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Stephen Mitchell made rich use of the metaphor of the origin and structure of the universe in his description of Hans Loewald's psychoanalytic vision of the origin and nature of the mind. For Loewald, the mind begins, as did the universe, with a primal density in which there is no differentiation between past and present or self and other. Although differentiation of these mind structures eventually does occur, Mitchell highlighted Loewald's belief that these dichotomies do not replace but instead coexist with experiences of original primal unity.
Mitchell extended to Loewald's writings this metaphor of the universe and mind as simultaneously differentiated and unified. Mitchell described Loewald's writings as fragmented yet reflecting recurrent themes, systematic yet visionary and lyrical, and written in the language of classical psychoanalysis yet modifying the meaning of classical concepts.
Since Loewald himself was very cognizant of the language he used, Mitchell chose Loewald's understanding of language as a starting point for his discussion of Loewald's concepts. Unlike Sullivan, Stern, and Freud, whose understanding of language included a sharp distinction between verbal and preverbal expressions, Loewald conceptualizes language as transcending this dichotomy. Since Loewald views language as an intrinsic, essential aspect of experience from birth, a separate preverbal developmental domain does not exist. As such, in lieu of distinguishing between preverbal/verbal and primary process/secondary process “language,” Loewald combines the two domains and sees that the significant distinction exists between language in primary process and language in secondary process thinking.
According to Mitchell, Loewald believes that in early childhood fantasy and reality are not separate but interpenetrate each other. Although culture and traditional