Weaning and So-Called œdipus Tendencies

It is an old, but still valid, criticism of psychoanalysis that much of its theory is based on unconfirmed hypothesis. Melanie Klein, for example, has stated that “The Œdipus tendencies are released in consequence of the frustration which the child experiences at weaning….”1 That the child experiences something akin to frustration at weaning seems a reasonable enough assumption, but however reasonable it may seem it is still nothing but an assumption. As far as I am aware there exist no actual observations on the responses of infants to weaning. I propose to make a start towards the filling of this lacuna by recording an actual observation. Recently, I have had an opportunity to follow very closely the development of a male infant from birth through a very sudden weaning to the establishment of bottle-feeding. The case happens to be an excellent critical example because the weaning was of a very sudden nature, so that, according to psychoanalytic theory, the frustration should have been almost of a traumatic kind. Such a theoretically assumed powerfully felt frustration, one would expect, would exhibit itself overtly in crying, in restlessness, and in a noticeable reduction in the feeling of well-being. Let us see what actually occurred in this suddenly weaned baby boy.

The subject of this report developed both a slight rash and some colic shortly after birth, elimination of various parts of his diet producing no change in his condition, it was decided to take him off the breast. This was done just three months after his birth. Until that time he was breast fed for twenty minutes, five times a day, at 6.00 A.M., 10.00 A.M., 2.00 P.M., 6.00 P.M., and at 10.00 P.M. During the first two weeks of his life he was also fed at 2.00 A.M.

The change to the bottle formula did not produce any change in his skin and gastric condition, nor did it produce the slightest noticeable change in his behavior. Since this infant could justly be described as a temperamentally ideal child, w