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Two events which have occurred in recent years illuminate the relationship between psycho-analytic theory and the development of cognitive skills. First, a lengthy study by Christopher Jencks and his research group revealed two surprising conclusions: (1) that schools merely solidify and certify learning inequalities that children bring with them, and (2) that the effects of school on the development of cognitive skills depends on a single factor, that is, the characteristics—called the idiosyncratic traits—of the children entering school (The New York Times, 28 September 1972).
Secondly, Burton L. White, director of the preschool project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, after having reviewed the developmental records of hundreds of children, has stated that 'the difference between successful and unsuccessful children in relation to learning is rooted in their early handling' (The New York Times, 21 October 1973). White adds that the actions of the mother are 'the most powerful, formative factors in the development of a preschool child'.
Society's increased interest in learning difficulties has led us to rethink our clinical experiences with children with cognitive problems.1 This was an arena in which we have worked on and off for the past 15 years. At first attracted by the seeming powerlessness of young individuals to master educational tasks, we identified the condition as 'learning impotence' (Rubenstein et al., 1959) and described it in general terms at the American Psychoanalytic Association meeting in 1958 and at the American Orthopsychiatric meeting a year later. A few years after that, we were drawn to the preliminary concept of ego distortion which we presented to the Paris Psychoanalytic Society in 1961 (Rubenstein et al., 1961). We have continued to mull over this exotic problem, and this paper brings our thinking up to date. We still hold to the ego distortion construct, but we feel that we are now able to delineate more clearly what