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An intermediate phase may be observed in early infancy between the first use of fingers and thumbs in autoerotic activities and the later playing with toys and dolls. The author introduces the terms 'transitional object' and 'transitional phenomena' to designate this area of experience which includes early babbling sounds and the use of objects, such as bedclothes, not yet clearly recognized as belonging to the external world. Out of random activity there usually emerges a specific object or pattern of behavior which then becomes vitally important to the infant in warding off feelings of anxiety or depression. It is through the relationship with a transitional object, which though it is symbolic of the breast is nevertheless real in itself, that the first steps are taken toward reality testing and the abrogation of magical, omnipotent control. In normal development the fate of the transitional object is to become gradually decathected, and transitional phenomena spread over the cultural field. In pathological development, transitional objects and phenomena may be linked with such symptoms as addiction, fetishism, pseudologia, and obsessional rituals.
The theory of illusion-disillusionment is developed by Winnicott, illustrating what he considers to be the main function of transitional objects and phenomena. At first a mother's complete adaptation to an infant's needs gives the infant the illusion that there is an external reality which corresponds to its own capacity to create a 'something' that can relieve instinctual tension,