Developmental reconstructions: Infancy from the point of view of psychoanalysis and developmental psychology

To establish empirical validity, psychoanalytic theories of preverbal development need to integrate the significant empirical advances of current developmental psychology. This is illustrated by a critical examination of M. Klein's (1935) and M. Mahler's (1975) alternative psychoanalytic accounts of the developmental origins of defensive splitting and projection from a cognitive developmental viewpoint. The cognitive prerequisites for the construction of a defensive delusional representation of reality are spelled out in terms of (1) operational, (2) dynamic, and (3) representational conditions. The developmental origins of these cognitive prerequisites are examined in the light of current experimental findings and are critically related to the Kleinian vs the Mahlerian accounts. Specific hypotheses about the developmental origins of splitting and projection are proposed.