ABSTRACT
Along with all this goes a sorting out of the two states, the quiet and the excited. Ruthlessness in the instinctual “attack” on the object gives way to a dawning appreciation of the mother as a person caring for the ME and at the same time a person presenting the part of herself for the feed. There gradually comes about an integrating of excited and quiet types of relationship, and a recognition of the fact that the two states together (not one only) constitute a total relationship with [the] mother-person. Here is what is called “The Depressive Position in Emotional Development”, an important stage which involves the infant in guilt feelings, and concern about relationships on account of their instinctual or excited elements.
