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Psychoanalysis will always involve reexamining and revising its conception(s) of infant and childhood development. Recent infant observation studies, developments within psychoanalysis itself, and neuroscientific advances have forced the current reappraisals. Now older conflict and instinctual models are complemented by self psychology and object relations theories. Some contemporary theoretical positions—for example, those of Basch, Cohler, Demos, Emde, Fraiberg, Gedo, Goldberg, Kernberg, Kohut, Modell, Reiser, Sameroff, D. Stern, the Tolpins, and Wolf—have grown in stature as a result of the recent changes in psychoanalytic theory. So have some older contributions by pioneers such as Bowlby, Fairbairn, Anna Freud, Hartmann, I. Hendrick, Kestenberg, G. Klein, M. Klein, Pribram, Rapaport, Spitz, Tomkins, and Winnicott. Other contributions, notably Mahler's theory of separation–individuation, and work dependent on her assumptions of autistic and psychotic phases of development (i.e., the normal infant's supposed lack of self/object differentiation), have suffered significantly. Ultimately, time is unkind to all theories, but psychoanalysis as a science can only benefit from such ferment. To this progress we now add Lichtenberg's recognition of a number of decisive contributions and his worthwhile efforts to integrate these insights into psychoanalytic theory.
Lichtenberg's opus revolves around the core idea of five motivational “systems” (Sameroff, 1983). G. Klein's “The Vital Pleasures” (1974) represents an early precursor to such motivational systems conceptions, as does the work of Gedo and Goldberg (1973), and Gedo's (1986) more recent refinements on this theme. Lichtenberg's conception of motivational systems describes the psychic regulation of: (a) physiological needs; (b) attachment-affiliation; (c) exploration