Chapter V

THE EARLY YEARS

In this chapter and in the one that follows we turn to a closer inspection of the events by which a baby is almost imperceptibly transformed into a mature individual. Though our present ignorance prohibits much being said about many interesting topics, it will help to a better understanding of the developed individual and his problems if we run hastily over the period of immaturity and catch a few glimpses of the man in the making. This chapter will tell the story of the early years, while the next will be devoted to an account of sexual development, which will require not only an extension of the materials already presented down through the period of puberty, but also a reinterpretation of these materials from the point of view of the place of sex in the life of the individual.

Transition periods in growth

Before beginning, the field to be covered will be mapped out, for, although life runs on without break or intermission, it does not at all times move in exactly the same directions, and some acquaintance with its transition points will clarify many things. It has always been clear that puberty is such a period of transition-the fact is signalized in many cultures by complex initiation ceremonies or "rites of passage but it is less commonly recognized that the years preceding puberty exhibit analogous phenomena of changes in interest and activity patterns. Green in his recent studies of the daydreams of children throws a flood of light on this subject.1 Daydreams furnish superb materials for discovering what children are really interested in at different ages, since it is by their dream fantasies that they try to supplement the inadequacies of everyday life. Of course not all children live to any extent in a dream world, but a study of a consid

erable number of daydreams discloses the following broad life-periods:

(1) Babyhood (to about the third year). In this period daydreams are either missing or are incommunicable. Life is almost entirely given over to the satisfaction of nutritional needs, and to the attainment of those early orientations of the eyes, the hands, and the language apparatus that form the essential basis of all later activity. Habits of digestion, of sleep, of manipulation, and of communication that may have to serve the individual to the end of his days are at this time formed, and the emotional patterns of most future activity laid down. The achievements of this period, as Preyer long ago pointed out, perhaps equal in mere bulk those of all the rest of life put together, and in importance easily overshadow those of any other times. Although many parents have taken pains to observe their children rather carefully during this period, it is surprising how vague and scattered our information concerning it remains.

(2) Childhood (from about the third to about the tenth years). In this period appears the daydream of the imaginary companion or the imaginary country. The imaginary companion fantasy indicates that the child by this time has framed the preliminary outlines of a self or ideal, so far at least as his affective or emotional life is concerned. He is now acquainted with a rôle that he would like to play, and he proceeds to play it with a person of his own creation who is so made as to conform to his requirements. Either the child himself or the imaginary companion, or each by turns, may take the leading part, for the child easily experiences the relationship from either side, as can be seen from Green's analysis of the naughty companion:2

The presence of an imaginary companion, who is "naughty," enables the child to act in desired ways, vicariously, and at the same time to assume the appearance of virtue that she imagines her parents appreciate. She is able to use their words and their gestures, to make use of the same punishments that have been employed by her parents in her own case, in dealing with the "naughty" companion. But all the "naughtiness" has to originate in her own mind: she has to plan it, and in idea

she has to execute it. In this way she "projects" her own naughtiness into the companion, and is able to carry out her wishes in an ideal form, free of all fear of punishment. In certain extreme cases, the imaginary companion is really blamed by the child for real acts that have been committed. The imaginary companion can be of either sex, and be possessed of almost any qualities. The important thing, however, is the way the fantasy is used, and not the abstract nature of its contents. This is undoubtedly the reason why a child so often prefers a nondescript and dilapidated doll to one which is measurably realistic, and it also explains why little children are able to have as much fun with odds and ends as with the most elaborate toys. They are really playing with themselves.

Of course the child's self at this time is extremely rudimentary. It contains few of the social components that will later be introduced into it through the dialectic of growth. Though the child's self is primarily egoistic, it is by no means a purely personal creation, but is rather a result of the interaction of the developing organism with the complex social milieu in which it is imbedded, as clearly appears when specific daydreams are considered in relation to the environments which produced them. The child will learn much, as a result of further social contacts and enlarged experience with things, but the estimate he will always hold as to his powers and his worth can easily date from these early years. Even the employment of the mechanism of the imaginary companion as a means of handling an unsatisfactory situation need not disappear with the passing of the years, for it is often to be noted in adults, as in the case of the appeal to posterity. Many a man whose proposals do not now win acclaim consoles himself with the reflection that future ages will recognize the merit of his schemes.

