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In my book, Children as individuals, I developed a concept of the primary self; in this paper I shall relate it to Freud's theory of primary narcissism (Freud, 1914, 1916-17, 1920, 1923, 1924, 1940). But before doing so I shall discuss another and seemingly opposed speculation which states that a baby is psychically part of his mother; it represents the only other significant though radically different view of the earliest psychic states in infancy.
Elsewhere (Fordham, 1957) I have contested the idea that a child is little more than a part of his mother first and his father later on, and it may well be asked why I had not related my concept to Freud's before, since his idea is the nearer of the two to my own views. The reason is this: though I must have heard of primary narcissism long ago, only in the last year have I made a study of it. All my ideas about the self in childhood, first published in 1947—and here I think I was the first in this field—were derived from Jung's concept and what he had to say was sufficient for my purpose.
Before going into each theory further, here are some simple facts about a baby which are easily lost sight of but which it is essential to keep in mind. After birth he spends the main part of his life sleeping or dozing, but from time to time he wakes up and requires attention. The infant may awake hungry and cry or his mother may anticipate his need and pick him up before he signals to her. When she does so and holds him, he will reach an upright position; then he initiates approach behaviour, a sequence of movements that lead, with his mother's help, to taking the nipple and sucking it.
Next, a number of physiological activities ensue which convey milk to his internal organs. After a varying time he is satisfied, the physiological