13 - Summation

Summary

Freud had hit upon a great truth about the human mind: It is from start to finish incapable of separating itself from its own experience and can only build upon that.

Rosen (1989)

The study of early emotional life reveals much about the nature of development. First and foremost, it becomes clear that development entails a particular kind of growth or unfolding wherein what emerges derives in a logical, though complex way from what was present before as a precursor. The “emergent” is qualitatively different from the precursor and at a new level of complexity; yet the precursor serves as a prototype for the emergent, embodying an important core essence of that which is to come.

The joy in peekaboo, for example, which involves among other things anticipation, coordination of a stored image with a present experience, and some degree of person permanence, is qualitatively different from the newborn's sleep smile or the 10-week-old's pleasure smile to familiar faces, but all three experiences involve the arousal (or tension) modulation core that is central in the reaction.

Likewise, guilt is a qualitatively more sophisticated and differentiated reaction than shame. Guilt involves a deviation from an internalized standard for behavior, entailing a threat to self-esteem and a desire for atonement.