Latency--a reappraisal

This paper discusses the specific metapsychology and developmental tasks of the latency period. It offers a Kleinian view of the phase and compares it with other current psychoanalytic theories. The emphasis is on the importance of ego and superego growth and integration during latency resulting in better contact with both external and internal reality. Character formation, social integration and learning are discussed as the specific developmental tasks of the period. Freud's original formulation that the latency period is a consequence of the resolution of the Oedipus complex is evaluated in the light of contemporary developments. I draw on the ideas of Klein and others such as Loewald, Burgner, Holder, Tyson to describe it as a process of progressive and more complex elaboration throughout latency, interconnected with superego development. This process of gradual working through is considered to be a fundamental feature of the period. This model of progressive maturation is illustrated with clinical material. The clinical concept of pseudo-latency is used to distinguish between the developmental achievement represented by the establishment of the latency organisation in contrast to a defensive structure (pseudo-latency) which hides pathology.