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The Metamorphosis 89Infancy was the primary concern of object relations theorists because they saw—through their psychotheraputic work with disorders of the self—that the fundamentalstructures of interpersonal relations in infancy are internalized as theimplicit expectancies that interpret each new interpersonal experience in later life.These expectancies form the implicit self, such as it is.The inherent opposition, and thus ongoing dialectical tension, between the twoinfantile interpersonal orientations was articulated clearly in Mahler’s (1968) intensivestudy of attachment and separation-individuation in toddlers. The attachmentrelation forms not just a supportive basis for the child’s psychologicaldevelopment, but the enduring foundation of the self that is the context for interpretingnew events. And yet this foundation is not sufficient. Forming a wholepersonality requires individuation from the embedding context of the attachmentrelation to achieve an autonomous psychological identity.The scientific understanding of the critical role of attachment relations was givenan important basis by the experimental study of primate mother-infant relationsby Harlow and his associates (Harlow, 1971; Suomi, 2003). Clearly seen in thesestudies was the permanent damage from impaired attachment relations. Also seenwas the secure base provided by attachment for the transition to peer relations.These studies with monkeys also showed the intergenerational transmission ofattachment pathology that is a key factor in maintaining the prevalence of humanattachment disorders. These studies also clarified the developmental progression,in which the attachment of the young infant monkey is uncomplicated by defensivenessand aggression. These motives appear at a later stage, when they form amotivational basis for separation from the mother and establishment of autonomousaction (Harlow, 1971; Suomi, 2003).Even though a large empirical literature grew up around empirical studies ofattachment and its disorders, a deep theoretical understanding of the developmentof the self is difficult to find outside the psychoanalytic literature. Unfortunately,the psychoanalytic approach is largely anecdotal, comprising informal observationsand reflections of psychotherapists dealing with disorders of the self. Adolescencewas seen to represent a particularly important challenge, as the deficitsin internalized object relations resulting from early childhood experience werestressed by the demand to bring the self-defining capacities for individuation andattachment into adult roles (Masterson, 1972). The stress was often sufficient tolead to disorganization and decompensation of the emerging adolescent identity.Self-Regulation and Its DisordersA key concept in modern psychoanalytic theory is self-regulation (Kohut, 1978).The child internalizes the attitudes and processes of early interpersonal experienceas elements of the self, and these become integral to self-regulation in new