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No and Yes by Dr. Rene Spitz is the sixth in a series of investigations on “the ontogenetic beginnings of man—the processes through which the species achieves the dignity of the human being. Its subject is the inception of semantic and verbal communication.” He explicitly states in his foreword that Freud has answered the major problems of the organization, structure, and function of the human psyche, and that this investigation is a minute study of one of the building blocks in Freud's theory. The reader is forewarned, therefore, that there will be no new ways of understanding “the genesis of human communication,” but only affirmation of a previously held theory. Dr. Spitz's narrow approach is further emphasized by an astounding statement in his introduction that, “It is surprising how little has been published by psychoanalysts on communication…. There is even less on nonverbal communication.” He cites a handful of references, acknowledging only the Freudian analysts. In spite of the stated bias, however, the subject is of the highest importance to all analysts and students of human development, and therefore deserves our closest attention.
In essence, this study is mainly an attempt to integrate three types of behavior, which involve negation and its communication. Dr. Spitz observes that deprived infants “rotate their heads around the sagittal axis of the spinal column” when approached by adults as part of their avoidance pattern. These movements he calls “negative cephalogyric motions.” He further observed that infants in searching for the breast rotate their heads from side to side in rapid sweeps until they locate the nipple. This is called “rooting behavior.” Finally he observes that around the fifteenth month of life children begin to use the head-shaking “no” as a semantic signal. Is there any connection between the rooting behavior, which is behavior of “turning toward”; negative cephalogyric motions, which are motions of avoidance; and the headshaking g