ABSTRACT
Establishing boundaries is a dynamic process, involving the way in which the other person, originally the mother, is experienced as different and therefore as separate from the self. The earliest experience of the infant has been described as a state of symbiotic fusion. Separation is intricately linked to the development of the boundaries of the self. In early infancy it functions to distinguish the self from the not-self. The development of boundaries means demarcation and structure and therefore containment of the self. This in turn leads to a relationship with what is the not-self, to an awareness of inner and outer processes and spaces and also, significantly, of time. What is interesting about the art process is that creative activity depends upon the ability to distinguish between subject and object and yet at the same time allow enough flexibility of ego boundaries to relate both what is known and what is not known.
