Observations at the nursery: practicing how to attribute meaning to everyday actions
AbstractThe aim of this paper is to show how the psychoanalytically oriented observation method in the tradition of the Tavistock Clinic applied as main tool in the training of educators in the institutional setting of a nursery is a valuable tool for the prevention of possible serious psychopathological situations. The observer acts as a sounding board for the budding links (with children and parents) and participates to everyday life in a joint affective and emotional field that – when reported and shared in the supervision group – can be the engine driving changes in actual dysfunctional situations. The excerpts of observations reported in the paper show the degree of sharpness that the educator’s gaze can reach, the emotions and defenses that emerge and can be elaborated in this training model, the relevance of changes, the possibility to restart a developmental process favored by group discussion.
