Chapter 3. The Sense of an Emergent Self

The age of two months is almost as clear a boundary as birth itself. At about eight weeks, infants undergo a qualitative change: they begin to make direct eye-to-eye contact. Shortly thereafter they begin to smile more frequently, but also responsively and infectiously. They begin to coo. In fact, much more goes on during this developmental shift than what is reflected by increased overt social behaviors. Most learning is faster and more inclusive. Strategies for paying attention to the world shift in terms of altered visual scanning patterns. Motor patterns mature. Sensorimotor intelligence reaches a higher level, as Piaget has described. Electroencephalograms reveal major changes. Diurnal hormonal milieu stabilizes, along with sleep and activity cycles. Almost everything changes. And all observers of infants, including parents, agree on this (Piaget 1952; Sander 1962; Spitz 1965; Emde et al. 1976; Brazelton et al. 1979; Haith 1980; Greenspan and Lourie 1981; Bronson 1982).

Until this developmental shift occurs, the infant is generally thought to occupy some kind of presocial, precognitive, preorganized life phase that stretches from birth to two months. The central questions of this chapter are, how might the infant experience the social world during this initial period? And what might be the