Some observations on transitional object and infantile fetish

Observations of a girl's development are presented to demonstrate the role of the transitional object in coping with the normal strains implicit in the separation-individuation thrust and in the anal-urinary and early sexual stages of development. When at eighteen months a separation experience led to a serious preoedipal castration reaction, the transitional object no longer was capable of serving its ordinary function and was replaced by a fetishistic object.