chapter 5 Notes

Question 1

Like Freud’s instinct theory but 3 differences:

KLEIN

Answer 1

(1) it places more emphasis on INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS
(2) it stresses the infant’s relationship with the MOTHER rather than the father

(3) it suggests that people are MOTIVATED primarily for HUMAN CONTACT rather than for sexual pleasure
Underlying aim of a drive is to reduce tension and achieve pleasure

Question 2

The term object in object relations theory refers to

KLEIN

Answer 2

any person or part of a person that infants introject, or take into their psychic structure and then later project onto other people. in this case it is the breast

Question 3

Psychic Life of the Infant

KLEIN

Answer 3

infants begin life with an inherited predisposition to reduce the anxiety that they experience as a consequence of the clash between the life instinct and the death instinct.

She stressed the first 4-6 months of life
Children posses an active fantasy life

Question 4

Phantasies

KLEIN

Answer 4

Their most basic fantasies are images of the “good” breast and the “bad” breast.

Question 5

Objects

KLEIN

Answer 5

Klein agreed with Freud that drives have an object, but she was more likely to emphasize the child’s relationship with these objects (parents’ face, hands, breast, penis, etc.), which she saw as having a life of their own within the child’s fantasy world

Question 6

Positions

KLEIN

Answer 6

ways of dealing with both internal and external objects

Question 7

Paranoid-Schizoid Position

KLEIN

Answer 7

a desire to harbor the good breast and a desire to bite or destroy the bad one

the ego splits itself by retaining parts of its life and death instincts while projecting other parts onto the breast. It then has a relationship with the ideal breast and the persecutory breast. To control this situation, infants adopt the paranoid-schizoid position, which is a tendency to see the world as having both destructive and omnipotent qualities.

A tendency of the
infant to see the world as having the same destructive
and omnipotent qualities that it possesses.

Question 8

Depressive Position

KLEIN

Answer 8

The feelings of anxiety over losing a loved object coupled with a sense of guilt for wanting to destroy that object constitute what Klein called the depressive
position.

anxiety that infants experience around 6 months of age over losing their mother and yet, at the same time, wanting to destroy her. The depressive position is resolved when infants fantasize that they have made up for their previous transgressions against their mother and also realize that their mother will not abandon them.

Question 9

Psychic Defense Mechanisms

KLEIN

Answer 9

introjection

projection

splitting

projective identification

protect their egos against anxiety aroused by their own destructive fantasies:

Question 10

Projection

KLEIN

Answer 10

The fantasy that one’s own feelings and impulses reside within another person is called projection. Children project both good and bad images, especially onto their parents.

Question 11

Splitting

KLEIN

Answer 11

mentally keeping apart, incompatible image

Infants can only manage the good and bad aspects of themselves and of external objects
by splitting them, that is, by keeping apart incompatible impulses. In order to
separate bad and good objects, the ego must itself be split. Thus, infants develop a
picture of both the “good me” and the “bad me” that enables them to deal with both
pleasurable and destructive impulses toward external objects

Question 12

Projective Identification

KLEIN

Answer 12

infants split off unacceptable parts of themselves, project them onto another object, and finally introject them in an altered form.

A husband with strong but unwanted tendencies to dominate others will project those feelings into his wife

the man tries to get his wife to become domineering he behaves with excessive submissiveness in an attempt to force his wife to display the very tendencies that he has deposited in her

Question 13

introjection then Internalizations

KLEIN

Answer 13

By introjection, Klein simply meant that infants fantasize taking into their body
those perceptions and experiences that they have had with the external object, originally
the mother’s breast.

After introjecting external objects, infants organize them into a psychologically meaningful framework, a process that Klein called internalization

Question 14

Ego

KLEIN

Answer 14

Believed that the ego reaches maturity at a much earlier stage than freud
Although the ego is unorganized at birth it is strong enough to feel anxiety use defence mechanisms and form early object relations in both fantasy and reality

unified ego emerges only after first splitting itself into the two parts—those that deal with the life instinct and those that relate to the death instinct

Question 15

superego

KLEIN

Answer 15

the superego preceded rather than followed the Oedipus complex. Klein also saw the superego as being quite harsh and cruel.

Question 16

Oedipus Complex

KLEIN

Answer 16

3 differences from freud
1) Believed that it started earlier than freud did
Begins in the earliest stages of life and overlaps with the oral and anal stages and reaches its climax during the genital stage at around 3 or 4
2) fear of retaliation from their parents for emptying their parents body (milk?)
3) retained positive feelings towards both parents during these years
4) serves the same need for both sexes - that is to establish a good relation with the good boob and avoid the terrifying one

Oedipus complex begins during the first few months of life, then reaches its zenith during the genital stage, at about 3 or 4 years of age—the same time that Freud had suggested it began. Klein also believed that much of the Oedipus complex is based on children’s fear that their parents will seek revenge against them for their fantasy of emptying the parent’s body

Question 17

Male Oedipus Complex

KLEIN

Answer 17

boy adopts a “feminine” position very early in life and has no fear of being castrated as punishment for his sexual feelings toward his mother. Later, he projects his destructive drive onto his father, whom he fears will bite or castrate him. The male Oedipus complex is resolved when the boy establishes good relations with both parents.

