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In this monograph Spitz investigates the genesis of human communication from its earliest prototypes in the phylogenetic endowment of the newborn infant to the emergence of semantically significant speech. This occurs at the age of fifteen months when the childanimal shakes its head, says 'No', and begins to claim its heritage as a human being. This is a fundamental study. It is based on many years of direct observation of infants, supplemented by effective experimental interventions. Previous reports by the author concerning these data have contributed to our knowledge of the origin of affects, the anxiety signal, sensory discrimination, and object relations. In this present work Spitz has effected a most impressive synthesis of psychoanalysis with ethology, experimental psychology, and embryology. So far, no comparable study of the maturation and development of a specific ego function has appeared.
The intricate patterns of human communication have their beginnings in the inborn rooting behavior of mammals. This behavior consists of two phases: a scanning, or searching-out phase, and a consummatory or need-gratifying phase which brings the scanning experience to an end. Originally, this activity serves anaclitic ends almost exclusively, but as the libidinal tie between mother and child grows, dependence and frustration take on new meaning for both partners in the nursing experience. Imitation and identification are discussed both from the point of view of developing object relations and shifts in cathexes which lead to large scale restructuring of the ego.
The component elements of the rooting pattern make different contributions to the development of communication. The same apparatus activity, which at first was oriented only toward need gratification, is transformed into a series of communicable signals whose meaning is discernible to the mother while, at the same time, they remain without semantic significance to the child. Eventually, as the result o