ABSTRACT
The marked development of emotional life in the first year is shown first by an alteration in the normal balance of emotions in favour of pleasure, secondly by continual increase in variety and delicacy of these emotions. Schiller's designation of the "happy infant" is at least applicable to the healthy, well-cared-for child. There are painful emotions of many kinds—of which we shall speak later on—but these are no more than the shorter interludes of a chronic state of well-being and delight. The instinctive character of the expressional movements calls our attention to still deeper connections between feelings of pleasure and displeasure on the one hand and the child's instinctive life on the other. The psychoanalysts look upon these instances of organic pleasure and the child's actions connected with them as a proof of the existence of infantile sexuality, and speak of sucking ecstasy, "infantile-onanie", etc.
