In the closing chapters of The Origins and History of Consciousness
Erich Neumann spoke of the importance of demonstrating 'how the basic
laws of the psychic history of mankind are recapitulated in the
ontogenetic life history of the individual in our culture.' Implicit in
his words was the promise that an exploration of the detailed psychology
of the various stages of life would follow. The Child - an examination
of the structure and dynamics of the earliest developments of ego and
individuality - is the first of these explorations. In it we progress
from the primal relationship of child and mother through to the
emergence of the ego-Self constellation, via the child's relationship to
its own body, its Self, the thou and being-in-the-world. We move from
the matriarchate to the patriarchate; from participation mystique to the
'standpoint of the Self around which the ego revolves as around the
sun'.