The early close relationship established between a mother (or other primary caregiver) and child as a result of the bonding process, in which the baby sees the mother as part of itself and the mother acts as a need-satisfying object to the child. Traditionally, the symbiotic stage was thought to extend from age three to 18 months, to roughly around the time that a child begins to walk; but more recent work suggests that the child begins to see the self and mother as separate entities earlier, perhaps by about seven months, a stage called separation-individuation.