American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. XXI, 1951: The Neurotic Child and His Mother. Melitta Sperling. With Discussion by Margaret S. Mahler. Pp. 351–364.

While investigators agree on the psychological rapport existing between mother and child, the ways in which it functions and the relation of the child's behavior to the unconscious of the mother remains unexplained. Through concomitant analytic studies of mothers and children, Melitta Sperling has come to the conclusion that the symptoms of children represent their responses to the mother's unconscious wishes. In this sense, the behavior of the child resembles that of a person carrying out commands under hypnotic influence. The mother's unconscious intentions are conveyed through facial expressions, tone of voice, movements, etc. Such considerations strengthen the indications for analysis of the mother as part of the treatment of the child.

Mahler, in her discussion, points to the mutual need of mothers and children to maintain their symbiosis which normally arises in the preverbal stage of their relationship. She supports the analogy drawn by Sperling to the hypnotic state and notes the presence of phenomena which are common both to the induction of hypnosis and to the reciprocal neuroses of mother and child. To these belong the minimization of external reality and the intense inner rapport which leads to fluidity of the ego boundaries.