From Anthropology to Child Psychotherapy : Cross Cultural Observations of Infants and Turbulent Environments

Abstract

The central issue of the thesis is the innovative development of the Bick infant observation method into detailed, long term, cross-cultural video recording. Videos have been made which record individual infant development in UK, Western India, Nepal and Finland. Other observational videos demonstrate how the application of recent developmental theory can improve the care of infants in children's institutions. These are being used for teaching in over fourty countries but it is suggested that more detailed filmed records from these counties, and others, are needed. It is argued that video is invaluable for teaching and conference presentation as it substitutes seeing an actual situation for merely listening to or reading an individual verbal record. Further reasons for using the medium of video are fully discussed. There is a review of previous cross-cultural child development research recognising that it has been lacking in the area of infancy and that regrettably, it is not always included in the teaching of developmental theory. A major issue researched is the effects on children of turbulent environments: an environmental catastrophe (The Chernobyl disaster), the threat of nuclear war, an actual war (in Former Yugoslavia), the breakdown of a political system (in Russia), Day Nurseries and an Orphanage. The importance of human touch - a much neglected developmental issue in the West - is examined and visually recorded in a cross-cultural context as are beliefs about the nature of children. The papers, books and videos are all informed by attachment theory, psychoanalysis, systems theory and anthropology.