The author's theory of a depressive constellation is based upon her psycho-analytic experience with mothers and children and her research into the female sexual cycle. She suggests that each phase of the menstrual cycle is accompanied by a regression to orality. the mother of the newborn child reacts to the demands made upon her by an increase in her receptive wishes. A complex interrelationship is established between mother and child. The satisfied infant promotes a feeling of confidence in the mother and increases her motherliness. When the child fails to be satisfied this can result in self-directed hostility, leading to the equation 'bad' mother = 'bad' self. The failure to meet the child's needs results in the frustration of the mother's receptive wishes. This may activate the hatred which was once associated with her own oral deprivation. She thus becomes the 'bad' mother in identification with her own mother as well as the 'bad' child. Well-being can only be regained by the infant's satisfaction which would represent her own gratification at her mother's breast.