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MANY YEARS AGO I ATTEMPTED TO STUDY and isolate the role played by the infant's constitution in its own future psychic life (Fries, 1935). It was customary in 1925 for the infant, after discharge from the hospital, to be seen first by the pediatrician in the Well Baby Clinic. We were surprised, in 1931, to find that an eight-week-old infant was too old for this study, inasmuch as mother and infant had already established mutual patterns, so that the contribution of each could not be distinguished (Fries, 1935). It was clear that the environment had already affected the infant's innate personality disposition. My investigation, therefore, would have to start with knowledge of the conscious and unconscious attitudes of the pregnant mother in order to isolate the infant's constitution, which is why we studied the family during the mother's pregnancy (Fries and Lewi, 1938), (Fries, 1941a).
The research into constitutional factors was carried out on 200 neonates around the clock from birth to the tenth day (Fries, 1937). Only in this way could a proper study of the interaction of mother and neonate be made so that constitutional and developmental factors could be distinguished.
Work focused on two areas: (1) differences in constitutional