Yes that's what I mean by emotional differentiation, for a baby they just respond to an internal feeling or external stimulus and initially their reaction is just to cry when they experience any discomfort (and laugh or smile in response to pleasure) but eventually they learn how to express feelings in more complex ways, at first by having different types of cries/behaviours for different things then gradually through language. Gradually, over several years (via the terrible 2s etc) they develop emotional regulation. But newborn babies are probably the ultimate when it comes to emotional lability and rapid cycling mood swings because at that stage the boundaries between those moods have barely begun to form. So what I'm wondering is when we experience trauma in childhood does this interfere with the development of emotional self regulation and if so, does this play a role in emotional lability and mood swings in our adulthood? It implies that we may be needing to go back through that process.