Aiding the child in all these tasks are transitional objects—the familiar comforts (teddy bears, dolls, blankets) that represent mother and are carried everywhere by the child to help ease separations. The object’s form, smell, and texture are physical representations of the comforting mother. Transitional objects are one of the first compromises made by the developing child in negotiating the conflict between the need to establish autonomy and the need for dependency. Eventually, in normal development, the transitional object is abandoned when the child is able to internalize a permanent
...more
