This paper discusses Daniel N. Stern's (1985) work, "The Interpersonal World of the Infant: A View from Psychoanalysis and Developmental Psychology," with respect to its implications for theory on infant psychosocial development. The paper focuses on two areas: the reconceptualization of psychoanalytic developmental psychology, and the impact on psychoanalytic metatheory. The discussion is limited to Stern's first stage of development, The Emergent Self. Implications of infant observational research in general and Stern's work in particular for the reconceptualization of infant psychosocial developmental theory are discussed. The works of Heinz Hartmann, Rene Spitz, and Margaret Mahler are reviewed. A discussion of some methodological changes implemented by Stern is followed by an analysis of the research Stern cites in support of his concept of the Emergent Self. Implications for psychoanalytic metatheory are then discussed. Stern's Emergent Self is contrasted to Mahler's stages of normal autism and symbiosis. The conflict between Stern's and Mahler's works is discussed using drive/structural and relational/structural models. (Author/LLL)