Stéphane Lucas Navarro’s research while affiliated with Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Saint-Étienne and other places

The status of the first invested object at the beginning of psychic life is a complex, scientific, philosophical as well as human enigma. The authors have a vision that is both personal and inspired by the broad metapsychological field and this field has usually been used for a descriptive or even explanatory support for inquiry. The support of their vision is based on a three-part concept, which brings together pictographic representation processes in the sense of “containing”, the reflecting role of the external object and bidimensionality. Their modeling describes the primary object in the form of a psychological experience of nondifferentiation between the constantly evolving subject and his environment, initiated with an originating framework at the beginning of life, which then gradually becomes, and in a way that varies with the individual, the ultimate primary trace.

Advent of psychic life in infant faces researchers with the challenging question of primal object that is primal conditions of this emergence. Freud's answers consist mainly in “archaeological” models and hypothesis of phylogenetic inheritance. These hypothesis have been often examined critically. In this article, we propose a reality-based “primal device”. According authors' hypothesis mother and infant are structurally and mutually involved in a “primal gap” which demands regulation. For mother, regulation is carried out by primary maternal preoccupation and prohibition of incest. For infant, regulation is carried out by inner physiological and instinctive patterns, perceptive and interactional skills, and primary narcissism. So are defined setting and experiences resulting in construction of primary object which represents in authors' opinion the beginning of psychic life.