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Maturation, in the broad sense, means all of the processes in the course of the development of an organism that lead it to a mature state. In a more precise sense, it can be taken to mean the set of preprogrammed mechanisms that set in motion and coordinate the functions necessary for the life of the organism, before they come into operation, and for which biological maturation creates the means and conditions.

The term has made only marginal appearances in psychoanalytic literature. It would seem that Freud never used it in his writings, as evidenced by its absence in James Strachey's detailed index to the Standard Edition.

However, Donald W. Winnicott called one of his books The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment, but, as the title itself indicates, the term is used with the broad understanding that most of the work on mental development could be considered to be studies of maturation. With explicit references to embryogenesis, René Spitz (1979) attempted to describe the organizers that preside over the succession of maturative stages of the mind (the first smile, walking, language)—these organizers themselves being preprogrammed.

From a totally different angle, the adjective maturing is sometimes used to characterize some of an analyst's interpretations in the course of the treatment, in a sense similar to what led James Strachey in 1969 to refer to mutative interventions. Here the term is used to designate interpretations that favor the process of maturation in the treatment through a reorganization of the psychic apparatus.

ROGER PERRON

See also: Adolescence; Archetype (analytical psychology); Genital love; Libidinal development; Imaginary identification/symbolic identification; Integration; Parenthood; Premature/prematurity; Puberty; Stage (or phase); Time; Transgression.