ABSTRACT
The breast occupies a central position in psychoanalysis. It is the female breast that takes centre stage, as one of the biological markers of sexual difference, and in its literal and metaphorical functioning as a feeding apparatus that also provides emotional occur to the dependent infant. The word designates the feeding experience and so covers both the bodily organ and baby bottle. The breast points to the paramount importance of the mother in the developing infant’s life. It is, moreover, a discursive representative for her and the person of the caregiver more generally. Melanie Klein extends and adapts Freud’s ideas about the breast, particularly as they relate to its original status in psychic life and enduring influence in the unconscious of the adult. Bion emphasises the frustration experienced by the infant when s/he encounters the no-breast. The mother’s capacity for holding–both the infant’s aggression and her own–is an element of her “good-enough care” of the infant.
