ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the theme of aesthetic reciprocity in the context of the aesthetic conflict as it was described by Donald Meltzer in The Apprehension of Beauty. It begins by quoting Meltzer's attractive and imaginative conjecture about the proto-thoughts of the newborn. Meltzer describes also how the observer of aesthetic reciprocity between mother and baby is overwhelmed by a feeling of awe. The gratitude and reciprocal appreciation that came across in that observation, when the baby was still so tiny, gives support to one of the very important statements made by Meltzer in connection with the aesthetic conflict. In the treatment of patients who recapture, as Meltzer suggests, rather than acquire the perception of their object as beautiful and precious in the transference, this experience is often accompanied by powerful phantasies of control and total possession of the object.
