Beginning of affect? MILK. The Self holding its own Narcissism? TEETH.
There you go, I thought about it for longer than 2 minutes.
The absence and presence of the mother's milk during feeding could be the beginning of negative and positive affect.
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The ability to hold one's own narcissism in a healthy way, could be from the teething process in infancy.
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The self develops in tandem with crying and laughter. Too much crying is pathological, not laughing is pathological. Not laughing in a relational way, pathological.
Why do infants cry as soon as they leave the womb? The beginning of melancholia, and we carry melancholia with us for our entire lives.
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This is not even 15% of what infants have to do naturally and somewhat unconsciously until they are an adult. Now imagine an adult doing this and beyond, consciously during their own treatment during their time in therapy.