The concept of fixation occupies an important position in psychoanalytic theory. The mechanism of fixations cannot be explained solely by means of the notions of regression and repetition. On the basis of a theory of depression in which depression is seen as the outcome of a

fetishistic cathexis of the 'shadow of the object' set up in the ego as a 'depressive object', the author postulates that fixations become organized during the depressive movements of childhood.