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This paper is one in a now prolific literature on psychoanalytic infant observation, starting from the early defining papers of Esther Bick and Martha Harris (1964, 1987) and the classic volume, Closely Observed Infants (Miller et al 1989). This recent paper focuses on the ending of an observation, in particular its emotional impact on the members of the observer group and the processing of their responses to the observed material. This focus on transference phenomena and group dynamics in relation to endings is in contrast to the more usual attention authors give to the baby and family per se. Concluding an infant observation comes at a time of rapidly emerging attachment processes in the infants, and observations carry themes of deeply affecting separation and loss. Given the importance of endings in this kind of research, the subject is a worthwhile study in itself. Hence it is disappointing that the value of this paper is compromised by what I consider to be the authors' mistaken interpretation of group dysfunction as transcendent function.
The paper centres on two meetings at the end of an observer's three-year observation. In the discussion about the first of these meetings, the last of the observer's regular visits, careful attention is given to the observer's counter-transference, a technical concept which, like others used in the paper, is loosely defined. The group's understanding becomes, firstly, a predominating group assumption that discards alternative views and disregards openness to ‘not knowing’. Secondly, this group assumption becomes enacted in a conscious decision for the observer to visit once again - the second observation discussed - in