4 - Object relations and the development of the self

Summary

By reaching for a mobile hanging above the crib and setting it in motion with a touch, a baby learns a tremendously important fact: “I can make that thing dance if I want to.” An infant starts life with precious little information about the self. At first he or she is aware only of strong feelings of hunger, pain, or delight, which come and go unbidden, and of soothing sensations whenever fed or fondled. Slowly sensory experiences coalesce into predictable patterns, and the outlines of the environment begin to emerge. The infant, although still largely a passive bundle of sensations moved by genetic instructions and random actions, begins to recognize parts of the body and where the boundaries lie that separate that self from others.

Taking possession of this body and transforming dim awareness into a conscious self, the infant learns to connect the action he or she receives with those needs that were satisfied. This is the first evidence that the baby gets of his or her existence as an autonomous agent, capable of independent action. Setting a mobile in motion and seeing it dance at the touch of the fingers might well be the infant's earliest experience of selfhood.

The self grows largely as a function of environmental responses to intentions; it develops out of feedback to acts of control (Seligman, 1975, p. 141). The infant becomes aware of wanting food, company, freedom to crawl; the psychic energy of the infant becomes channeled in order to realize these intentions.