In this podcast we hear from Débora Regina Unikowski about “The baby on the couch”. Here she shares insights about her work with babies and parents, and how this helps us better understand ‘the baby’ within the mind of the adult. These findings provide an illuminating framework for working with patients during the Pandemic. “The baby on the couch” is also the title of her course offered at the Psychoanalytic Society of Rio de Janeiro in 2018, which was also presented at the XXVII Brazilian Congress of Psychoanalysis in 2019. 

Débora Regina Unikowski, born in Porto Alegre, is a Training, Supervising, Child and Adolescent psychoanalyst at the Psychoanalytical Society of Rio de Janeiro, and current Director of the Institute for Teaching Psychoanalysis. Her interest in babies and the beginnings of mental life goes back to her internship at the Unité des Petits at the Fondation Rothschild in Paris working with Myriam David, where she observed young at risk children, in the prevention of autism and childhood psychosis. She also worked with pregnant women in Venezuela and participated in the Action-Formation research conducted by Serge Lebovici, observing and treating mothers and babies in a Child Mental Protection Center. Now back in Brazil, in addition to working in private practice in Rio De Janeiro, Débora also disseminates psychoanalysis among health and education professionals.

Some published works:

UNIKOWSKI, Débora Regina. Alicerces da maternidade: função continente da observação psicanalítica e do pediatra. In: ZORNIG, Silvia Maria Abu-Jamra;       ARAGÃO, Regina Orth (Org.). Nascimento: antes e depois, cuidados em rede. Curitiba: Honoris Causa, 2011. p.239-245.

UNIKOWSKI, Débora Regina. The development of the maternal feeling in child analysis: Ana and Diana. In: LARTIGUE, Teresa; VARELA, Olga (Ed.). Gender and psychoanalysis: clinical contributions. Aguascalientes [México]: Architecthum Plus, 2013. p.45-50.

UNIKOWSKI, Débora Regina. Desenvolvimento da função simbólica e "analisabilidade". Psicanalítica, Rio de Janeiro, v.17, n.1, p.55-62, 2016.

UNIKOWSKI, Débora Regina. O bebê no divã: reflexões sobre a clínica psicanalítica na primeira infância. Primórdios, Rio de Janeiro, v.5, n.5, p.47-57, 2018.

This episode is available also in Portuguese