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Dr. Ortmeyer replies:
Dr. Brandt's comments are appreciatively received. There appears no strong disagreement, rather an affirmation of the "we-self." To carry the understanding of we-self and I-self through all developmental phases is a point well-taken; and hopefully is the subject of future papers. This paper focused on two crucial periods of development of the we-self: the first months of life with the mother, when the symbiotic ties are present and then begin to dissolve; at the time of language acquisiton when words begin to be used in correct grammatical context, via imitation, but the implicit meanings may not be consensually validated ones.
The conceptual formulation of "identity" is certainly prominent in the field, particularly in the wiritings of Freud, neo-Freudians, and Erikson. I prefer the conceptual context of "self" and "self-system" as put forth by Sullivan.— D.H.O.