ABSTRACT
Sigmund Freud's thought consists of a specific response to a specific circumstance. Insofar as the thought is childlike, adults return to this particular source of childlike interest and not to just any source. Normal adults usually find the reencounter with the same thing, in the same or a different guise, routine and unremarkable. Freud's thought contains ingredients that are recognizably childlike and therefore is appropriately characterized as childlike. These ingredients arise specifically in conjunction with the situation that elicits Freud's thought. Psychoanalytic theory treats the return of the childlike in adults as irregular or pathological. Both psychoanalytic and nonpsychoanalytic studies of early emotional development emphasize the profound impact upon babies' emotional life of the refinding of lost "objects." Children find many things wondrous and surprising, and many childlike stances could rejuvenate our perspective. Freud's thought conveys yet another sentiment, a feeling of one's self-importance.
