Bittner is concerned with the psychological significance of the earliest reflexive reactions of the infant. he proposes that the term 'trauma' be reserved for the total regression to a level of pre-object reactions. The startle reaction, modelled upon the reflexes of the semicircular canals and apparent in the infant's Moro reflex, is this sort of autistic reaction (to being dropped). Perhaps one may think of disturbances of the psychic (narcissistic) equilibrium as spatial and postural sensations projected into the psychic realm.