This report represents part of an ongoing research project in which certain hospitalized psychotic mothers were allowed to have their infant child with them and care for him. The hypothesis is that it would be helpful in the recovery of the mother. The importance of this attempt is heightened by the knowledge gained from the study of many workers that show the traumatic effect on young children of separation from the mother. The authors postulate that the period between the child's earliest differentiation of mother as a specific object and the time when he can effect some control over his environment by locomotion and language—from about age four months to age fifteen months—is the time predisposing to serious developmental consequences. In a review of twelve cases, it was precisely the mother of the child in this age group who responded best to the joint admission.