On the persistence of very early memory traces in psychoanalysis, myth, and religion

It is tentatively proposed that fragments of certain early perceptual experiences of the parental objects such as the sight of the face and the breast of the mother, the smiling or angry expression of the face, the pleasing or disagreeable character of the voice, the soft touch or rough handling, the sight of the hands may occasionally be recoverable in the course of analysis. Some mythological figures and religious symbols may also hark back to similar motifs. The relation of this material to early modes of perception and the beginnings of object relations is examined. The data are correlated with the findings of child observation and of modern experimental psychology.