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I wish to deal with the confusion that I think may arise through an acceptance of the word ‘deep’ as synonymous with the word ‘early’. I have published two contributions specifically in the field of direct observation; these concern (a) the infant's way of coming to terms with an object (Winnicott, 1941), and (b) the use of objects and phenomena during the time of the infant's transition from a purely subjective life to the next stage (Winnicott, 1951).
Each of these will provide useful material for the examination of my main thesis, which is that ‘deep’ in the analytic sense is not the same as ‘early’ in the sense of infant development.
(I will call this Action Research, to give it modern dress and to link it with Kris.)
It is possible to see three main stages in the approach of an infant to an object (one presented in a formal way, as described).
| First Stage | initial reflex grasp; |
| withdrawal; | |
| tension covering renewed voluntary grasp and slow passage of object to mouth. |
Here the mouth becomes suffused, saliva flows.
| Second Stage | Mouthing of the object; |
| carefree use of the object in experimental exploration, in play and as something with which to feed others. |
Here the object drops by mistake. Let us assume that it is picked up and returned to the infant.
| Third Stage | Riddance. |
In considering these matters with reference to an example one