Series Editors' Preface -- Foreword -- The Life and Work of Esther Bick -- Introduction -- Pioneering Ideas: The Papers of Esther Bick -- Child analysis today [1962] -- Notes on infant observation in psycho-analytic training [1964] -- The experience of the skin in early object relations [1968] -- Further considerations on the function of the skin in early object relations -- Pushing at the Boundaries -- Three years of observation with Mrs Bick -- Mrs Bick and infant observation -- The relevance of infant and young-child observation in multidisciplinary assessments for the family courts -- Mrs Bick's contribution to the understanding of severe feeding difficulties and pervasive refusal -- Applying the observational method: observing organizations -- Secondary skin and culture: reflections on some aspects of teaching Traveller children -- Reflections on the function of the skin in psychosocial space -- The skin in early object relations revisited -- Whom does the skin belong to? Trauma, communication, and sense of self -- Failures to link: attacks or defects, disintegration or unintegration? -- Looking in the right place: complexity theory, psychoanalysis, and infant observation -- Endpiece