Class 3: Object relations and Attachment theories

Question 1

Review: Drive

(Techniques)

Answer 1

• —Evenly Hovering Attention
• —Interpretation of unconscious conflict
• Dream Analysis
• Role of Transference
  
  • how client is relating to you
• Goal = insight (make unconscious conscious)

Question 2

Review: Ego

(influential people and contributions)

Answer 2

• Anna Freud
  
  • Ego Functions
    
    • builds defense mechanisms to help manage anxiety from internal unconsious conflicts…concerned with intrapsychy conflicts
• George Vaillant
  
  • Hierarchy of Defenses
    
    • which are mature, healthy, psychotic…

Question 3

Object Relations

(basics)

Answer 3

• Internal (unconscious) world of relationships
  
  • dont realize how we have internalize things
• Internal representations of self and others
  
  • Different from relationships
  • Evident when experience does not match expectations
• Distinguishes “Object” (other) from “Subject” (self)

Question 4

Object Relations

(1. what is object)
(2. what is it concerned with)
(3. object satisfies what?)

Answer 4

1. “Object” may be a person or a thing
2. Concerned with how our needs are met, or not met
3. Object satisfies “needs” rather than drives
   
   • To be to seen and valued—all parts, good and bad
   • To be held tight and to be let go

Question 5

Role of the Object in Psychological Development

(Responses to loss)

(info and pic)

Answer 5

• Responses to loss
  
  • Similar features (of Freuds view) initially
    
    • Withdrawal from the external world
  • Then divergent paths

Question 6

Mourning

(in object relations)

Answer 6

• Mourning = Grieving
  
  • Conscious process, healthy, normal
  • The world loses it’s value
  • The libido detaches from the lost object through hypercathexis (i.e., excessive investment of libido in the object; energy is focused on the memory of the person)
    
    • An attempt to keep the object alive
  • Loss is “real,” is worked through
  • Goal is to attaching libido to a new object
    
    • moving on
  • The Self remains stable, unchanged
    
    • main thing with mourning

Question 7

Melancholia

(in object relations)

Answer 7

• Pathological
• Identification of the ego/self with the lost object, in an effort to maintain the idealized object
• Mourner directs anger/disappointment toward internalized image, which is identified with the self (“anger turned inward”)
  
  • angry at self for loss…what they did to cause loss…their responsibility
  • your ego is so tied into the object that a loss of object is a loss of your ego
• Allows mourner to maintain idealized view of the lost object
• Characterized by self-reproach, loss of self-regard, expectation of punishment
  
  • self guilt, idea that have to be in pain
• Loss is emotional, unresolved

Question 8

“Object”

(in drive compared to object relations)

(chart)

Answer 8

Question 9

Drive Theory v. Object Relations Theory

(chart)

Answer 9

Question 10

Melanie Klein

(basics)

(what is the heart of personality dev?)

(positions are…)

Answer 10

• “Drives” directed toward objects
• Mother-infant relationship is at the heart of personality development
• “Positions”
  
  • state of object relationships
  • aka “Developmental moments” (Fred Pine)

Question 11

Melanie Klein

(what are the two positions and explain)

Answer 11

• Positions: state of object relations
  
  • Paranoid-schizoid Position
    
    • Earliest position
    • Fragmented perception
      
      • needs stuck in good or bad…cant have both
      • even withself….cant hold ambivilance
    • We experience “Part-objects”
      
      • think borderline
  • Depressive Position
    
    • Awareness of object, and self, as good and bad (ambivalence)
    • Loss of innocence
    • Goal of development

Question 12

Melanie Klein

(about her and concepts)

(what did she develop?)

Answer 12

• Klein was the first to analyze children (her own!)
  
