ABSTRACT
In the earliest phases of development objects are felt to be alive and to possess character and personality presumably indistinguishable from the infant’s own. In this phase, which may be considered as anterior to the development of the reality principle as Freud describes it, the real and the alive are indistinguishable; if an object is real to the infant, then it is alive; if it is dead, it does not exist. But this ‘it’ that does not exist and is not alive—why is it necessary to talk about it or discuss it? The problem is to give an answer verbally about objects in a pre-verbal state. The difficulty will constantly crop up in what I have to say, and my solution of it will constantly demand indulgent understanding from the reader.
