Conditions for the relevance of infant research to clinical psychoanalysis

There is increased pluralism within psychoanalysis today, and the practice of psychoanalysis rests on many different theories and distinctly different epistemologic perspectives about the nature of the truth, the position of the observer-analyst in the process, and the phenomena to be observed. The relevance of developmental observation research to clinical psychoanalysis will vary with the epistemological perspective of the practitioner, and to be relevant the perspective of the researcher must 'match' that of the clinician. Additionally, its relevance is conditioned by what is considered 'empirical' data, i.e. whether the data are defined behaviourally or by empathic judgements of an observer. Three broad categories of psychoanalytic perspectives are discussed: empirical-natural science, hermeneutic-empirical, and hermeneutic-constructivist. A patient in analysis is described, with details of two sessions. Three imaginary consultants, each representing one of the major epistemological clinical perspectives, comment on the material to demonstrate the relationship among technique, epistemology, and the ways infants and developmental observation research may be relevant (or not relevant).