ABSTRACT
The ego exists from the beginning and before the self and, depending on the mother’s state of primary maternal preoccupation, will form the true and/or false development of self. The term "ego-coverage" refers to the mother’s specific task of protecting her infant from the "primitive agonies", "unthinkable anxieties”, and "psychotic anxieties". Ego development is characterized by various trends: The main trend in the maturational process can be gathered into the various meanings of the word integration. Integration in time becomes added to integration in space. D. W. Winnicott then refers to the ego that is based in the body and the ego that initiates object-relating: The ego is based on a body ego, but it is only when all goes well that the person of the baby starts to be linked with the body and the body-functions, with the skin as the limiting membrane.
