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Abraham's (1924) delineation of six stages of libidinal development and six complementary stages of the development of object love (Table 1) was the harbinger of many subsequent refinements in the description of the epigenetic process. Continuing investigation of the interaction between those innate givens of the individual that are rooted in inheritance and which emerge in the course of development, on the one hand, and on the other the vicissitudes of experience as derived from the environment, has yielded an increasingly complex picture of the developmental process. Even at the time, Abraham noted that the stages he positioned on the same horizontal lines of his table need not occur simultaneously. That is, despite their apparent relatedness, the development of the zonal libidinal stages and the stages of object love may follow largely independent courses.
| Stages of Libidinal Organization | Stages Of Object-Love | |
|---|---|---|
| VI. Final genital stage | Object-love | (Post-ambivalent) |
| V. Earlier genital stage (phallic) | ||
Data accumulated during the intervening years have more than justified both the conclusion that each line of development follows its own time course
| IV. Later Anal-sadistic stage | Partial love |
| III. Earlier Anal-sadistic stage | Partial love with incorporation | (Ambivalent) |
| II. Later oral stage (cannibalistic) | Narcissism (total incorporation of object) |
| I. Earlier oral stage | Auto-erotism (without object) | (Pre-ambivalent) |