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13th April 1954.
Dear Betty Joseph:
You will probably be surprised to find a third letter from me on the subject of your taking the trouble to speak after my Regression paper. This letter is stimulated by a note from Dr. Scott in which he goes over the whole discussion.
It seems to me that there are two points worth going further into. One of these has to do with the idea of a bad environment, or in your sort of language, a bad breast. I will talk about Scott's question which he says results from your remarks: “Cannot any bad experience be made worse by the patient's fantasy?” I think that there is a confusion here which is my fault. The thing is that you and I would not disagree if we are talking about fantasy of a bad (or a good) breast. What I am trying to point out is not the fantasy of a good or bad breast. I am trying to draw attention to the very early stages, quite apart from the fantasy. I think that these two things are as different from each other as two things can be. If we mix them up we shall certainly get into a muddle. I find it very difficult to get people to leave for a moment the infant's fantasy of a bad breast and to go a stage further back to the effect of a bad mothering technique, such as for instance rigidity (mother's defence against hate) or muddle (expression of mother's chaotic state). If you feel that it is not possible for a mothering technique to affect an infant except in so far as an infant has a fantasy of the mother or of the part object, then I think you must say so, and it is an interesting point of view of an extreme kind. I am certainly claiming that the two subjects are separated and must be considered in different ways.
The second point is expressed by Scott: “What happens to the bad breast in the good state of regression?” I think I dealt with this in my first letter when I was saying that I was trying to get to something earlier than the presentation of what can be felt by the infant as a bad or a good breast. Nevertheless I d