ABSTRACT
In the very early stages of the development of a human child, ego-functioning needs to be taken as a concept that is inseparable from that of the existence of the infant as a person. The word self arrives after the child has begun to use the intellect to look at what others see or feel or hear and what they conceive of when they meet this infant body. The chapter utilizes the concept of ego-integration and the place of ego-integration in the initiation of emotional development in the human child, in the child who is all the time moving from absolute dependence to relative dependence, and towards independence. It suggests that the beginnings of object-relating within the framework of a baby’s experience and growth. In the development of a human child, therefore, ego-functioning needs to be taken as a concept that is inseparable from that of the existence of the infant as a person.
