ABSTRACT
The traditional developmental hypotheses of psychoanalytic psychology principally reflect clinical generalizations based on observations made within the psychoanalytic situation. With regard to the epigenesis of the self-organization, this chapter discusses observational data covering three major spans of early development, each having a predominant bearing on a different kind of personality problem in adult life: threats to the integrity of the self-organization due to interference with its initial formation and to traumatic experiences following this developmental achievement, and “internal” conflicts among the major components of such an organization. The reorganization of psychic life is contingent on cognitive maturation into the stage of the ability to use symbols.
