Influences of Early Mother-Child Interaction on Identification Processes

What we report today is a direct outgrowth of Ernst Kris's interest and thinking in connection with the longitudinal study in child development which he directed at the Yale University Child Study Center from 1949 until the time of his death and which is being carried on by the members of the group which worked with him.1 Ernst Kris pointed out that many investigators thought that longitudinal studies would lend themselves very well to confirming the widely held view that certain personality characteristics, whether inborn, inherited, or acquired at an early age, tend to remain constant. His interest, however, was in trying to establish in what way the sameness of personality manifests itself. This requires an attempt at greater precision in describing the equipment of the child and an assessment of the interaction of the child with the environment. Of the large number of problems opened up by this question, Ernst Kris emphasized two extreme possibilities: the environmental influence may reinforce the equipment or predisposition or it may act in the opposite direction. He believed the child would have different personality characteristics and adaptations if his predispositions were reinforced than if they were toned down by the environment. He was interested in examining this concept in detail around such interactions as the hyperactive child with the mother whose needs are for a passive child, or the child whose need for tactile stimulation is not met by a mother who becomes anxious at touching and handling the young infant. Similarly, he often contrasted the child whose earliest experiences promoted the ego's capacity for neutralization with the