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In this article, the author, a clinical psychologist, considers the intersubjective aspects underlying feeding experiences. She regards mental growth as a function of the emergence of an intimate and nourishing bond she refers to as a “feeding relation”.She adopts the method devised by E. Bick and, on the basis of a series of detailed observations of the infant in the home environment, views the feeding relation as a paradigm of the intersubjective encounter. First, she emphasises how the pair seek to get into tune in shaping and integrating the experience before going on to demonstrate that, through restoration of the ordinary postnatal symbiotic unity, the feeding relation gives access to an intersubjective and individuating recognition. Finally, she highlights the organising fantasy of the feeding relation and the central role occupied by the paternal function.