  • The Psychoanalysis of Children (1932)
  • Developed “play technique”
    
    • Play is meaningful—symbolic of unconscious
• extra
  
  • Contemporary Kleinian Theory
    
    • Wilfred Bion
    • Thomas Ogden

Question 13

D. W. Winnicott

(basic concepts)

Answer 13

• “Bliss of Oneness”
  
  • cannot move from pleasure principle to reality and beyond unless good-enough mother
• The “Good Enough Mother”
  
  • Attunement
    
    • what child needs
• “Holding Environment”
  
  • Clinical application: therapist offers “holding environment”
  • Antisocial behavior = cry for holding environment

Question 14

D. W. Winnicott

(Transitional Object)

Answer 14

• —A bridge
  • stands for the mother, extends the self
  • Clinical application
• More common in cultures that value independence and privacy as opposed to collectivistic

Question 15

D. W. Winnicott

(—Primacy of Play)

Answer 15

• Our ability to feel ALIVE
• PLAY leads to healing/growth, rather than Insight (per Freud)
• Adult activities that are creative, engaging (sports, art, meaningful conversation) are forms of play

Question 16

D. W. Winnicott

(1. attachment needs to be…)
(2. false self disorder)

Answer 16

1. …flexible to nurture the “true self”
2. “False self disorder”
   
   • Child is not attuned to the needs of others
   • Quality of personhood is disordered
     
     • Overly compliant (push over) or overly constricted (stubburn)

Question 17

Defenses in Object Relations

(1. focus is on …)
(2. what do defenses do?)
(3. issues when defenses indicate…(hint two differnt models))

Answer 17

1. … early development = “Primitive” Defenses
   
   • Primitive refers to earliest developmental period
2. Keep anxiety related to object relations at bay
3. issue is if the defense indicates
   
   • Developmental arrest (aka Deficit model—the person is stuck)
   • Regression (aka Conflict Model—regression in response to stress)

Question 18

Primitive Defenses in
Object Relations

(Introjection)

Answer 18

• the good or bad of the other is taken into the self
  
  • e.g., victim of abuse hates self rather than abuser
    
    • they have introjected (believed) that what abuser says is true

Question 19

Primitive Defenses in
Object Relations

(Projection)

Answer 19

• unwanted feelings are placed on others (e.g., paranoia)
• ex. saying you sense anger in someone else when you’re the one feeling anger
• just like Freuds concept of the defense

Question 20

Primitive Defenses in
Object Relations

(Projective Identification)

Answer 20

• unique to object relations
• the other experiences the projection
  • buys into the other persons projection
  • a big part of this is empathy
    
    • cant have this defense if you dont empathize

Question 21

Primitive Defenses in
Object Relations

(Denial)

Answer 21

• classsic….no different

Question 22

Primitive Defenses in
Object Relations

(Splitting)

Answer 22

• good and bad are kept separate
  
  • self or other
• think borderline
  
  • interpersonal relationships are scattered…might praise you for being a special therapist…either best or worst

Question 23

Primitive Defenses in
Object Relations

(Idealization)

Answer 23

• focus on positive, keeps painful feelings at bay
• think victims of domestic violence….idea that the abuser is not all that bad…bc here is all the good they do…and when the bad stuff comes up minimizing it

Question 24

Primitive Defenses in
Object Relations

(Devaluation)

Answer 24

• keeps painful feelings out of consciousness
• making jokes about painful things to keep pain out of consciousness
  
  • ex…making jokes about how father used to hit you
  • ex. think of someone who smiles when talking about painful situations

Question 25

Margaret Mahler

(what is her theory called? and its basics)

Answer 25

• Separation-Individuation Theory
  
  • Rooted in Western cultural values
  • Developmental schema, related to maturation
  • Developmental Phases

Question 26

Margaret Mahler

(Separation-Individuation Phases)

Answer 26

• Separation-Individuation Phases
  
  • Autistic Phase (infancy-6 weeks)
    
    • non relatedness (no evidence!)
    • infant thinks everything is about self…thats all there is
  • Symbiotic Phase (6 weeks - 10 months)
    
    • begins to get barings of separation of self and other
    • individual identity begins to form
    • blissful one-ness
  • Differentiation (5 - 12 months)
    
    • growing interest in the world…not just the oneness with caregiver
  • Practicing (10 - 24 months)
    
