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In contrast to Greenacre,1 Kubie is of the opinion that 'the foetus lives in an almost de-afferented world; for him suddenness as an experience practically cannot occur'. Therefore, a special disposition to anxiety cannot be acquired during intrauterine existence. Anxiety is looked upon as 'a bridge between the startle pattern and the dawn of all processes of thought', and the 'startle pattern' does not begin before birth. 'In truth the infant and the startle pattern are born in the same moment.' Waiting, postponement and frustration begin with birth, and these are the prerequisites for conditioning processes. The later thought processes are based on the same prerequisites as anxiety and their task is identical. 'Anxiety and the thought process arise out of the same Anlage only to differentiate from their common source and from each other with the passage of time.' This differentiation varies markedly among different persons. Kubie holds that psychologists do better not to speculate too much about those differences as long as the basical neurophysiological problems are still unsolved.