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The author emphasizes the tentative nature of the following ideas. The talented person is probably 'endowed' with greater sensitivity to sensory stimulation, an unusual capacity for awareness of relations between various stimuli, an empathy of wider range, and an intactness of sensorimotor equipment to allow the building up of motor discharge for expressive functions. In the area of object relations the gestalt of the talented infant may be widened to include not only the primary object but more peripheral related objects able to arouse similar sensory responses. She adopts the term 'collective alternates' for the range of extended experience which may become attached to the main focus of object relationships. In fortunate circumstances this 'collective alternate' is enriched by identification in the process of growth or projectively identified with some outstanding personality. The impetus for creative expression is a 'love affair with the world', partaking less of the artist's narcissism than has been thought and more of a collective relationship. The artistic product aims at being a perfectible love gift. In the infantile years such collective relationships may have diminished the effect of critical situations in individual relationships.
The oedipal phase is marked more by an extension of ideals than by the development of a prohibitive conscience. The desexualization of the oedipal object is seldom achieved and the temporary resolution of the complex may be due largely to a lessening of biological pressure. The fact that the oedipal object is retained may be evident in the personal sex life with consequent castration anxiety. In the creative life it appears in the 'collective power' to whom the creation is directed and in the identification with this object which palliates castration anxiety.
Libidinal phase development is marked by overlapping as in the perversions, though the confusion and disorganization typical of the perversions is obviated by disch