    • exploration, experiencing power-pushing limits…see first seeds of consequences
  • Rapprochement (2 – 3 yrs)
    
    • ambitendency: 2 wishes/fears
      
      • either overcome by fear of engulfment (not going to get individuation) or fear of abandonment (going to be left to own tools)
  • On the way to Object Constancy (3 yrs - end of life)
    
    • mixing of fragmentation
      
      • idea of an object can stay constnat in life…even if not physically present
    • Belief in object goodness despite needs not being met

Question 27

Object Relations and the Practice of Psychotherapy

(Therapeutic encounter)

Answer 27

• Therapeutic encounter
  
  • Patient’s object relations are expressed in the encounter with the therapist
  • Patient and therapist experience these dynamics together

Question 28

Object Relations Critique

Answer 28

• Theory focuses on mother-infant relationship
  
  • Pathology = mother’s fault
  • but….really if follwing ths model know it is about representation not just mother…but what you interpreted
• Nuclear family as model
• Primacy of individuation
  
  • assumes everybody wants to be an individual….which is more western culture

Question 29

Attachment Theory

(Spitz)

Answer 29

• Renee Spitz (1946)
  
  • Observed difference in infants who had physical connection with mothers and those that didnt
  • studied infants and mothers in prison
    
    • Protest
    • Withdrawal: “Anaclitic Depression”
    • Detachment/lack of connection

Question 30

Attachment Theory

(progression of theorists)

Answer 30

• John Bowlby
  
  • Mary Ainsworth (“Strange Situation”)
    
    • Mary Main (Adult Attachment Interview)

Question 31

John Bowlby

Answer 31

• Integrative theorist
• Need for attachment is biological
• Anxiety: rooted in separation from the object of attachment

Question 32

Mary Ainsworth

Answer 32

• Patterns of Attachment (1982)
• Strange Situation Classification
• Quality of Attachment
  
  • Secure Attachment
  • Insecure: Anxious-Avoidant
  • Insecure: Anxious Ambivalent or Anxious Resistant
• Resistant

Question 33

Mary Ainsworth

(quality of attachment)

(Secure)

Answer 33

• children feel confident that the attachment figure will meet their needs
• easily soothed by attachment figure when upset
• developed when caregiver is sensitive to their signals and responds approriately to needs
• freely explores enviornment while in presence of caregiver, when they leave they show distress and dont explore, when they return they are happy to see caregiver and freely explore again

Question 34

Mary Ainsworth

(quality of attachment)

(Insecure: Anxious-Avoidant)

Answer 34

• do not orientate to their attachment figure while investigating their enviornment
• does not seem willing to explore enviornment. appear frightened when caregiver is in room and apprehensive to explore. when caregiver leaves they show distress and still wont explore. when caregiver returns they avoid caregiver and are not happy to see them

Question 35

Mary Ainsworth

(quality of attachment)

(Insecure: anxious ambiv or anxious resistant)

Answer 35

• children adopt ambivalent behavioral style toward attachment figure
• might be clingy and dependent but also rejecting of attachment figure when they engage in interactoins
• anxious to explore envionrment even in presence of caregiver. when they leave they may be upset or may not be. when caregiver returns they do not seem to care that they came back . they want to be near caregiver but dont appear happy that they have returned

Question 36

Mary Main

Answer 36

• Internal Working Models of Attachment
• Adult Attachment Interview
  
  • —Extends model into adulthood
• Quality of Adult Attachment
  
  • —Secure
  • —Dismissing (Avoidant)
  • —Preoccupied (Ambivalent)
  • —*Disorganized

Question 37

Attachment Theory and the Practice of Psychotherapy

Answer 37

• Therapist as secure base
• Transference
• Therapist’s own attachment style

Question 38

Critique of Attachment

Answer 38

• Mother focus
• Impact of Trauma
  
  • Abuse associated with disorganized attachment
• Continuity across the lifespan
• Attachment v. Temperament
  
  • interventions resulted in shift in attachment, not temperament
• Psychopathology: some correlation
• Gender and Culture: generally consistent