There are those who cleave to the episodical theory of character formation. The Stages of Man, so to speak.

      The new theories are in agreement with both the latest science and the oldest teachings of mental culture. Young, academic scientists are working with neonates in hospital laboratories built at the birth mother’s bedside. They are us­ing brilliantly conceived, non-intrusive experiments, and strictly empirical, deductive reasoning. They have set aside the psychology of myth and self-reflective, opinionated non­sense that got passed along as doctrine for three quarters of the twentieth century, and revealed the astonishing alertness of the newly born child, his/her bright perception and ability to process information and make rational decisions and choices based on observation and assessment. Considering that in the first half of the twentieth century the psychiatric community considered children younger than two more or less as blobs unworthy of serious attention as volitional beings, our current crop of researchers come across as heroic. We, who trade in familial misunderstandings and train wrecks, are profoundly grateful for the footings they pour under the piers of our clini­cal practices.

      The value of the work these researchers are doing can­not be underestimated. Without an understanding of the moment to moment accretion of knowledge through substantive continuity, there can be no serious discussion of psychological development. In the moment following conception there is an impact between a unique life and its immediate environment. As a result there is a change in the quality of that life. All subsequent encounters are likewise life-altering events. Thus relentless experiences, and the resulting knowledge, shape the swimmer to the stream incrementally, inexorably.

This knowledge opens to us the opportunity to live in the present as each moment of life impacts on history and changes everything forever.

      Didn’t somebody say, Every moment counts. Didn’t my mother say that?