The continuity of conflict and compromise formation from infancy to adulthood: a twenty-five-year follow-up study

This paper reports on one of fifteen subjects from the Mahler separation-individualization project who have participated in a twenty-five-year follow-up study. The focus is on the beginning transfer of interpersonal conflict to intrapsychic conflict and compromise formation early in the second year of life, and on the course and persistence of these into adulthood. Conflict and compromise, along with constitutional and environmental factors, were major determinants of the subject's personality and a major source of continuity in personality development from one-and-a-half to twenty-five years of age.