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Just as the Oedipus complex is nuclear for the neuroses so the 'symbiotic union' of mother and infant is nuclear for the psychoses. The symbiotic union—a normal phase—is achieved approximately between the ages of six months and a year. It is characterized by healthy give and take between the partners resulting in the satisfactory psycho-physiological regulation of the child. It is preceded by a phase in which the child reaches out for the mother and is resolved at about eighteen months as the ego, after weaning, disengages itself and struggles towards autonomy. The healthy achievement of the symbiotic union depends on the congenital activity type of the infant and on the emotional availability of the mother. Low object seeking potential in the infant favours autism, a low degree of activity parasitism. The resulting disturbances in the development of ego, of object relationship and of affectivity culminate in shaping the symbiotic union and are the true determinants of psychoses and the other more severe psychiatric disturbances in the same way as the infantile sexuality, which shapes the Oedipus complex, is the true determinant of the neuroses.
The paper ends by describing how prognosis and therapeutic technique must be based on an estimate of all these factors. Technique of treating mothers and indications for institutionalization are also discussed.