Observation and the Psychoanalytic Imagination: Papers from Child Psychotherapy, 1991-2025

This book brings together some of Margaret Rustin’s finest papers in the areas of infant observation, theory, research and literature. Drawing on more than 50 years of psychoanalytic practice, the author offers a richly layered exploration of the central place of close observation and imagination in illuminating the inner worlds of children and young people.

Illustrated with vivid clinical examples, the collection engages with a broad range of themes including the place of interpretation in child psychotherapy, the experience of shame in childhood, dreams and play in child analysis and the challenges of clinical research. A final section turns to literature and drama, tracing the vital connections between imagination and psychic life.

Essential reading for child psychotherapists, psychoanalysts and child analysts, as well as all those training as mental health professionals, this book will also appeal to anyone with an interest in the emotional dimensions of human experience.