James describes a syndrome which is common in the first three months of life. In an infant, in a state of tension due to inadequate feeding and mothering, a premature ego development appeared with some prepsychotic types of verbal and motor behavior. In spite of therapy, this behavior persisted to the age of seven years.

It is postulated that an environmentally acquired part of the psychic constitution, comparable to neural patterning, may be developed through emotional trauma which becomes irreversible and unalterable by psychoanalysis. The author confines this type of change to the first months of life.