ABSTRACT
The stages in which the baby gradually moves from absolute to relative dependence on the mother’s care still form part of the early phases of development; since they precede the structuring of the me as a unity, if a pattern of environmental failure is established, there is still risk of psychosis. If healthy, the mother emerges naturally from the state of “primary maternal preoccupation”, already tired of the limitation of her world and of the extreme demands imposed by the baby’s absolute dependence. If the capacity for relation and communication of the little individual is restricted to the communication with subjective objects, which was indispensable during the stages of absolute dependence, over time, it becomes a dead end. The integration of the personality in a one-year-old child points to a remarkable change in the sense of independence. Advancing towards the future and independence is also a “return journey”, to one’s origins.
