Abstract:

In this paper, we identify and examine a notion of Daniel Stern's theory (1985, 1994, 1995) that was formulated only recently, in 1995, and has not received adequate attention by psychologists and psychiatrists. namely the "schema-of-being-with-the­-self". We regard it as a very important notion from both a developmental and a clinical point of view. We describe the main features of this kind of schema and comment upon its relation to several long-standing and recent theoretical formulations and research findings from psychoanalysis, infant psychology, and from the study of aloneness and loneliness.