An attempt is made to shift the dialogue between psychoanalysts and Piaget from searching for correspondences in content (such as that between object constancy and object permanence) to focusing on parallels in structure (such as studying self-object differentiations through developing levels of organization). The author reviews Piaget's periods of cognitive development—sensorimotor, representational, and formal intelligence—with a view toward the vertical décalage, or separations of cognitive achievements at progressive levels to allow unfolding of developmental processes. She postulates that object constancy is not a stage specific achievement but can continue to be restructured with new levels of meaning through adolescence. The timing of attainment of object constancy is discussed, with emphasis on its gradual restructuring through successive developmental levels of self-object organization. The view of gradual and progressive restructuring of object constancy presented in this paper places too little emphasis on the integration of affect and function.