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The direct observation of babies is a way of learning [[about ]] the developing [[human ]] [[mind]].In "The Psychogenesis of a [[Case ]] of [[Homosexuality ]] in a [[Woman]]" (1920), Sigmund [[Freud ]] stated that if direct observation were sufficient to provide us with information on the origins of human [[sexuality]], he would not have bothered to write his books. Arguably, we observe [[nothing ]] that we do not already [[know]], and [[vision]], although closely linked to the [[scopic ]] instinct—the foremost tool of curiosity and inquiry—is not a productive way of investigating [[psychic ]] [[reality]]. Nevertheless, his observation of Little [[Hans]], related in "[[Analysis ]] of a [[Phobia ]] in a Five-Year-Old Boy" (1909), provided him with the essential elements of his [[theory ]] of the [[libido ]] and [[castration ]] [[anxiety]]. He believed he was able to see directly in the [[child ]] "these [[sexual ]] impulses and these [[formations ]] built by [[desire ]] that we have such difficulty uncovering in the [[adult]]." His observation of an eighteen-month-old child playing the <i>Fort!/Da!</i> [[game ]] with a wooden reel, related in "Beyond the [[Pleasure ]] [[Principle]]" (1920), by establishing the basis for his theory of the [[death ]] [[instinct]], played a [[role ]] not only in his theorizations of [[narcissism]], but also because it provided a paradigm for numerous currents of [[thought ]] in child [[psychoanalysis]].Freud and Melanie [[Klein]], [[working ]] within different perspectives, encouraged their students to observe infants, but without making this a [[separate ]] field of study. It was Donald [[Winnicott ]] who, in "The Observation of Infants in a Set [[Situation]]" (1941), defined that field by envisioning [[infant ]] observation as a "set situation" capable both of providing information about the infant carried by its [[mother ]] and of establishing an authentic therapeutic [[relationship ]] with the infant, working in a nonverbal mode. Winnicott proposed his own [[reading ]] of Freud's "game of <i>Fort!/Da!</i>" and helped us to see what distinguishes his [[interpretation ]] from pure behavioral observation. He [[analyzed ]] the sequence of the [[baby]]'s behaviors in [[three ]] [[stages]]: (a) [[hesitation]], which he [[interpreted ]] as a "[[sign ]] of anxiety about something" and a [[symptom ]] of a [[conflict ]] between the infant's desire and its interiorization of a threatening [[maternal ]] [[imago]]; (b) then the expression of [[self]]-confidence—which is close to what he called "omnipotence." In some cases, this [[phase ]] can lead to the [[world ]] of make-believe and shared play; and (c) the game of [[appearance]]/disappearance of the [[object]], in which the infant, emerging from its depressive mood, expresses its ability to restore the object through the game.Winnicott thus establishes a [[difference ]] between the [[primitive ]] [[processes]], as they can be directly observed, and the deeper processes that are already a reconstruction and elaboration of the primitive processes, linked with [[experience ]] of the [[environment]]. He made it possible to utilize direct infant observation to better [[understand ]] psychic reality in the [[process ]] of [[being ]] constructed.The postwar period, in which [[psychoanalysts ]] were faced with the problem of early psychopathologies, renewed interest in observation. René Spitz and John Bowlby, borrowing their methods from genetic [[psychology ]] and [[ethology ]] respectively, proposed new [[developmental ]] models focused on, respectively, the [[concept ]] of organizers of the ego and attachment theory. An important research trend then developed, mainly in the [[United States]], that interpreted the baby's nonverbal behaviors as genuine [[mental ]] [[acts]]. Her [[work ]] informed by the theories both Klein and Wilfred Bion, the British investigator Esther Bick, in "[[Notes ]] on Infant Observation in [[Psycho]]-[[Analytic ]] [[Training]]" (1964), for her part upheld the [[idea ]] that the infant's mental [[life ]] unfolds in a projective mode that must be contained by psychic [[structures ]] that are sufficiently developed to support the emergence of the processes of [[introjection]]. Originally conceived as a contribution to the training of child psychotherapists and psychoanalysts, this method has been extended to [[other ]] objectives: research on the beginnings of the infant's mental and relational life, prevention and [[treatment ]] techniques used in families and in various institutional settings (treatment and other centers for young [[children]], nurseries, neonatal care services).From an [[epistemological ]] point of view, Didier Houzel (1997) underscored the difference between an ethological approach and observation that he characterized as [[psychoanalytical]], which sticks to the proposed framework both internally (coming as close as possible to the baby's somatopsychic experiences) and externally (type of contract established with the [[family]], means used by the various parties to abide by or [[transgress ]] the [[conditions]], and finally the [[observer]]'s capacity for [[empathy]]). Observation thus takes [[place ]] in two stages: [[encounter ]] with the [[subject]], and the deferred [[working-over ]] of transferential and counter-transferential [[material]].

# [[Freud, Sigmund]]. (1909b). Analysis of a phobia in a five-year-old boy. SE, 10: 1-149.# ——. (1920g). Beyond the [[pleasure principle]]. SE, 18: 1-64.