Tolpin delineates contextual, conceptual, historical, and clinical differences between Kohut's self-object "structural precursors" and the oedipally organized (defensive and structural) complexes of the "classic" infantile neurosis. Reviewing certain allusions to this problem (A. Freud, P. Greenacre), Tolpin suggests that these refer to the "neurotic superstructure which proliferates on structural faults, deficits, failures and defects, obscuring thereby the most critical level of diagnosis." Further contrasts in affective life, quality of anxiety, and transference phenomena are noted.