ABSTRACT
The understanding of early development is one of the fundamental objectives of science. The beginnings of living systems set the stage for every aspect of an organism’s internal and external functioning throughout the lifespan. It is often not appreciated that an individual’s genetic inheritance which encodes the unvarying sequence of development is only partially expressed at birth. Genetic systems that program the evolution of biological and psychological structures continue to be activated at very high rates over the stages of infancy, and this process is significantly influenced by factors in the postnatal environment. Of special importance are the incipient interactions the infant has with the most important object in the early environment—the primary caregiver. Events that occur during infancy, especially transactions with the social environment, are indelibly imprinted into the structures that are maturing in the first years of life. The child’s first relationship, the one with the mother, acts as a template, as it permanently molds the individual’s capacities to enter into all later emotional relationships. These early experiences shape the development of a unique personality, its adaptive capacities as well as its vulnerabilities to and resistances against particular forms of future pathologies. Indeed, they profoundly influence the emergent organization of an integrated system that is both stable and adaptable, and thereby the formation of the self.
