DISCUSSION: Noting that this approach to phobia formation was based on a developmental point of view, Dr. Peter Blos pointed out the universality and normality of phobic reactions in early childhood, making prediction difficult. He focused on the patient's inadequately consolidated adolescent development and expressed surprise at the absence of homosexual strivings, regularly seen in similar patients. Dr. Burness Moore pointed out that the same preoedipal factors are also related to a wide variety of adult clinical pictures. The different outcomes might be attributed to the child's constitution, to the developmental stage at which poor mothering occurs, or to the "quantity" and "quality" of poor mothering (the mother might be depressed, a child abuser, rigid, etc., or she might have specific unconscious fantasies involving the child).