The author notes that the more recent exploration of the narcissistic neurosis and the direct observation of both normal and psychotic children has shifted our emphasis from the Oedipus to the earlier phases of life and their more primitive mechanisms and phenomena. The fact that these early, still undifferentiated phases exist, and the conscious or unconscious expectation of being able to influence their development, has given additional impetus to their study. Investigations are carried out by means of observations of infants, including newborn, and by long-range developmental studies. They are also being reconstructed in the analyses of neurotic and psychotic adults and children from patients' preverbal mechanisms of communication, which include the quality of their affective expressions, gestures, and posturality.