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Prior to the publication of her Selected Papers, Margaret Mahler published two books, On Human Symbiosis and the Vicissitudes of Individuation, written in collaboration with Manuel Furer (1968),1 and The Psychological Birth of the Human Infant, written in collaboration with Fred Pine and Anni Bergman (1975)2. These books are based on and are integrations of her numerous papers written over a period of some 40 years. The developmental progression of her ideas and the detailed documentation of her therapeutic and research work can now be followed clearly, thanks to the publication of her Selected Papers.
The following pages are not intended as an overview or detailed appreciation of this series of articles. An excellent overview is provided by Marjorie Harley's and Annemarie Weil's introduction to volume 1. Extensive discussions and elaborations of Mahler's work have appeared and continue to appear in many psychoanalytic publications. Furthermore, not being a child analyst and not doing research in child development, I do not feel competent to engage in such discussions. One does not have to be an expert in her field, however, to appreciate and admire the careful, flexible design of her clinical research, the depth and scope of her psychoanalytic understanding of child behavior in interaction with the human environment, and to be fully aware of the importance of her conceptualizations and of their pertinence to the whole range of psychoanalytic work.
In the main, I shall reflect on some general issues and implications of her writings which seem to be at the center of much current analytic thinking and controversy. Mahler's prominence as an exponent of