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Theoretical paper explores the role of maternal structures in infant development, indicating emotional interplay shapes self-organizing systems.
This paper proposes that maternal structural coupling — the sustained recursive interaction between primary caregiver and infant in the first years of life — constitutes the ontogenetic foundation of autopoietic development. Drawing on Maturana and Varela's autopoiesis theory, Bowlby's attachment research, and Birkenbihl's pedagogical framework, we argue that love and fear are not merely emotional states but structurally distinct operational conditions that produce categorically different types of autopoietic systems. Dedicated to Vera F. Birkenbihl on her 80th birthday.
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John Foerster (2026) studied this question.
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