basic mistrust

n. Failure to establish a belief in the possibility of satisfying relationships in the first, oral- sensory, of Erik Erikson's eight epigenetic stages of the growth of the self. Basic mistrust leads to social withdrawal and despair. Mistrust-trust is not an all-or-none phenomenon, and infants with complete mistrust tend to die or lack contact with reality while those with predominant mistrust with a little admixture of trust tend to be shy, hypersensitive to rejection, and suspicious. Infants develop a mistrust of the world when there is a failure of their efforts to interact with the world to produce significant need satisfaction, as when they are severely neglected.