Baby's Point of View: By E. Joyce Partridge. New York: Oxford University Press, 1937. 94 pp.

This little book touches on a field that is rich in promise for the analyst and psychiatrist, namely the manifestations of instinctual needs in the beginning of life, how they are satisfied, and the effect of frustration on the development of the personality. Dr. Partridge attempts to deduce from adult memories and from analytic material what she calls 'Baby's Point of View'. However, knowing what we do about memory distortion as a defense

mechanism of the ego, and also knowing something of forebrain development in the young infant, we would hesitate to recommend this method as a means of exploring that much neglected period of life.

A great deal of sound intuitive knowledge is expressed in this book and it should be put into the hands of mothers and nurses who perhaps vaguely know these facts but need to have them emphasized by a medical authority in order to avoid the confusion of thought caused by highly emotional coloring in the mother-child relationship. Two extremely important points are well brought out: the fact that a young baby cries because of fear and should be loved and soothed rather than left alone or treated as if it were 'bad'; and second, the observation that a sense of achievement is needed by the small infant or in other words that the successful use of its functions facilitates development and gives a sense of security. If mothers could be convinced of the effectiveness of these two antidotes to infant anxiety surely much would be accomplished for prophylaxis.

The analyst must be tantalized by such a book because there is such a need for actual facts about the beginnings of ego development derived from clinical observation and about the types of reaction possible to the frustrated baby in the precerebrate stages of ontogenetic development. We hope that Dr. Partridge will plunge into the biogenetic study of such problems and bring further contributions to this field of knowledge.