The Origins of What is Foreign

The newborn infant is introduced to a deep constituent experience not only by the dual unity of the mother-infant dyad, but also by this dyad’s attitude to the other; that is, an attitude that reflects the mother’s relations with the outside world. A study of mother-infant tactile and auditory exchanges demonstrates the complexity of the problematic attending the infant’s development. The theme of the foreigner is thus related to the ways in which the mother-infant relationship confronts what appears to be exterior to the experience of wholeness in the original relation.