessity of helping mothers at an early perinatal stage, so that any disruptions in the mother-child relationship do not permanently affect the child’s development and do not make both mother and the child suffer unnecessarily.