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Frau Bálint contrasts the state of affairs in (schematically) primitive peoples—the long suckling time and the clearly marked separation from the mother at puberty, an external event in which the whole community is concerned—with the private and internal nature of puberty in civilized communities, and the moral demand for life-long love to the mother after a much shorter suckling period. The child, she says, has thus to struggle against guilt feelings not only from the Oedipus complex, but also from his desire to leave his mother, while the mother has to struggle in the first place against her maternal instinct to suckle and keep the child and later against her desire to be free of him and turn her parental erotism to the next child. Two results are (1) the significance of individuality for our culture, (2) its increased fear of loss of love, into which Frau Bálint believes the castration fear passes. The mother's recognition of the child's individuality in his third or fourth year is a parting gift on leaving infancy with its lack of individuality; it is a protection against fear of loss of love, and acts as compensation for the long-delayed adulthood.