"Because we cannot know the subjective world that infants inhabit, we must invent it, so as to have a starting place for hypothesis-making. This book is such an invention. It is a working hypothesis about infants' subjective experience of their own social life." (Chapter 1, 4)

"The dialogue between these two views of infancy and how they may influence one another is a secondary theme of this book. The way in which they together can illuminate the development of the infant's sense of self is the primary theme." (Chapter 2, 15)

"I am suggesting that the infant can experience the process of emerging organization as well as the result, and it is this experience of emerging organization that I call the emergent sense of self." (Chapter 3, 45)

"These four self-experiences [self-agency, self-coherence, self-affectivity, self-history], taken together, constitute a sense of a core self." (Chapter 4, 71)

"The notion of self-with-other as a subjective reality is...