APA Dictionary of Psychology

in classical psychoanalytic theory, the earliest part of the oral stage of psychosexual development, in which the nursing infant is posited to feel that they are ingesting the mother’s being along with the milk swallowed (see incorporation). This phase is believed to lay the foundation for feelings of closeness and dependence, as well as for possessiveness, greed, and voraciousness. Compare oral-biting phase. [identified by German psychoanalyst Karl Abraham (1877–1925)]