Editor's Note

With commentaries on henri parens' The Development of Aggression in Early Childhood, we complete our two-issue investigation of this perplexing aspect of man's activity. In these two issues, one utilizing the studies of researchers from within and from outside psychoanalysis, the other using research data obtained by direct observation and commentaries by psychoanalysts, we hope to address the range of activities of man's constructive assertiveness and his planned or inadvertent destructiveness. The first issue offered a convincing display that the subject of “aggression” is vast and full of thorny problems. In this issue, we narrow our sight from a broad survey to a more focused approach. By selecting Parens' well-documented study, which provides clear descriptions of infant and toddler behavioral observations sensitively interpreted, might we obtain the specific data to balance the grander scale of our first approach? The decision on this question rests with the reader, but we are certain that the commentaries of our essayists and Parens' responses provide stimulation through debate to illuminate the unresolved nature of man's understanding of one of his most fundamental proclivities.