Growth.

Abstract

Freud's concepts on the innate and the experiential, applied as they were essentially to the psychic structure, are discussed because, as Winnicott (1952) indicates, 'the psyche grows out of the soma almost from birth' (see also Bion, 1962). The maternal function is basic to the growth in the first months and, to a lesser extent, is basic all through the growing process, which is particularly fast and demanding during the first three years. The fact tha the 'maternal function', essential for growth in the early stage, is comprised of events which the baby either experiences or is lacking, such as bodily early contacts, being held in the arms and the quality of holding, eye to eye communication on which baby's apperception develops is underlined. The quality of early physical care is to be seen, in the author's view, as the food on which basic individual growth takes place. Deviations and distortions of growth, where no genetic and/or organic explanation may be found, have to be studied in this light. This is particularly true with young babies, where maternal deprivation is a frequent cause of malnutrition.