ON THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT AND ITS IMPLICAT IONS FOR PSYCHOLOGY OF NEUROSIS

A short overview of results stemming from infant research will serve a s a starting point for the following reflections. 1.) Parental fantasi es about their children are a powerful conducive or detrimental - deve lopmental force. The capacity for symbolisation as it expresses itself in fantasies is (therefore) the ''ultimate'' specifically human found ation for neurosis or healthy development. 2.) The affects of the infa nt are of short duration and situatively variable. They gain durabilit y only later through linkage with fantasies. Aggression is not a probl em due to its being a drive but because of its propensity for derailme nt. This occurs when aggression, being in itself an adaptive dispositi on, becomes connected to destructive fantasies. 3.) An interactional r evision of the concept of projective identification will be put forwar d. 4.) The author argues for an interactional supplementation of the t heory of neurosis which has hitherto primarily focussed on the analysi s of intrapsychic mechanisms. 5.) Observed interactions between depres sive parents and their infants support the clinically gained suppositi ons regarding the genesis of depressive disorders. Furthermore it info rms of the diversity of modalities serving to express and communicate states of mind.