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In preparing this discussion, I first read a longer draft of Stern's presentation, and then reviewed his earlier contributions, to familiarize myself with the terminology he prefers as well as to place his current paper in proper perspective in the development of his thinking. My remarks will be directed, however, to the paper published here.
I find myself in immediate sympathy with two of Stern's observations. Regarding man's denial of a fear of death, I have become convinced that adults often have as much difficulty accepting a child's awareness of, and response to, death as we are used to thinking of as their response to infantile sexuality. Although the mechanisms and motive forces may differ in the two instances, the effective end results are quite similar. And, like Stern, I too have been struck by the young age at which a child, often apparently unobserved, begins to come to grips with the question of death. Because of the resistances that must be inherent in this particular topic, it merits careful scrutiny.
Stern's paper has, in essence, two aspects: clinical