ABSTRACT
Analytic dependency and regression are closely related to one another, especially when the dependency experience is archaic, infantile, and pathological. Regression is generally insignificant in mature dependency. Classical analysts did not ignore oral and anal longings but regarded them as defensively regressive elaborations of oedipal longings. The manic defences consist of the triumvirate of triumph over, control of, and contempt for the object on which one is dependent and on one's own infant-dependent self who acknowledges dependency on the object. In the condition of normal dependency the infant acknowledges his feelings of dependency on his nurturing object and, in effect, "consults" her for her help in his caring for his own welfare. Kleinians tend to see regression as pathological and view it as a withdrawal to earlier defence patterns or organizations: from the depressive position to the paranoid-schizoid position or to a psychic retreat.
