I have brought these clinical sketches of Jay and Charles, because I felt that these patients illustrated—through their developmental failure—the significance of normal symbiosis, and the crucial necessity of gradual individuation—particularly in the vulnerable second and third years of life.

In Jay's case we observed this developmental failure in statu nascendi. His traumatization occurred in the second year, and, as a result, both his reality constancy (13) and his object constancy suffered.