True Self

Only true self can be creative and only true self can feel real. - D.W. Winnicott
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Babies don't pretend.  They are neither perpetuating nor protecting an image.  They experience life fully in the present moment.  A healthy and happy baby is naturally spontaneous.  He laughes, cries, verbalizes, gurgles, gestures in response to his own body and mind and to the world around him.  The adequate mother appreciates her baby's unique responses.  She makes loving sounds and gestures in return.  The empathic mother doesn't impose herself on the child or force him to react in certain ways that are not his own.  She simply loves her baby for his unqiue self.