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 18 mth 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.