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Comment on Mr. Khan's Paper. Eleanor Galenson. P. 279.
Khan describes ego distortion as resulting from failure of the mother to supply the infant with a protective shield. Cumulative trauma can result, leaving its mark on all later phases of development and becoming observable later in ego pathology and schizoid character formation. Failure of the shield produces precocious ego development and precipitates independence in some areas accompanied by, and dissociated from, archaic dependency on the mother in other areas. Individuals thus traumatized must keep themselves engrossed and tantalized or fall into a sort of apathetic nonexistence. In analysis, these distortions become revived particularly in relation to the analyst and in the smallest details of the analytic setting where the patient distorts reality in order to avoid areas of stress with which his ego cannot cope. In making the patient aware of these distortions and using them to reconstruct the infant-mother relationship, the analyst must realize his role as an auxiliary ego and maintain the necessary psychic distance.
Some mothers thrive on closeness to their infants but have trouble letting go when separation begins and overshield their children. Galenson thinks the situation is more complex than Khan describes. Longitudinal studies from earliest infancy seem to offer the only opportunity to observe how mothers enhance or hamper early development.