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In an earlier paper (1956) the author presented experimental evidence to support the concepts of an undifferentiated phase of ego-id development with already functioning inborn apparatuses which operate in a conflict-free sphere. Evidence is now adduced concerning auditory perception in week-old babies. The only circumstances in which startle response to a bell stimulus was not elicited were during active nursing. Sucking is not purely reflex but involves discriminatory perception of some sort. Considering that the newborn has no voluntary control over the manifestations of its awareness, the absence of awareness with reaction in the same infant under different circumstances is highly significant. Both sets of observations and experimental data from other sources are linked in the following conclusions, which are discussed in detail.
The primitive but differentiated perception of the neonate is dependent on already existing psychic energy, which is highly mobile and fixed in quantity. This high mobility permits of its total investment where necessary, and this is most likely to occur at either end of the pleasure-pain continuum. The necessity to attend to and cope with excitation from within will take precedence over excitation from without. The total investment of energy in processes from within will preclude the possibility of energy investment in processes from without. It is postulated that this lack of available energy forms an inborn primary defence mechanism which is called the defence of imperceptivity. It is discernible in later life in crises and catastrophic experience. It is further postulated that other ego functions such as language, thought, motor activity, may be so involved by more extensive chronic depletion. With chronicity during developmentally crucial periods, severe ego restriction such as 'environmental retardation' may result.
It is felt that the psychic energy of the neonate does not function in a manner to suggest derivation from