After a few reminders concerning the concept of the primal, three possible vicissitudes of this primal (as base material, as reactivatable material and as process-material) are illustrated by various developmental examples. The author then turns to the dialectic that exists between the early and the deep, which was emphasized by Winnicott in connection with the direct observation of babies and the possible conflicts between observers and analysts. For Winnicott, the deep that is analysed refers to the phantasized reworking of the precocious material that can be observed. The precocious is part of development, the deep belongs to the phenomenon of après-coup. Intellectual precocity, which implies a particular relation to epistemic objects (relation that is not reducible to a mere acceleration of the primary and secondary processes) can be thought of either as a vestige, or as a vicissitude of an unaltered precocious material, still marked by enigmatic connection with the primal processes of psychic functioning.