Contributions to the Etiology of Schizophrenia: Lily Hajdu-Gimes. Psa. Rev., XXVII, No. 4, 1940.

Fixation in the earliest oral stage, before the development of the world of objects, is not the only cause of schizophrenia. Later traumatic infantile experiences play a great part in the development of the schizophrenic personality. The schizophrenic reaction is characterized by the regressive withdrawal of libido from objects. Common features of the case histories are cold, sadistically aggressive mothers and soft, indifferent passive fathers. All

these patients went through a period of starvation in infancy, in consequence either of insufficient lactation or of the mother's cruelty and lack of devotion. Starvation during infancy, linked with introjection of the mother's breast, is regarded as the earliest trauma. Referring to similar observations by Annie Reich and by I. Hermann, the author concludes with Freud that inner urges like hunger, if not otherwise relieved, will be satisfied by hallucinating. She raises the objection that similar conditions exist in certain forms of hysteria and in melancholia. But in hysterical patients, she argues, the fixation arises in happy and 'real' circumstances where the surroundings favor the development of strong libidinal ties. In melancholia the oral fixation occurs at a stage when real object relations are already present; besides, the identification with the introjected object seems to be looser and less stable in schizophrenia than in melancholia.