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Valentina Boursier's volume, Sentire con gli occhi. Note sull'osservazione del bambino in psicoanalisi tra formazione, clinica e ricerca [Feeling through the Eyes: Infant Observation in Psychoanalysis between Training, Clinical Practice and Research], invites us right from the outset to trace back the history and development of the psychoanalytic practice of infant observation.
The first part of the book sets out to examine Freud's early observations of his grandson's wooden reel game (Freud, 1920) and Winnicott's ‘observation in a set situation’ (Winnicott, 1941), moving on subsequently to survey other landmark contributions to the field, including works by Anna Freud (1950), Esther Bick (1964) and Melanie Klein (1952). Concurrently, it also provides an assessment of the rich and diverse theoretical-clinical developments of infant observation in Italy, where this practice boasts a long-standing tradition (e.g. Bonaminio and Di Renzo, 1977; Borgogno, 1978; Brutti and Scotti, 1993; Cresti et al., 2001; Nunziante Cesàro, 2003; Scotti, 2002).
In her analysis of the vast amount of works on the subject, the author highlights a number of key points of direct observation theory, which, “though seemingly already a much-studied theme, has recently gained the spotlight within a heated and complex debate that focuses with a modern approach on issues to some extent already known” (p. 13). These include the debate on the (by now well-known) representations of the ‘reconstructed child’ and the ‘observed child’, as well as considerations on the understanding of the notion of ‘fact’ in psychoanalysis.
As far as the latter is concerned, Bezoari's (2006) argument that: “The nature of clinical facts in psychoanalysis is such that the analyst can be a privileged observer in as much as he is also a subject taking part in the process of the unfolding of the events together with the patient” (p. 24) seems particularly significant and attuned to the perspective adopted in this book. Indeed