ABSTRACT
Ever since the late 1930s, psychiatrists and developmental psychologists have been fascinated by the role of early—that is, infantile—experiences in the development of personality. This fascination emerged as a distinct contrast to an earlier concern with the formative importance of experiences that occurred after “the age of reason,” around 7–8 years of age. Even Rousseau (1962), for example, ever-concerned about the corrupting effects of society, felt that there was no need for worry about the early years during which, in his view, children were unimpressionable and immune to influence. Subsequent thinkers about child development tended to adopt a view of early experience similar to Rousseau’s.
