Initially all 'good' experience is regarded as within the self-boundary and all 'bad' experience outside of it. At the point of successful resolution in the second six months of life, both positive and negative self-representations must be within the self-boundary, but the self-boundary also excludes both positive and negative representations of other persons. Depressive symptoms are related to: 1, inappropriate

continuation of the good-bad boundary of the first phase; 2, inadequate establishment of self-other boundaries; 3, faulty development of the sense of self, of the ego-alien, and of separate-but-related; 4, unstable internal structuring of self, others, and the world; 5, an experience of helpless dependence on another for one's functioning.