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Brit. Med. J., 1948, Vol. I, P. 538.
Scott regards the earliest form of depression as being that feeling which emerges out of the realization first that it is the same self that can both love and hate, secondly that the ego can love and hate the same object or part object and thirdly that the same object can be both gratifying or frustrating, or can appear to be loving and hating. This situation occurs when that degree of integration has been reached which allows the infant to believe in the continuity of the self or part self and objects or part objects. The time at which this situation occurs will depend on the degree of maturity at birth, the constitutional intellectual development and the quality of the previous emotional development. Tolerance for it will depend again on past experiences particularly the relationship between love and hate and the belief that love is stronger than hate and can annul the feelings of damage which result from hate, while intolerance is related to the belief in the omnipotence of aggressive acts, impulses and imaginations directed towards that object which when not frustrating is gratifying.
In briefly outlining the development of the infant to that stage which allows depression to appear, scott shows how pleasurable feelings associated with the infants' normal activities (their breathing, suckling, evacuation, etc.) or the angry feelings arising from interference with the free working of these activities are identified not only with the activity itself but also with the organs involved. Furthermore they overflow on to any other activity which may be occurring simultaneously. Through