Rapprochement subphase

The third subphase of separation-individuation in Mahler's scheme, from about sixteen or eighteen months to two years or a little more. The toddler, now aware of being separate and small, turns back toward the mother, wanting to share every discovery with her, while insisting at the same time on its autonomy. The clash between the longing for closeness and the wish for independence can come to a head in a 'rapprochement crisis' of clinging and pushing away, shadowing the mother and darting off from her. Mahler held that how the mother meets this crisis, and how it is resolved, shapes later moods, and that a failure here can leave the split between good and bad images of self and other found in borderline patients.