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Sorting out the meaning of emotions in young children is difficult. The earlier we look, the more we must rely on intuitive guesses. For example, the concept of depression in children can be challenged by the question of whether despair is experienced if it cannot be articulated. A bright and verbal little boy might not state his sadness directly. The reason we would feel he is depressed could be based on his mournful expression, his grimaces and sad stories he might tell us of being abandoned and alone. The inferences made follow from what we imagine we would feel if we looked like that and saw the world that way. Such speculations increase manyfold as we approach early childhood, when words are available only from the caretaker, and the infant's communicative and expressive behaviors are just beginning.
When we look for emotion in infancy, we often see what we expect — innocence or emptiness or primitive urgency. Let me describe the interpretations of two researchers looking for the earliest evidence of emotion because we must make sense out of the same data. Darwin, in the 1840's, kept a diary on the behavior of his son, Doddy. There he describes his surprise at the humor appreciated by a 3- or 4-month-old when peek-a-boo was played, but he felt he understood it when he remembered how very early puppies and kittens begin to play (1877). St. Augustine, in the fifth century, looked at infants, noted the smile during sleep, and wondered what this could tell us about the nature of God (1961).
Well, then, what shall we look for? Although man's animal nature and God may be a more worthy search, it can be hoped that a consideration of the early expressions of emotional exchange