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Your Teenager and
The Story of Infant Observation – reviews The Story
of Infant Observation Martha Harris was a born teacher:
she loved her subject -- psychoanalytic thinking -- and wanted to communicate
that love and inspire it in others. She was an expert in the profoundly
infantile both in clinical work and in the direct observation of infants, and
she leapt on the points she wanted to elucidate with enthusiam, warmth and
all the clarity of a fully-functioning mind. LISA MILLER Consultant Child
Psychotherapist; Editor, Journal of Infant Observation What a pleasure it is to have this record
of a sustained encounter with the inspirational teaching of Martha Harris, to
whom a whole generation of child psychotherapists feel they own their
fundamental psychoanalytic education and approach to child development and
family relationships. The book reminds us of her fresh and lively imagination,
disciplined attention to the observational detail, and unrivalled capacity to
contain and encourage her students. The children she discusses become
complex and memorable individuals through her illuminating commentary.
Indeed, her work offers a model of the integration of theory, clinical
imagination and life wisdom and allows the reader to share in the creation of
meaning through dialogue. MARGARET RUSTIN Head
of Child Psychotherapy, Tavistock Clinic This book is a double delight. It brings together the
closely observed development of Simone (from birth to three) and the
perceptive comments of Martha (or Mattie) Harris, who was such an influential
figure in the development of the Observational Studies Course at the
Tavistock. The editors have treated the original material with great respect,
and this puts the reader in touch with the very lively feel of the original seminars.
This is a book which will, I am sure, prove to be an indispensable companion
to students and teachers of Infant Observation. JONATHAN BRADLEY Organizing
Tutor of the Tavistock Observational Studies Course. Romana Negri's pioneering work on
neonatal intensive care units is informed both by infant observation and by
psychoanalysis. She presents in this volume the transcribed tapes of her
detailed observation of a normally developing infant, whom Martha Harris
supervised for three years. Other chapters present observations of children
in hospital that formed part of their diagnostic assessment, and the book
includes commentaries by Donald Meltzer and Martha Harris together. This book
will be of outstanding interest to all readers - whether parents, teachers,
or mental health professionals - who wish to deepen their understanding of
the roots of mental life. MARIA RHODE Professor of Child
Psychotherapy, Tavistock Clinic/University of East London Your Teenager The Teenager books by Martha Harris, originally published in 1969, take a
similar approach to her longterm bestseller Thinking about Infants and
Young Children. Rooted vividly in the practicalities of everyday situations, the
educational focus is on helping parents use constructively the turbulent
emotions that are aroused in them by their child. The structural hinge is her
empathy with the struggling child in all of us, and with the difficulty of
becoming educated - in the deepest and widest sense of that term. If the
Òcentral task of the adolescentÓ is defined as one of Òfinding their
individual identityÓ, then the task of parents is a reciprocal one: it is to
Òre-educate themselvesÓ through questioning their own relationships, values,
emotions and principles. Her aim
is that children and parents may make the most of this opportunity to develop
in tandem, with a view to ultimately taking their place in Òthe great social
class of the truly educated people, the people who are still learningÓ. MEG HARRIS WILLIAMS The impact she had on those she taught
derived from her being as well as from the power of her presentation of
psychoanalytic ideasÉHer approach to learning was a beautiful exemplification
of BionÕs ideas. Many of her
colleagues can bear witness to the subtlety of her judgements of people –
and very many students benefited from her sensitive contact with the creative
spark inside them which could elude other observers but which Mattie could
seek out and nourish. MARGARET RUSTIN Head
of Child Psychotherapy, Tavistock Clinic It was through Martha Harris that I first
gained an inkling of what real teaching and learning is: of the distinction,
for example, between knowledge and wisdom, between quantity and quality; of
the diffidence and humility as well as the courage and resilience involved in
the life-long venture of growing up. Her passionate commitment to
helping a person, at whatever age or stage, to develop tended to stir in
others an answering passion, less imitative than aspirational – the
desire to become more oneself and to have a mind of oneÕs own. MARGOT WADDELL Psychoanalyst and child psychotherapist By both background and inclination,
Mattie was a scholar of English literature and a teacher. Nothing was more foreign to her
nature than the administrative requirements that devolved upon her at the
Tavistock. The way in which she
came to terms with this was by framing a radical pedagogical method, many of
whose central ideas came from Roland [her husband]. The central conviction, later hallowed in BionÕs concept
of Òlearning from experienceÓ,
was that the kind of learning which transformed a person into a professional
worker had to be rooted in the intimate relations with inspired teachers,
living and dead, present and in books. DONALD MELTZER Psychoanalyst |