ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the many links that may be discovered between developments in the emotional and psychic spheres and the way that these may be related to shifts in the development of mobility and physical functioning. In normally healthy babies the development of primary identifications and the genesis of primary love-objects will fit in so smoothly and naturally with the processes of their motor development, pre-conditioned by neurophysical maturation, that practitioners may not take note of the essential articulations involved. The chapter presents some brief descriptions of activities observed in a normal healthy infant. These may then be looked at as a background to observations of another infant whose serious inhibition of movement and 'psychogenic hyper-tonicity' appeared to be linked to a major disturbance in the constitution of his body image or 'body ego'. In cases that manifest serious pathology of personality development, especially when accompanied by tonic and motor disturbances, attention will naturally be focused on exploring these articulations.
