One Example of Shared Parenting: Gains and Losses

For the benefit of our visitors today, I should perhaps say that we were probably the first Centre to introduce baby observations as part of the training; it stemmed from the idea in Anna Freud's mind that observations of children - of infants, of toddlers and also the Nursery School children - are vital background knowledge for future child psychotherapists. Not only should every trainee be well grounded in the theories of early development but they should actually observe children and learn what they are like; observe how they interact with their mothers and with the world at large; study their activities, and witness the way in which ego functions and processes gradually unfold and develop. Anna Freud was convinced that such background knowledge of early development was necessary to any later assessment of pathology in children. And not only to assess what is pathological but also to have ‘built-in’ norms to link certain pathologies with certain delays or deviations in the child's developmental path.

Regarding the earliest stages of development - the so-called preverbal period - we have an additional task and interest to follow. It is an area where our knowledge has most gaps and where much controversy exists with regard to the various developmental theories. Therefore observations of infants which complement clinical findings, or contradict them are of great importance. Attempts to integrate what was observed in an infant with the study of developmental theories - on this occasion, with regard to Spitz's and Mahler's developmental models - provide learning experiences for us all and