ABSTRACT
From the earliest beginnings of psyche, channels are organized on the basis of response from the mothering person’s body and personality. We can clearly observe the “Mommy-and-me” dance that is forming in the mutual cuing behaviors being established by the third or fourth month of life. These psychological tendrils of mutual relatedness were metaphorically termed “symbiosis” by Margaret Mahler (1968). These internal states that characterize the symbiosis of the infant are believed to evolve according to growing expectations of attuned and misattuned interactions. In the symbiotic exchange that the infant overlearns, the response of each partner comes to depend on the response of the other. Peaking by the 12th to 18th month, the symbiotic mutuality, the dyadic responsiveness or forms of symbiotic exchange, remain strong through the 24th to 30th months. I follow Mahler’s explicitly intended use of the term symbiosis as a set of internalized interaction patterns that the infant develops in relation to early caregivers. Basic character and body structure date from early in this period, as the constitutional and personality variables of the infant come into play with the environment, creating the first sense of psychological familiarity and stability.
