Provence describes in detail the first fifteen months in the life of Anne, to examine the interrelatedness of drives and ego development and object relations. During Anne's first year, her mother largely avoided holding, cuddling, and comforting her, and only rarely initiated affective play. The mother habitually postponed feeding her until her crying was prolonged and intense. By eight months all goal-directed behaviors were retarded, including language and motor competence, and she displayed anxiety and crying at her mother's approach. By eleven months she appeared fragile, withdrawn, and hardly able to play. Her entire first year showed disturbance in body ego and autonomous functioning, as well as a diminished investment in self and object. With the onset of walking and renewed involvement of her father, her apathy lessened; she became less socially detached. Her object relations, however, were characterized by anger, rage, and protest (in sharp contrast to institutionalized infants), and she showed signs of disturbance of ego development as well as drive development and integration.