ABSTRACT

The initial personal schemas have been structured out of the infant's interaction with mother or other caretakers in the attachment process. The basic plans for loving others, and the characteristic reactions to disturbance in these affectionate bonds, have been structured by the experiences of attachment-separation, mutual communication of sensual pleasure or the lack of it, the provision of stimulation, mutual play, and related experiences. The infant, who enters the world with his own genetic predispositions in these basic emotional areas, has encountered a specific social-cultural world. All the experiences of the infant during the first year and a half lay the foundation for his feelings about himself and others. He comes to trust or distrust his caretakers, to associate his own body with pain or pleasure, to feel secure or fearful in new situations. This chapter concludes with some comments on the emotional-personal orientation that emerges from the period of infancy.