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DISCUSSION: Dr. Manuel Furer emphasized the difficulties in assessment because of the complexity of the earliest mother-infant interaction. In designating empathy as a descriptive category of maternal behavior, he felt the authors were highlighting a most crucial area of interaction. This study, like others, however, does not make clear the vicissitudes of aggression in these infants as well as those brought up in institutions; how differences in subsequent development
lead to apathy in some and affective outbursts in others. Dr. Albert Solnit maintained that the very complexity of such ego attitudes as empathy, control, and efficiency makes difficult any assessment of their effects in the mother-infant interaction. He felt the film successful in presenting various types of maternal behavior during feeding of infants for classification purposes, but did not think it a useful teaching device for those it is intended to reach.