ABSTRACT
The young infant's attitude towards frustration is revealing. Some infants—among them good feeders—may refuse food when a meal is delayed, or give other signs of a disturbance in the relation to the mother. The author observes that young infants—even as early as in the second month—would in wakeful periods after feeding lie on the mother's lap, look up at her, listen to her voice and respond to it by their facial expression; it was like a loving conversation between mother and baby. Such behaviour implies that gratification is as much related to the object which gives the food as to the food itself. A very slow taking of food often implies lack of enjoyment of libidinal gratification; this, if coupled with an early and marked interest in the mother and in other people, suggests that object-relations are partly used as an escape from persecutory anxiety attaching to food.
