Seven girls, aged eight to eleven, suffering from depression, were found to show ego weakness and self-depreciation. The authors demonstrate a relation between multiplication of mother images and ego weakness, and between repressed hostility to the insufficiently libidinized mother image and self-depreciation. A splitting of the function of mothering in the first two years of life hindered the formation of strong feminine identifications.

Release from acceptance of hostility to the mother was the main therapeutic achievement. The chief technical problem was the too easy identification of child with therapist, which added to the multiplicity of mother figures and hindered formation of a strong initial identification upon which later relationships could be based.