Margaret Mahler

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Margaret Schoenberger Mahler, or Margit Mahler (1897 - 1985) was a Hungarian psychoanalytic child psychologist who contributed many theories to developmental psychology. She studied disrupted children and early childhood attachments between mothers. By studying the relationships between mother and child she was able to distinguish psychotic children from autistic children. She felt that autistic children are unable to utilize mothers as auxiliary egos having no interest in relating to their mother or any person. Mahler distinguished symbiotic children to be attached to their mothers. These children are inseparable from their parents, unable to do anything independently.

A rough layout of child development in her theory would look somewhat like this:

Normal Autistic Phase - First few weeks of life. The infant is detached and self absorbed. Spends most of his/her time sleeping. Mahler later abandoned this phase, and believed it to be non-existent. The phase still appears in many books on her theories.

Normal Symbiotic Phase - Lasts until about 5 months of age. The child is now aware of his/her mother but there is not a sense of individuality. The infant and the mother are one, and there is a barrier between them and the rest of the world.

Separation-Individuation Phase - The arrival of this phase marks the end of the Normal Symbiotic Phase. Separation refers to the development of limits, the differentiation between the infant and the mother, whereas individuation refers to the development of the infant's ego , sense of identity, and cognitive abilities. All of the subphases here within proceed in this order but overlap considerably
- Differentiation - The infant ceases to be ignorant of the differentiation between him/her and the mother. "Rupture of the shell".
- Practicing - Brought about by the infant's ability to crawl and then walk freely, the infant begins to explore actively, and the infant becomes more distant from the mother
- Rapprochement - In this subphase, the infant once again becomes close to the mother.
  - Beginning - Motivated by a desire to share discoveries with the mother.
  - Crisis - Between staying with the mother, being emotionally close and being more independent and exploring.
  - Solution - Individual solutions are enabled by the development of language and the superego.
- Object Constancy

[edit] References

"Thoughts about development and individuation. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child", 1963.
"Notes on the development of basic moods: the depressive affect. In Drives, Affects, Behavior" , vol. 2, ed Max Schur, NY: Iternational Universities Press, pp. 161-169.
MM and F. Pine, and A. Bergman: "The Psychological Birth of the Human Infant" 1973, NY: Basic Books.