“Creativity is born in the family's cradle,” says Dr. Margaret Morgan Lawrence, “and it is born in the inner world of parents before the child is born.” The article explores the expectations parents have for their children that can lead to creativity or psychopathology. Dr. Lawrence discusses how the potential for creativity is inherent in the individual's biological givens, in the context of his or her family, with considerable emphasis on the resources brought down from the past. Love of and respect for the self, and the aggression emerging when this love is threatened, are seen by Dr. Lawrence as positive forces, propelling the individual into the world of objects, enhancing the context in which creativity may evolve.