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In this stimulating paper, read at the Seventeenth International Psychoanalytic Congress in August 1951, the author develops the theory that the origins of transference may be traced to early infantile object relations. She postulates that object relations begin at birth, a view, as she says, that disagrees with Freud's concept of narcissistic and autoerotic stages as precursors to the establishment of object relations. She points out, however, that Freud was not definite about this and adduces the equivocal and somewhat contradictory nature of his remarks as evidence to support her belief. Freud spoke of libidinal attachment to an object, the breast, as preceding autoerotism and narcissism. Mrs. Klein notes that her use of the term 'object' differs from Freud's, who meant by it the object of an instinctual aim. She finds further support in Freud's statement that the ego ideal is derived from identification with the father or with the parents. Mrs. Klein feels that this corresponds to her own formulation regarding introjected objects. She declares that she differs more from Anna Freud's ideas about the development of object relations than from the formulations of Sigmund Freud. This is so, she says, because Anna Freud emphasizes the precedence of