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Suckling is the [[action ]] whereby milk is fed to the [[infant ]] until it is weaned. By extension, the term refers to breastfeeding as well as bottle-feeding. Before an emphasis was placed on the importance of the [[object ]] and the infant's [[environment]], [[psychoanalysts ]] spoke little of [[maternal ]] suckling. However, Sigmund [[Freud]], in a [[text ]] that [[needs ]] to be viewed in historical context, titled "A [[Case ]] of Successful [[Treatment ]] by [[Hypnotism]]," evokes the case of a young [[woman]], "occasionally [[hysterical ]] . . . who is willing to feed her infant but behaves as if she doesn't [[want ]] to" (1892-93a). The [[dimension ]] of the [[unconscious ]] [[conflict ]] is not taken into account here and Freud clings to the [[idea ]] of will and counter-will. An [[outline ]] of maternal [[psychopathology ]] is given, and here the difficulties of breastfeeding are treated by [[hypnosis]].

Suckling is not a [[psychoanalytic ]] [[concept]]. In [[speaking ]] of suckling we cannot forget the [[physical ]] link associated with the [[reality ]] of the nutritive relation. The [[image ]] of the infant at the [[mother]]'s [[breast ]] has considerable [[metaphoric ]] and [[symbolic ]] [[value]]; it is an image that makes us nostalgic for a [[sense ]] of original fulfillment and can be compared with that [[other]], "final," image of [[death]], as characterized by the iconography of the old man at the breast. The container, the breast, and its [[content]], milk, are both associated with projected [[fantasies]]. The milky substance, a liquid that contrasts with the solidity of the breast, is a vehicle of fantasies of fusion and vampirism. Once the infant's teeth begin to grow, the fantasies are those of [[oral ]] [[sadism ]] and cannibalism. There is an analogy to be made between the breast and the [[penis]], between milk and sperm, one of which nourishes and one of which fecundates, and at the same [[time ]] an incompatibility because sperm is, in [[fantasy ]] at least, supposed to spoil milk; thus there is a [[separation ]] between the [[sexual ]] and the nutritive.

A dichotomy has always existed between the breast as a nourishing object and the breast as an [[erotic ]] object, a separation that helps avoid the confrontation between an incestuous mother and the importance of maternal [[libidinal ]] and erotic investment. However, in The [[Interpretation ]] of [[Dreams ]] (1900a), commenting on the "[[dream ]] of the Fates (Knödel), Freud wrote that "at the woman's breast [[love ]] and hunger meet." For the breast [[satisfies ]] both the alimentary and the [[sexual impulses]]: "To begin with, sexual [[activity ]] attaches itself to functions serving the [[purpose ]] of [[self]]-preservation and does not become independent of [[them ]] until later. No one who has seen a [[baby ]] sinking back satiated from the breast and falling asleep with flushed cheeks and a blissful smile can escape the [[reflection ]] that this picture persists as a prototype of the expression of sexual [[satisfaction ]] in later [[life]]" (1905d). The nipple is a [[sexual object ]] throughout [[Freudian ]] [[metapsychology]]. The transition from sucking the nipple to sucking is a key [[moment ]] in the organization of the earliest [[feelings ]] of [[autoeroticism ]] and investment of the mouth as an [[erogenous zone]]. Freud does not mention (Laplanche, 1997) the erogenous erotic component for the mother during breast-feeding. For the infant the breast assumes (secondarily) its [[forbidden ]] erotic value with the organization of the [[oedipal ]] conflict; initially the infant simply "is the breast" (Freud, 1941f [1938]), during a period of primary [[identification ]] with the breast and [[primal ]] fusion.

It has become obvious that the object plays a key [[role ]] in enabling the polarization of the [[libido ]] into certain zones. This follows their unification when the infant is breastfeeding and the libido experiences a sense of satisfaction, at a time when the mouth that sucks and the nipple that nourishes are inseparable and indistinguishable. The mother "(moreover) makes a [[gift ]] to the infant (while she is lavishing her attention on him) of feelings arising from her own [[sexual life ]] . . . and clearly grasps these as a [[substitute ]] for a [[separate ]] sexual object" (1905d). Freud returned to this [[position ]] and developed it in his Outline of [[Psychoanalysis]]: "She is not content to nourish, she cares for the infant and thus awakens in him many other physical sensations, agreeable and disagreeable. Thanks to the care she lavishes, she becomes his first seductress. Through these two relations, the mother acquires unique importance, incomparable, unalterable, and permanent, and becomes for both [[sexes ]] the object of the first and most powerful of his [[loves]], the prototype of all later amorous relations" (1940a [1938]).

