ABSTRACT
The mother-child relation has been at the centre of psychoanalytic interest right from the beginning. As this is the earliest object-relation, the beginnings of which reach into the nebulous times where the frontiers of ego and external world merge into each other, it is of paramount importance both theoretically and practically. In the case of primitive object-relation an alteration in the behaviour towards the object is not necessarily the consequence of an altered emotional attitude (love, hate), but originates in the child's naive egoism. The first disturbance of the naive egoism is caused by the mother's turning away from her growing child. To sum up: the child who has outgrown his infancy is no longer so agreeable to the mother, nevertheless he clings to her and does not know any other form of love but that of his naive egoism.