Question 18

Female Oedipus Complex

KLEIN

Answer 18

little girl also adopts a “feminine” position toward both parents quite early in life. She has a positive feeling for both her mother’s breast and her father’s penis, which she believes will feed her with babies. Sometimes the girl develops hostility toward her mother, whom she fears will retaliate against her and rob her of her babies, but in most cases, the female Oedipus complex is resolved without any jealousy toward the mother.

Question 19

SUMMARY of Klein

KLEIN

Answer 19

People are born with 2 strong drives: life instinct and death instinct

Infants develop love for the good breast and hatred for the bad one and this leads to a lifelong struggle between good/bad pleasure/pain

First few months of life are the most important in development

Question 20

Margaret Mahler’s View

Answer 20

1) Normal autism: birth until 3 or 4 weeks
Their needs are being met without them having to do anything cuz the mother is orbiting
Absolute narcism
“objectless” stage as the child simply looks for the breast
2) normal symbiosis: 4th week to 5th month
Seeks a union with the mother as it realizes that it can’t meet it own needs
Can recognize their mother’s face
3) separation / individuation 4th month to 36 month
Begin to separate from their mothers an acquire an identity
Experience the world as more dangerous than it was in the first two phases

Question 21

Margaret Mahler’s 4 overlapping substages of separation / individuation

Answer 21

Differentiation
Practicing
Rapprochement
Libidinal object constancy

MAHLER was primarily concerned with the PSYCHOLOGICAL BIRTH of the individual that takes place during the first 3 years of life, a time when a child gradually SURRENDERS SECURITY FOR AUTONOMY

Differentiation which is breaking away from the mother infant symbiotic orbit analogous to hatching of the egg
Psychologically healthy are curious about strangers and non recoil from them

Practicing - begin to walk - begin to develop an autonomous ego

Rapprochement phase when they want to bring the mother and them back together
More cognitive skills but because of the self awareness this causes more stress
A rapprochement crisis occurs and they fight a lot with their mothers because they want to be reunified with them (ploys to get back together with mom)

Libidinal object constancy 3rd year of life must develop a constant inner representation of their mother so that they can tolerate being physically separate from her
Must be developed for the child to have security otherwise they become dependent on her presence for security

Question 22

Heinz Kohut’s View

Answer 22

emphasized the development of the self

Believed in nurture not nature

naturally narcissistic with two basic needs

1) the need to exhibit the grandiose self and
If others see me as perfect them I am perfect
2) the need to acquire an idealized image of one or both parents
You are perfect but I am part of you

Question 23

John Bowlby’s Attachment Theory

Answer 23

separation anxiety

1) Protest stage when caregiver first leaves and they are crying/protesting
2) despair when they become quiet and listless apathetic
3) detachment they become emotionally detached including from their caregiver - if the caregiver comes back they will disregard her

Question 24

Mary Ainsworth

Answer 24

secure attachment, anxious-resistant attachment, and anxious-avoidant attachment.

Question 25

The goal of Klein’s therapy

Answer 25

to reduce depressive anxieties and persecutory fears and to lessen the harshness of internalized objects.

Question 26

Cindy Hazan and Phil Shaver (1987). These researchers found that people with secure early attachments experienced

Answer 26

more trust, closeness, and positive emotions in their adult love relationships than did other people.

Question 27

Critique of Object Relations Theory

KLEIN

Answer 27

shares with Freudian theory an inability to be either falsified or verified through empirical research. Nevertheless, some clinicians regard the theory as being a useful guide to action and as possessing substantial internal consistency. However, the theory must be rated low on parsimony and also low on its ability to organize knowledge and to generate research

Question 28

Concept of Humanity

KLEIN

Answer 28

high on determinism because of this and low on free choice
Optimistic if the bond is good pessimistic if bad

Tends to be more on the side of causality than teleology
Expectations of the future play a low role

High on unconscious determinants of behaviour
And Klein is also into Freud’s Phylogenetic endowment idea

Lean on the side of social determinants of personality as opposed to freud biological influences

Tend more towards similarities than differences amongst people

Question 29

Kohut’s view on object relations

Answer 29

he focused on the early mother-child relationship as the key to understanding later development.
Kohut believed that human relatedness, not innate instinctual drives, are at the core
of human personality

Believed in nurture not nature

children are naturally narcissistic

1) the need to exhibit the grandiose self and
If others see me as perfect them I am perfect
2) the need to acquire an idealized image of one or both parents
You are perfect but I am part of you
Both attitudes are necessary but we need to grow out of them otherwise we are trump

Question 30

Discuss Ainsworth’s Strange Situation

Answer 30

Ainsworth measured the attachment style between an infant and the caregiver called the Strange Situation. It’s a 20 minute session where a mother and child are alone in a playroom when a stranger comes into the room and shortly thereafter begins to interact with the child. The mother goes away for two separate two-minute periods. In the first session, the infant is left alone with the stranger, and in the second session the child is left completely alone.

In a secure attachment, when the mother returns the infant is happy and enthusiastic, initiating contact. All secure children are confient in the accessibility of the caregiver.
In the anxious-resistant style, the infants are doubtful. They become upset when the mother leaves and when she returns they go to her but they reject attempts at being soothed by her.
In the anxious-avoidant style, the infants stay calm when the mother leaves and they ignore and avoid the mother when she returns. Insecure infants lack ability to engage in exploration.