The role of the object and precocious maternal [[seduction ]] as it occurs through breastfeeding are questioned by contemporary [[analysts]]. [[Jean Laplanche ]] (1987) has developed the idea that [[sexuality ]] is implanted in the infant through the initial seduction of the [[adult]], and emphasizes the unconscious sexuality of the seducer. From this follows the possibility of a significant reassessment of the role of the impulses, the role of the object, and [[anaclisis]]; he also raises the question of the primal. For [[Paul ]] Denis the question of [[mastery ]] is [[present ]] at the heart of the initial experiences of feeding, but the [[encounter ]] between the mouth and the nipple, to the extent that it combines kinesthetic and sensory feelings, [[instinctual ]] [[excitation ]] and [[pleasure]]/unpleasure, is an essential period during which the activity of the initial [[representation ]] takes [[place ]] (the "pictogram" of Piera Aulagnier, 1975). For authors such as Esther Bick, the emphasis is on the [[presence]]-[[absence ]] of the breast during this [[primitive ]] [[stage ]] of undifferentiated autosensuality characterized by the encounter between mouth and nipple. The role of the object remains essential for enabling the consensual union and unification of the libido. The mother's container function is experienced as a "skin": "The optimal object is the nipple in the mouth, together with the mother's touch (holding), [[speech]], and familiar odor"([[1968]]).

With respect to bottle or breastfeeding, Freud responds only in [[terms ]] of [[privation]]. In all cases there remains a [[feeling ]] of "having sucked too little and for too short a time," the [[nostalgia ]] for the breast [[being ]] stronger for the [[child ]] who has been bottle-fed (1940a [1938]). Melanie [[Klein ]] (1952), [[writing ]] [[about ]] breast-and bottle-feeding, returns to the question of the primacy of the object and [[instinct]], the importance of the exterior object and the reality of the breast. For her the breast is the object of intense fantasized projections because it is a primordial object. The cannibalistic oral impulses directed toward the mother's breast are especially intense. As for the mother, the fact of feeding her baby has a restorative effect because it terminates the [[sadistic ]] fantasies with respect to her own mother: "The nourishing and beneficial milk she dispenses signifies for the unconscious that her sadistic fantasies have not been realized and that their [[objects ]] have rediscovered their integrity"(1932).

For Donald [[Winnicott ]] breastfeeding is expanded to the baby's environment in the broad sense and to the richness of the [[experience ]] the mother offers. The quality of maternal holding and handling is essential, for these are both a function of the mother's [[internal ]] conflicts and of her own [[infantile ]] experiences. The foundations of [[psychic ]] health depend on this "facilitating environment." The experience of the survival of the object in the face of the baby's attacks seems to her essential and in the end helps her advance the idea of [[difference ]] "between the survival of a part of the mother's [[body ]] and the survival of a bottle" (1987). Although he is cautious when discussing mothers and does not dismiss the unconscious maternal implications, he emphasizes the importance of the carnal reality of the experience of the breast; in this body-to-body relation, the [[exchange ]] of glances and the sensual experience are essential to [[communication]].

Breastfeeding is a [[situation ]] that so profoundly involves the mother's body and psychic life that it is subjected to the unconscious conflicts that [[affect ]] the mother and to the fantasies awakened through the encounter between a specific mother and a specific infant. Suckling extends the period of pregnancy and [[birth ]] and is inseparably a part of the woman's sexual life and her life [[history]]. Primitive psychic activity is associated with these very first contacts that are always difficult to conceptualize. Psychoanalysts who care for infants are [[conscious ]] of this in their [[clinical ]] activity and research.

The invention of the bottle (1820), followed by the introduction of sterilization (1892-1898), have profoundly altered breastfeeding. Artificial milk eliminates the [[need ]] for direct recourse to [[another ]] woman, in the position of wet-nurse, and the baby's survival (in reality) no longer depends on the product of the mother's body. The transition from mother's milk to artificial milk, while it abandons its [[natural ]] origins, cannot be assimilated to the transition from raw food to cooked food discussed by Lévi-[[Strauss]]. But how can [[social ]] and [[cultural ]] [[ideology ]] be made to mesh with unconscious maternal choices?

* [[Freud, Sigmund]]. (1892-93a). A case of successful treatment by hypnotism SE, 1: 115-128.* ——. (1900a) The [[interpretation of dreams]]. Part I., SE,4: 1-338; The interpretation of dreams. Part II., SE, 5: 339-625.* ——. (1905d). [[Three ]] essays on the [[theory ]] of sexuality. SE, 7: 123-243.* ——. (1940a [1938]). An outline of [[psycho]]-[[analysis]]. SE, 23: 139-207.* ——. (1941f [1938]). Findings, [[ideas]], problems. SE, 23: 299-300.