The story of infant development : observational work with Martha Harris

In this book I would like to present some of the observation work that I had the privilege of presenting to Martha Harris for supervision between 1970 and 1984. These cases include infant observation,young child observation, and play observation of three children who, for various psychopathological problems, were in hospital at the Institute of Child Neuropsychiatry at the University of Milan. Martha Harris’s supervisions were recorded and in almost all instances preserved, and the tapes have been transcribed here. Thecase of Simone, which constitutes a major part of the book, particularly delighted her, since it afforded in great detail a record of an infant’s normal development, highlighting the passions, struggles, and vicissitudes inherent in ordinary life, so providing a role model against which psychopathological impediments may be measured and more clearly seen. The material in this book demonstrates the high importance accorded by this Scottish psychoanalyst to close observational work. In the process, it provides illuminating illustrations of the theories of Esther Bick and of the Kleinian model of child development, including such themes as states of normal nonintegration, establishing a rapport with the breast, problems of weaning, and the operation of the epistomephilic instinct. The influence of Bion’s theories of the structure of the personality is very evident.1 Mrs Harris, along with Bion, sees the child’s emotionsas crucial in the development of a capacity for thinking. Shesays, “The emotion is the thing that gives the meaning; and the thought is a way of organizing that meaning and giving form to it”.In addition to being a teaching analyst of the British Psychoanalytical Society, Martha Harris always manifested a lively interest in the people, both children and adults, whom she encountered in daily life. As Rita Parlani writes, “This attentive sensitivity toothers derived from her ‘mystical’ and at the same time realisticvision of how her analytical work supported her commitment,which was always inspired by her search for the truth” (Parlani,1989, pp. 6–7). Mrs Harris never ceased reformulating concepts and hypotheses, judging that dogmatic and uncritical assumptionsencouraged omnipotent attitudes. Her rigorous adherence to the Kleinian school co-existed, none the less, with a free and lucid intellectualapproach. For example, she believed the Kleinian idea of“correct” interpretation had a certain omnipotent component, as ifthe patient was to be “stamped” with the right interpretation.Instead, she searched not for the right interpretation but for the “enabling interpretation”. By “enabling” she meant that which aidsthe patient to express more clearly their emotional state in a way that leaves space open for further experience. The “right” interpretationcloses off the experience. Referring to Bion’s terminology, shedescribed how “alpha function forms in the child’s mind with theintrojection of a thinking object (that is, an enabling reasoning power), not with the introjection of an object that formulates omniscient judgements (‘right’ interpretations)” (Brutti & Parlani, 1979,p. 181).