ABSTRACT
The child living in the unitary reality characterized by participation mystique and an absence of polarity between inside and outside, consciousness and the unconscious, has at first no independent ego. In the course of development the ego must progress from its passive directedness through the stages which–both phylogenetically and ontogenetically – strengthen and consolidate it and so secure it against flooding either by the unconscious or by the impact of the world. The ego’s fear of the terrible aspect of the clinging phase proves to be purposive, for it facilitates or necessitates the transition, and indeed this fear is set in motion by the Self. The development of the stages of consciousness and the concomitant development of the ego are a process which is normally so dependent on the collectivity that we find rituals in almost all human groups.
