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In the [[Kleinian ]] constellation over which she presides, the archaic [[mother ]] is the [[fantasy ]] mother of the first few months of the [[infant]]'s life—the [[paranoid]]-schizoid [[phase]]. Omnipotent and [[phallic]], she fulfills and [[frustrates ]] in equally radical measure. She is the key [[figure ]] in the early [[stages ]] of the [[Oedipus ]] [[complex]], and her [[breast]], an [[object ]] [[split ]] into a [[good]], nourishing breast and a bad persecutory one, is her generic attribute. It is the target of the ambivalent [[libidinal ]] and [[sadistic ]] [[oral ]] [[drives ]] of the infant in [[search ]] of unlimited [[satisfaction]], a satisfaction that, inevitably, will never be achieved.

Beyond such [[epistemological ]] considerations, the [[idea ]] of the archaic mother points up a persistent [[psychoanalytical ]] [[paradox]]: the fact that we mourn for origins that are inaccessible yet somehow open to [[retroactive ]] attempts to reveal [[them]]. This figure embodies an archaism with the extraordinary ability to "conjure up the beginning while simultaneously revealing its [[absence]]" (Assoun, 1982). The [[primal ]] mother escapes our grasp yet holds us in thrall.

The [[notion ]] of the archaic is a semantic point of convergence for several [[Freudian ]] [[concepts]]. It is closely related, for one [[thing]], to the "primal"—to all those [[terms ]] in [[Freud]]'s writings that begin with the prefix "ur-": Urszene (the primal [[scene]]), Urphantasien (primal fantasy), Urverdrängung (primal [[repression]]), Urvater (primal [[father]]). And it is akin to the stratigraphical and archaeological metaphors of which Freud was so fond.

Melanie [[Klein ]] used the adjective "archaic" only once, but made frequent use of "früh" or "early" (Petot, 1982). The idea of the archaic mother was introduced in connection with Klein's theses on the early stages of the [[Oedipus complex ]] in boys and girls (1928). Apropos of the early oral [[stage ]] of the [[oedipal ]] [[conflict]], Klein described a "paranoid-schizoid [[position]]" characterized by the [[relationship ]] to part-[[objects]], by the [[splitting ]] of the ego (an ego [[lacking ]] in maturity) and of the object, by persecutory [[anxiety]], and by schizoid mechanisms. The breast of the archaic mother was a [[structuring ]] factor here. Frustrated in their attempts to attain that breast, both girls and boys were prompted to abandon the quest and embrace the [[wish ]] for oral satisfaction by means of the father's [[penis]]. [[Introjection ]] of the good and bad breast of the good and bad mother was thus replaced by introjection of the good and bad penis of the good and bad father. The [[parents ]] became the first models not only for [[internal ]] protective and helpful [[figures ]] but also for internal vengeful and persecutory ones; these first identifications by the ego constituted the foundations of the [[superego]]. Some of the [[SuperEgo|superego]]'s most important traits, both its loving/protective and its destructive/devouring sides, were derived from the earliest identifications with the mother.

Klein's followers developed these [[ideas]], notably that of projective [[identification ]] in infants (Bion, 1962; Meltzer, 1992); their exploration of [[childhood ]] [[psychoses ]] went in the same direction (Tustin, 1972; Meltzer, 1975).

The archaic mother is part of a long mythological [[tradition ]] stemming from the fecund and savage Earth Mother of ancient Greek cosmogony. In [[psychoanalysis ]] the theme is discernible, for example, in the sea "abandoned in primeval [[times]]" of Ferenczi's Thalassa (1924, p. 52), in Freud's phylogenetic explanation of primal [[fantasies ]] (1915f, p. 269 and n.), or in the "[[biological ]] bedrock" of the "[[repudiation ]] of [[femininity]]" (Freud, 1937c, pp. 250-52).

If the "archaic" is forever generating [[meaning ]] in the [[unconscious ]] without ever manifesting itself as a perceptible [[cause]], it is the task of metapsychological [[speculation ]] to offer an account of this phenomenon. The aforementioned psychoanalytical "mythologies" may indeed be said to respond to an "epistemic imperative" (Assoun, 1982). At the same [[time]], however, any psychoanalytical view of the archaic, which is inseparable from the [[discussion ]] of "deferred [[action]]" (q.v.), can achieve legitimacy only by eschewing the naïvety of the Freudian archaeological [[metaphor]]: the "archaic mother" of an excavated [[past ]] does not amount to a restoration of the original.

Recently the [[analysis ]] of borderline [[conditions ]] has highlighted the notion of an [[analyst ]] who does not [[represent ]] the mother but instead is the omnipotent mother. This figure is the object of a [[transference ]] that is "both archaic and a [[defense ]] against the archaic" (Green, 1982).

At [[present]], [[clinical ]] [[work ]] on the psychoanalysis of origins has an important part to play in the study of parenthood. In the contexts of infertility, perinatal [[psychopathology]], or transgenerational [[mental ]] transmission, the consideration of the [[structural ]] outcome of parental conflict with the archaic (grand-) mother has given this [[concept ]] a new lease on [[life ]] (Bydlowski, 1997).

See also: Breast, good/bad object; [[Oedipus Complex|Oedipus complex]], early; Paranoid-schizoid position; [[Real]], [[Imaginary]], and [[Symbolic ]] father; "Vagina dentata," fantasy of.