ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the self theory to the earliest period in life, infancy. When applying the idea of deintegration to infancy it was primarily to conceive a process whereby the integrated infant, at first separate from Mrs Henry mother, could come into relation with her. But a mother does more than act: by holding her baby in her mind, by reflecting about him especially in a state of maternal revery, she relates directly to her baby's protomental life and helps in the transformation of beta into alpha elements. It is interactive experiences of this kind that form the basis for the affectively charged mental distinction between good and bad objects, between inside and outside. The concept of whole and part objects is useful in evaluating data presented by child or adult patients in analysis; we find that our patients treat analysts as a part object.
