First contact : an exploratory study of the role of psychoanalytic infant observation in South African community psychology interventions

[摘要] Very little is known about the experiences of black children living in poverty in South Africa. This compromisesthe delivery of appropriate psychological services. This dissertation considers the contribution that psychoanalyticinfant observation might make to a needs assessment process within the community psychology paradigm. To date,infant observation has predominantly been used for training psychotherapists and other professionals in Westerncontexts. The goal of the present project was to conduct a classical observation of a mother and child in a lowincomeSouth African community in the first year of the infant's life, in order to ascertain what kind of descriptionit would yield. The question was whether such a description is useful for the needs assessment process, andultimately, whether infant observation is a viable tool for psychologists working in low-income communities inSouth Africa.The study was set in a poor, semi-rural, so-called coloured township in the Western Cape. The data were analysedusing an intersubjective psychoanalytic lens and a social constructionist grounded theory approach. In overview,the findings relate to two main areas, namely a) the nature and content of the resultant description, and b) the effectof the process. The analysis of the case material showed that the observation produced an extremely detailedaccount of the experience of poverty and oppression, involving the way in which it influences all relationships,including the one between mother and child. The knowledge gained offers clear pointers to the kind of interventionthat would benefit the particular infant in the present study, and potentially other infants in vulnerable socialcontexts as well. One surprising outcome was the extensive way in which the observation functionedtherapeutically for the whole family. It is therefore concluded that infant observation can provide a very richcontribution to low-income communities on a number of levels, if it is able to make both the theoretical andpractical adjustments needed. It is thus argued that it is necessary to look at infant observation in more criticalways, both in terms of how it has traditionally been conceptualised and how it is and can be applied across allcontexts.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University