You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
It is the purpose of this paper to present a number of data, drawn chiefly from clinical observation, which have certain characteristics in common, and to discuss the possible relationship of these phenomena to early perceptual experiences and early phases of ego development.
In his paper, "The Primal Cavity" (14), Spitz postulated that, from a visual standpoint, the Isakower phenomenon and Lewin's dream screen do not represent the breast but rather "the visually perceived human face." This view is consistent with Spitz's observation that the nursing infant's gaze is constantly fixed on the mother's face. It is also borne out by his studies on the importance of the infant's recognition of the Gestalt of the human face first, and the later identification of the mother's face, in the development of object relations and in the early mental life of the child. I believe that this hypothesis, which might appear somewhat daring at first glance, can be clinically substantiated.
In a recent paper (3) I have described a hypnagogic phenomenon which occurred in a scoptophilic patient at a time when his wife was pregnant, his financial security threatened, and intense frustration and anger toward the mother figure had come to the fore. The visual components of this phenomenon appeared to result from the fusion of two percepts: the image of a face, which was identified as loving and inviting at times and as angry and forbidding at other times; and the image of the breast, which had probably been perceived at a later stage of development. In this patient, the latter image, i.e., the breast, screened the former almost completely; only through the patient's numerous associations