ABSTRACT
In order to exemplify the usefulness of infant research, I want to examine again the oft-mentioned mother complex. It is in the infant’s nature to be related to, and dependent on, the mother and the maternal reaction. In other words, in the very first phase of life, the mother archetype is very strongly constellated in the child as well as in the mother—as one can see by her specific biopsychological functions during pregnancy and after childbirth. The question is to what extent is the mother able to open herself to the mother archetype operating within her—to what extent is she able to attain a certain “correspondence” with the needs of her infant? This question pertains to the mother’s own socialization, her physical health, and those complexes influencing her.
