You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
An archaic type of love for the mother was found in three patients whose ability to love was markedly disturbed. This attitude is characterized by complete disregard for the interests of the object for it is based on the original postnatal unit child-mother when the interests of both were identical. A parallel attitude can be found in the depths of mother love when the child is not regarded as a part of the outer world. This is demonstrated by some ethnological material. Since mother and infant are complementary in their desires, they are not compelled to take one another's interests into consideration. At this stage there is complete and effortless harmony in their relation. This biological symbiosis the author calls 'mutualism', following the terminology of Ferenczi. In the psyche mutualism corresponds to the 'naïve egoism'. This phase is not followed immediately by adult sexual activity as observed in the kingdom of animals. If this occurred in human development, the child would stay continually in the condition of mutualism. The growing child, however, enters a phase in which mutualism is impossible and in which it has to learn respect for the interests of the beloved object. In this phase a sense of reality also converges upon emotional life.
Consequently there is no phase in which autoerotism constitutes the only means of satisfaction. Autoerotism is accompanied from the very beginning by a primary archaic object relation without sense of reality and in complete disregard of the object's interest.
This archaic love is attributable to the id, while that of heed to the interest of the object belongs to the ego. That a primitive object relationship really exists in the id prior to the establishment of faculties for discerning ego and object seems, however, not completely acceptable. Nevertheless this thorough scrutiny of the initial stages of psychic life is highly impressive and deserving of commendation.