Book
No and Yes: On the Genesis of Human Communication
In this book René Spitz examines the genesis of human communication through the gesture of negation. He argues that the head-shake and the word "no", which appear around the middle of the second year, are the child's first semantic gesture and first abstract concept. They mark the passage from action to communication at a distance. The child acquires the "no" by identifying with the forbidding adult and turning the prohibition back against that adult. Spitz traces the head-shake to the newborn's rooting movement at the breast, and the affirmative nod to a different early movement.
Main ideas
- The head-shake and "no", appearing around the middle of the second year, are the child's first semantic gesture and first abstract concept.
- The "no" marks the passage from action to communication at a distance.
- The child acquires the "no" by identifying with the forbidding adult and turning the prohibition back against that adult.
- The head-shake derives from the newborn's rooting movement at the breast, and the "yes" nod from a different early movement.