**5. Felix, twelve days old**

Felix's mother is 36 years old. The father brings Felix into the bathroom to his mother, who greets them both and takes Felix into her arms. After she has undressed him, she places him in the ready prepared baby bathtub.

*Felix is just a few days old, he has his eyes closed and his hands are balled into fists. He cries in a high voice and is truly unhappy. In the background we hear father's voice making calming comments. It seems his words are addressed at the mother to calm her more than it does Felix. When the mother starts washing Felix's belly with soap, she talks to him saying: "Oh Felix, oh dear!" But his crying becomes even louder as the mother lifts him out of the water to wash his bottom, and he rather screams. The mother remains calm, continuing the washing and says, "Shhh", then turns him round and washes the back holding him securely under his arms. When the mother lifts him out of the water, his crying is of penetrating and frantic volume. He turns his head back and force, stretching it backwards with increasingly louder screams. When the mother turns him around again, lowering him into the water, and slowly dribbles water over his belly and chest his crying stops. Now the mother moves her head close to his and talks to him quietly about how comfortable and warm the water is,. "Do you like the water now a bit, Felix?" she asks. For the first time Felix opens his eyes a little and looks into his mother's eyes while she smiles at him. "Well, you see, it's OK. Look what I am doing now," she says, and begins to move him very gently back and forth in the water. He clearly enjoys it and has both eyes open, his fingers are relaxed. … When he seems to enjoy it even more Felix closes his eyes and lets himself drift. (Description of the scene in the film by [20])*

In this short observation in the film we can see how Felix needs protection from the outside world, how he presumably is anxious about falling apart without boundaries. His crying puts his mother under pressure, as if she had done something harmful to him and she is out of touch even stressed. The mother puts her head closer to his and talks with him in a calming way as the father's voice is calming and encouraging her. With the help of his mother's soothing voice Felix' anxiety diminishes and he can actually enjoy slowly moving about in the water. We see that both parents (the father is in the background) comprehend Felix's unhappiness and des pair, talk with him, and help him to cope with these overwhelming feelings and anxieties. We see an example of what Bion calls "containment" – a mental and emotional process – where the mother perceives the baby's raw, disjointed impulses, digests them and then gives them back to Felix in a modified way. He might even remember the floating feeling in the uterus. When the mother responds in this way – being in "harmony" as Daniel Stern called it - Felix experiences his mother responding to his needs and mirroring his feelings; a communication between mother and Felix was established and will further develop day by day. Empirical infant research has made video-supported analyses of the complex tactile and verbal early communication between mother and baby in order to understand the emotional development and the learning of patterns of social interaction [21].
