Wakelyn, Jenifer (2025) Psychoanalytic aspects of the Watch Me Play! approach: the psychic energy of attention. Infant Observation: International Journal of Infant Observation and Its Applications . ISSN 1369-8036 (Print), 1745-8943 (Online) Full text available

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Abstract

This article discusses the origins of Watch Me Play! (WMP) in psychoanalytic infant observation. The WMP approach aims to help caregivers to enjoy being with their baby or child and promote their child's development. Parents are supported by a practitioner to allow their child to play freely, give their full attention to watching the child playing, and talking with the child about their play or, with a baby, echoing their sounds. Then the parent and practitioner reflect together on their observations of the child's play and the experience of watching the child play. Developed in 2011 and manualised in 2019, WMP is now used in services for children and families in the UK and internationally. Parents have reported that giving their child their full attention allows them to get to know their child better, notice more about their child and feel more confident about their parenting and about their child's capacities. A case study is linked to ideas about attention in Freud and Bick, the importance of surprise in Bick's thinking about psychoanalytic infant observation, and the life instinct as described by Freud and Klein.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Infant observation, attention, parent–infant relationship, child-led play, reflection, life instinct
Subjects:	Children, Young People and Developmental Pyschology > Child Development Children, Young People and Developmental Pyschology > Child Care Services Children, Young People and Developmental Pyschology > Babies Families > Parent Child Relations/Parenthood
Department/People:	Children, Young Adult and Family Services
URI:	https://repository.tavistockandportman.ac.uk/id/eprint/2962

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