ABSTRACT
Serge Lebovici was a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, full member of the Paris Psychoanalytical Society. As early as 1948, he made use of psychoanalytic psychodrama in the treatment of child and adolescent psychosis. This chapter discusses the genetic study of object relations such as the narcissistic stage, the anaclitic stage, the object stage and the stage of differentiated object relations. The description of narcissistic stage refers to the state of the neonate. Narcissistic cathexis has its vicissitudes which were subsequently clarified in Freudian doctrine. According to Spitz, anaclitic stage is characterised by a specific reaction of the infant to the human face - namely, smiling. From the eighth month, the establishment of the object relationship implies a fundamental structural modification and Spitz rightly considers the ensemble of the phenomena unfolding at this moment as the 'second organiser' of psychic life. In the second year of life, the child's means of perception and action develop with astonishing speed.
