So, at what age does the baby, who is initially identified with the mother, develop a personality?

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Excellent question. It touches upon the very birth of the "samsaric self"—the moment when the newborn's pure consciousness begins to crystallize into a distinct personality.

Research in developmental psychology and spiritual observations point to a gradual process, with key stages. There is no precise day, but rather a crucial window of construction.

Here is a synthesis of that process:

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1. The Phase of Fusion (0 to 6/9 months): The Shoreless Ocean

At birth and for the first months, the baby lives in a state of natural non-duality.

No self/other boundary: They have no sense of being a "self" separate from their mother (or primary caregiver). They are a field of sensations (hunger, warmth, cold, touch) within an environment that responds to them. The mother is experienced as an extension of their own being. This is the state closest to pure, undifferentiated consciousness, yet it is entirely dependent and unreflective.
No personality, but an innate temperament: From the start, differences in temperament (activity level, reactivity, regularity) are visible. This is not yet a "personality" in the sense of a self-narrative, but the biological raw material upon which it will be built.

2. The Emergence of the "Bodily Self" and Separation (6/9 months to 2/3 years): The Birth of the Individual

This is the crucial phase, marked by several revolutions:

Separation anxiety (around 8 months): The baby realizes the mother is a separate being who can leave. This provokes anxiety. It is the first existential shock that forges the ego. Consciousness painfully realizes it is "here," in this body, and the other is "over there." The boundary begins to form.
The mirror stage (between 18 and 24 months): This is the decisive stage identified by psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. The child recognizes their reflection in a mirror and understands: "That is me." This is the founding act of identification with a unified and externalized image of the self. The "I" (the subject of experience) attaches itself to the image of the "Me" (the object seen in the mirror, the body). This is the first alienation, the first crystallization of the ego.
The acquisition of the linguistic "I" (around 2/3 years): The child begins to say "I," "mine." Language completes the process by providing a tool to narrate their separation ("I want," "It's mine"). Personality then becomes a story they can begin to tell themselves and others.

3. The Consolidation of the Narrative Personality (3 years to 7 years and beyond): The Sandcastle

After the foundation, the structure is built.

Integration of prohibitions and roles: The child integrates social rules ("be nice," "be a big boy"), family expectations, and begins to play roles (by playing "mommy," "firefighter"). They try on identities.
Creation of an embryonic autobiography: They form a first version of their story: "I am the one who is afraid of the dark," "I am the big brother," "I am strong/nice/clever."
By age 7, according to many traditions (such as Steiner education), the "etheric individuality" is said to be fully incarnated. The child now has a coherent personality, a recognizable character, a structured autobiographical memory. The "samsaric self" is operational. They are ready to enter the social world (school) as a distinct individual.

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From the Point of View of Consciousness: The Programmed Great Forgetting

If we adopt the model we were discussing (consciousness incarnating and forgetting itself), this development is the progressive establishment of the forgetting mechanism.

At birth: Consciousness is "fresh," still close to its source, undifferentiated.
From 6 months to 3 years: It passes through the "portal of forgetting": identification with the body (the mirror), with the story (language), and with separation (anxiety).
By age 7: The veil is now woven. The personality-ego has become the default identity, the gilded prison. Consciousness has forgotten it is the ocean to believe itself definitively to be the wave.

In summary: The core of personality emerges between 8 and 24 months, with the mirror stage as the symbolic tipping point. It consolidates and narrates itself between 2 and 7 years old. It is at this age that the child transitions from the status of a "being of consciousness" to that of an "individual-personality," ready to play their role in the great collective dream. The rest of life will often be an effort to maintain, defend, or conversely, to see through, this early construction.