This is a useful paper enumerating the historical phases of current psychoanalytic constructs regarding the development of language. Mention is made of Freud's early notions of the development of language in On Aphasia. This was followed by the extensive work of several analytic colleagues stressing the instinctual roots of language. More recently, the approaches have utilized knowledge gained from other disciplines as well as emphasis on ego psychology.

The author stresses the importance of studying psychotic children and adults as an additional means of understanding the evolution of language from its autistic form through its development as signal, and ultimately its expression as communication in symbolic and abstract forms. Excerpts from the production of an autistic child are cited to indicate the psychotic's defense against the dialogue of communication and the regression to a symbiotic state. The