Early Physical Determinants in the Development of the Sense of Identity1

In this paper I have focused on a limited but crucial area in the beginning of the sense of identity: in the development of the body self-image which is always important and may be peculiarly susceptible to distortion and instability, viz., the awareness of the nature of the own genitals, face, and to a lesser extent the total body form. I have attempted to indicate that even in the early stages of development, there are inherent, in the assembling of the awareness of the body self, an inner and an outer aspect: the one dependent on the intrinsic body-organizational structure and the other on the awareness of the outer surface and form. In the structural organization lies the core of the identity itself, but the awareness of identity, the sense of identity, is influenced very much by factors affecting awareness of external attributes. Primitive as this kind of self-appraisal is, it continues to play a role throughout life. It is always changing and sometimes important.

I would conceive of the sense of the own identity coming into some kind of preliminary working form during the anal phase but reaching special development with the phallic-oedipal period. By that time the child is well aware of himself existing in a world of outer objects, knows he has thoughts and memory, appreciates relative size, but has knowledge of sexual differences, knows the