The role of infant observation in child psychiatry training.

The authors discuss the role of infant observation in the training of child psychiatrists, emphasizing the overriding importance of the subtle but crucial interactions in the mother-infant relationship. Infant observation is valuable in preparing the student as an observer of behavior, and developmental concepts are taught and learned more easily in programs that provide opportunities for observing normal infants. The infant study program in the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Michigan Medical Center is presented as a model.