ABSTRACT
With the coming of psychoanalytic investigation into early development, interest shifted somewhat away from the instinct theory of classical orientation with its emphasis on libidinal development. The Independents came naturally to conceive of a ‘self-object’ relation form of theory. This chapter discusses only that aspect of Michael Balint’s theory which is concerned with the self and environment. This is very largely confined to reconstructive consideration of the earliest days and months of life, for Balint thinks residues of these live on in us timelessly. John Bowlby’s trilogy, Attachment, Separation, Anxiety and Anger and Loss, Sadness and Depression, is a carefully researched and comprehensive study in the field of attachment and loss. Masud Khan developed two interlinked concepts: cumulative trauma and maternal complicity and seduction. Both of these signify failures of maternal facilitation during infancy and childhood.
