A place where verbalisation has no meaning

Abstract

This paper, which is based on observations of women in labour in the obstetric centre of a public hospital, describes the challenges for mothers, as well as for the observer, who enters the 'sacred place', a place where verbalisation has no meaning. We hope to show that perhaps the greatest challenge for the observer is to reconnect with the helplessness which accompanies human beings from the beginning to the end of life. In childbirth, we suggest, the experience of both physical and emotional regression psychically challenges most women to the limit. The paper draws on previous experience of applying Bick's infant observation method and on Winnicott's theory of primitive emotional development. The paper assumes that the mother's primitive psychic and physical experiences during labour and delivery reflect a state of regression which develops during pregnancy and continues for some time after delivery. This is assumed to enable the mother to connect with her baby and his state of helplessness.

When the internal setting becomes more important than the therapist/analyst's interpretative capacity: extending the infant observation method to the prenatal and perinatal period

“…In a similar way, in a previous paper (Caron et al, 2013), we have suggested that to remain together, to listen, to welcome and to share uncritically the unconscious experiences of a woman in labour are aspects of the observation of labour which, in our view, are themselves therapeutic and mostly welcomed at a challenging moment in a woman's life. The trained professional is also able to go beyond physical containment and care to offer emotional containment similar to the maternal function.…”

‘How I wonder what you are?’: what infant observation offers family therapy

“…Infant observation makes prominent the experience of the infant, and as the observation takes place in their home, always includes the infant–parent relationship. It is a process that calls on the practitioner's ability to sit within the intuitive, right‐brain realm, and in a space where ‘verbalisation has no meaning’ (Caron et al., 2013, p. 170). It requires the trainee to watch, without judgement, and to allow ‘ourselves to feel the sympathetic response that the other's actions and feelings invite’ (Reddy & Trevarthen, 2004, p. 9).…”

Observação Psicanalítica da Relação Mãe-Bebê no Cárcere

“…O método, entretanto, é a própria psicanálise aplicada, já que o lugar do observador é o mesmo lugar do psicanalista e baseia-se nos mesmos pressupostos. Conforme Caron et al (2013), o referido método está fundamentado nos básicos conceitos psicanalíticos: o inconsciente, a atenção flutuante, a transferência e contratransferência, os quais trazem os dados necessários à análise científica.…”

“…Muitas mulheres, após o parto, sentem-se impotentes e incapazes de se conectar com o bebê devido às mudanças radicais que a maternidade acarreta, o que pode complicar a relação recíproca mãe-bebê, contudo é o desamparo da mãe que a prepara para atender o desamparo do filho (Caron, Lopes, & Donelli, 2013). Na delicadeza da relação da mãe com o recémnascido, é imprescindível que o laço seja estabelecido desde o parto (Winnicott, 1965), sendo imprescindível um espaço preparado para a mãe encarcerada ficar com seu filho de modo a suprir-lhes as necessidades e estabelecer vínculo com ele.…”