Intimate Transformations

Jeanne Magagna was Head of Psychotherapy Services at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children for twenty-two years. She also worked for ten years at Ellern Mede Centre for Eating Disorders in London. She received professional qualifications as a child, adult and family psychotherapist and a doctorate from the Tavistock Clinic. Formerly, Jeanne was the vice-president and joint coordinator of training for the Centro Studi Martha Harris Tavistock model trainings in Florence and Venice. She edited 'Universals of Psychoanalysis' and jointly edited 'Psychotherapy with Families and Intimate Transformations: Babies with their Families' (Karnac Books, 2004). Her special interest is applying the understandings of infant observation to work with children suffering from communication difficulties and anorexia nervosa

This book describes the value of learning about the development of the human personality through the experience of observing a baby in the context of the family. It highlights the relationship between siblings and its influence on the development of the self-esteem of the younger child.

Introduction -- Observing Babies in Their Families -- The origins of self-esteem in infancy -- The sibling link -- The role of the mother in developing the capacity to bear emotion -- One, two, three, baby you and me: baby¿s experience of self and others -- Oedipal anxieties, the birth of a new baby, and the role of the observer -- Applications of Infant Observation studies -- Fear of massacre and death: containing anxiety in the neonatal intensive care unit -- Keep on knocking but you can¿t come in: rejection as a defence against emotional pain in the NICU -- The shadow of your smile: intrusion or engulfment -- Learning from infant observation: understanding adults in psychoanalytic psychotherapy -- The Infant Observation Seminar Group -- Teaching infant observation: developing a language of understanding -- Teaching infant observation by video-link -- Infant observation augmented by the affective learning experience -- Learning through affective group experience -- Concluding remarks