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The observation of preterm newborns in the incubator from the first moments of their hospitalization was started in 1982. It was intended primarily as research for a medical university degree thesis, and also to improve the care of these infants. When starting this observation work, I believed that the recognition of extremely early mental mechanisms would provide a better understanding of the baby's distress and needs (Benedetti, 1984). It would enable more appropriate provision to be made of the various “direct preventive actions” I have identified, to improve its mental and physical condition during and after its stay in the incubator (as illustrated in Table 2, page 5).
Yet the initial approach to the early mental processes of a newborn who was so seriously premature and in such great distress soon brought into contact obscure aspects of the observer's mentality and more generally of all the people involved with the child. Our thoughts often tended to be fragmented and abortive. We felt strongly and painfully that parts of ourselves found it difficult to be psychologically born and to find their identity.