This is a much condensed review of recent contributions on childhood schizophrenia by Bender, Despert, Kanner, Mahler, and others, who regard the disturbances in infancy as constituting the prepsychotic period. The group of whom Bender is a representative emphasizes the organic, constitutional defects in the precursors of the ego. Kanner and others point out the inability of the patients' mothers to provide emotional contact. A third group centers attention on the interaction of both these factors and on the deficient barrier against stimuli. This interaction often forces a precocious but uneven or erratic development of ego functions, which are especially vulnerable to breakdown under even minor stress.