ABSTRACT
This chapter describes some aspects of the origins of concern in which the mother’s continued presence has a specific value for the infant, that is, if the instinctual life is to have freedom of expression. Concern is an important feature in social life. Psychoanalysts usually seek origins in the emotional development of the individual. The capacity for concern belongs to the two-body relationship between the infant and the mother or mother-substitute. Concern implies further integration, and further growth, and relates in a positive way to the individual’s sense of responsibility, especially in respect of relationships into which the instinctual drives have entered. Concern refers to the fact that the individual cares, or minds, and both feels and accepts responsibility. At the genital level in the statement of the theory of development, concern could be said to be the basis of the family, where both partners in intercourse—beyond their pleasure—take responsibility for the result.