(3) Boyhood and girlhood (from about the tenth to about the fourteenth years). This is the period of the daydream of the gang or the team. It usually takes the form of an adventure or escapade in which the dreamer leads his group to victory and success. The imagined activity is now socialized to this extent at least, that it involves a number of other indi

viduals, some of whom are usually real friends of the dreamer, engaged in an enterprise involving coöperative endeavor and requiring some degree of give and take within the group. At the same time the group is usually thought of as at odds with other groups or as engaged in some essentially nonsocial (if not unsocial) undertaking. The spirit of this period is also to be noted in the more popular games, which nearly always require the choosing of sides and the pitting of one group against another. Boys during these years frequently form real gangs or clubs for purposes that they like to keep to themselves, and which, indeed, they would often find it difficult to name were they to make the attempt; while girls run in cliques and groups, have secrets, and in general exhibit the same attitudes as the boys. It will be observed that boys tend to flock with boys and girls with girls during this period, whereas throughout the greater part of childhood the sex of one's playmates is irrelevant.

In a multitude of ways the group acts upon the growing boy and girl and molds their natures as they endeavor to find a place for themselves in these rather simple associations. The different ways in which we are accustomed to treat children according to their sex is itself a case in point, for the behavior and treatment of boys and girls during this period differs far more than do their bodies. Boys are traditionally supposed to be boys and girls girls, and this helps greatly to make them different. But the influence of social considerations does not cease here. Consider, for example, the result of urban conditions on the formation of gangs; or the work of the Boy Scout movement in turning the gang spirit to social account; or the effects of a child's reading upon the kind of group relations he pictures as desirable; or the pervasive influence of his home life in settling what manner of person he shall be.

(4) Adolescence (beginning somewhere around the fourteenth year). This is the period of the romance, when the dreamer's interests again focus on a single individual, and the sex of the companion at last becomes important. Magnificent fantasies of courage and renunciation are often conjured up, floods of affectivity released, and mighty resolu

tions formed. The specific content of the daydream need by no means be connected with sex, but the association of the thinly veiled symbolisms with the new sexual energies surging within the organism is usually apparent. The period of adolescence is fairly familiar to us as a general phenomenon, and no further description of it need be attempted here, a fuller discussion of the topic being reserved for the following chapter.

We have now provided a general conspectus of the ground to be covered, and may therefore turn to the discussion of some of the more important early achievements of development a discussion which will be prefaced by an inventory of the infant's equipment as we find him at birth.

The baby at birth

The baby seems more highly equipped with random movements at birth than with anything else, for he moves fingers, hands, arms, trunk, legs, feet, toes, head, mouth, and eyes in a large variety of ways and in no settled order. Digestion, excretion, heartbeat, and other visceral activities are in operation, and respiration is established with the birth cry. Muscular tonus, a result of the continuous excitation of sensory nerves imbedded in the muscles, exists in good order. The infant can go to sleep and wake up, sneeze, take the mother's breast, perform the rather complicated movements of suckling, and a variety of other similar acts. All these responses, together with all others to be named in the paragraph that follows, as well as many less important activities it has not been thought worth while to catalogue, are reflexes, and in number would probably mount up into the hundreds of thousands.

On the side of sensory equipment the baby's repertoire is much narrower, for he is probably entirely deaf, so that sounds are capable of producing only shock reactions; the range and scope of his vision is extremely abbreviated, and he possesses little or no power to fixate objects; he responds to touch stimulations, though he has no power to locate his touch sensations; there is little or no integration established between the various senses; he can feel pain and malaise,