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(Being the fourth paper in the series of discussions on controversial topics. As on the previous occasions, this paper will be taken as read at the meeting to be held on March 1st, 1944.)
In previous contributions I described the infantile depressive position as a system of feelings, phantasies, anxieties, and defences arising in the first year of life. In so doing, I attempted to give a clear picture of certain early processes which, in my view, are of fundamental importance for the whole of mental life. I have not yet worked out in every detail the connections between infantile depressive feelings and later stages of development; but for many years I have been aware of the importance of this task. Indeed, ever since I began to understand more about the origins of depressive feelings, my investigations were also necessarily directed towards the connections between infantile depressive feelings and other aspects of mental life at different stages of development. This extensive ground will by no means be covered by the papers I shall contribute to this discussion; these will only be an instalment towards work which I hope will be forthcoming in future years.
The psychogenesis of depression has been a subject of particular interest to me for a long time, and the present papers are the result of experience accumulated over many years in the analyses of children