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The author refers to her concept of the Sound Object, which she originally described as the outcome of the prenatally internalized auditory experience of the maternal voice. The fact that the newborn infant immediately recognizes the mother's voice bears witness to the unborn child's gradually evolving protomental activity and to the existence of a prenatal auditory memory. The prenatal Sound Object with its both rhythmical and vocal aspects seems to represent the core of the postnatal internal maternal object.
During prenatal and early postnatal life, traumatic impingements may interfere with the infant's ongoing development and therefore with the growth and enrichment of a benevolent and reliable internal Sound Object. Severe psychopathology in both children and adults may in some way be connected with early, even prenatal trauma.
Excerpts from the analysis of a withdrawn adult patient illustrate the author's hypothesis and show both patients’ ability to find and re-connect, at deep unconscious levels, with earliest vocal and rhythmical experiences.