I intend to show here how the object of observation, namely the quality of the infant-parent interaction, influences the very process of observation and can transform both the observer and the observation.

My article is in three parts: I will present some theoretical background, give you a vignette from the observations, and then present my own inferences about the work of/on infant observation.

Birth is a paradoxical place: new life begins and yet memory predominates. This is the Uhrzeit, the time of origin, for both baby and mother. As the mother interacts daily with the baby, she finds herself in what Daniel