Observations of babies: A methodological and epistemological challenge

This exploratory and epistemologically oriented paper compares two alternative forms of investigation belonging to two different disciplines—psychoanalysis and anthropology—based on the observation of the mystery that babies continue to embody. The observation based on the Esther Bick method was designed to contribute to training psychoanalysts and involves the specific nature of babies. Participant observation, the foundation of modern anthropology, concerns all dimensions of social life but not babies specifically. After formulating a few hypotheses as to why anthropologists continue to neglect babies (long-lasting legitimate subjects of interest for all psychologies), I show where and how these two methods of observation diverge and converge. I then examine the possibility of devising a richer model of observation based on reasoned methodological syncretism.