Module 4 1A Flashcards
Women’s Voices in Psychodynamic Theory: Melanie Kline and Object-Relations Theory
Challenged Freud’s Patriarchy: Criticized Freud’s focus on father figures as central.
Maternal Influence: Focused on the mother-child relationship in personality development.
Child Observation: Emphasized observing children to support theories.
Less Biology, More Culture: Reduced focus on biological differences; highlighted social/cultural factors.
Interpersonal Relationships: Shifted focus to relationships and social context shaping the psyche.
Freud’s theory placed women in a subordinate role, but he trained women and gave them positions, though sexist attitudes still persisted.
* Klein and others critiqued Freud's focus on the father figure and superego development, arguing it reinforced sexist hierarchies. * Klein emphasized the mother's nurturing role in development, contrasting with Freud's power dynamics. * Freud’s evidence came from adults, while Klein observed young children for insights. * Jean Piaget focused on cognitive development and early relationships. * Klein stayed close to Freud, while Horney offered a more feminist perspective.
Object Relations Theory
Offshoot of Freud’s theory, but:
Focuses on relationships, not biological drives.
Emphasizes mother’s nurturing over father’s control.
Human behavior driven by connection, not sexual pleasure.
Freud’s Influence:
Freud: Drives aim to reduce tension (pleasure).
Klein:
Phantasies: Infants have unconscious images of good/bad (e.g., full = good, empty = bad).
Objects: Infants internalize objects (e.g., mother’s breast, father’s penis).
Positions:
Paranoid-Schizoid: Infant splits objects (good vs. bad) to manage anxiety -It’s based on the conflict that arises when infants experience both love and frustration in their relationship with the mother.
Depressive: Infant sees mother as whole (good and bad), feels guilt, seeks reparation.
Psychic Development:
Early life: Infants born with conflict between life and death instincts.
Paranoid-Schizoid: Split between good and bad objects.
Depressive: Guilt and empathy emerge as the infant sees mother as both good and bad.
Infants internalize objects like the mother’s breast and father’s penis unconsciously through early emotional experiences, creating psychic representations that shape their later relationships and emotional development.
Early experiences with the good/bad breast shape later relationships by forming the infant’s ability to internalize and navigate love, trust, and conflict with others based on these early object relations.
Melanie Klein & Object Relations Theory
* Klein: Built on Freud’s work, developed Object Relations Theory (focus on early relationships).
* Influence: Impacted John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth.
Critique of Freud:
* Freud’s theories shaped by Victorian gender roles and patriarchal views.
* Men, like Freud, treated women, leading to sexist biases in the theory.
Ainsworth developed the Strange Situation procedure, based on John Bowlby’s attachment theory, to observe the bond between infants and their caregivers.
the Strange Situation (Secure, anxious-ambivalent, avoidant, disorganized)
Melanie Klein’s Psychoanalysis
Play Therapy: Used with children to explore unconscious feelings, especially negative transference.
Goal: Reduce anxiety and integrate conflicting emotions.
Born 1882, Vienna: Youngest of 4; father was a doctor.
Childhood: Felt unwanted, lost siblings & father by age 20.
Psychoanalytic Training: Under Sandor Ferenczi.
Contributions: Developed object-relations theory through child analysis.
Freudian Roots: Diverged from Freud, straining ties with Vienna’s psychoanalysts.
Moved to England (1927): Stayed until death.
Family: All children analyzed by her; estranged relationship with daughter Melitta, also a psychoanalyst.
- Klein experienced emotional conflict early in life, with the loss of close people.
- Believed her birth was unplanned, leading to feelings of rejection from her parents.
- Her father was a significant figure in her life.
- Became interested in psychoanalysis and later trained as a psychoanalyst.
- Goal: Extend psychoanalysis to children, believing it was crucial even for healthy children, not just those with psychological issues, to understand their mental well-being.
- Developed Object-Relations Theory through her work with children, focusing on early relationships and their impact.
- Strong disagreements with Freud and other psychoanalysts.
Less Focus on Drives: Emphasizes relationships over biological drives.
Maternal Role: Focuses on mothering and nurturing, not father’s power.
Relatedness Over Sexuality: Human connection is the primary motive, not sexual pleasure.
- Melanie Klein was one of the key developers of Object-Relations Theory, which focuses on how we develop consistent patterns of interpersonal relationships based on early experiences.
- Key Idea: Our relationship patterns are shaped by history, particularly early interactions with primary caregivers, especially the mother.
- Contact-Comfort Motive: Children prefer comfort and emotional connection (e.g., the cloth monkey experiment) over basic needs like feeding, highlighting the importance of nurturing.
- Freud’s Instincts: Freud’s theory focused on biological drives and instincts, while Klein emphasized emotional and relational dynamics in development.
Freud: Objects satisfy instincts.
Klein: Early relationships (e.g., mother/breast) shape later connections.
Internal Representations: Early objects form internal images (e.g., breast, father).
Introjection & Projection: Objects are introjected and projected onto others.
Inaccurate Representations: Early images are distorted and shaped by preverbal experience.
Long-term Impact: Early objects affect later relationships.
- A critique of Klein’s theory is that the concept of “objects” is unclear and hard to define.
- Objects are not just people, but parts of people or things that hold emotional significance.
- Infants don’t directly perceive the mother but instead see the objects she possesses (e.g., nourishment). The mother becomes a model for later relationships and internal drives.
- These early impressions shape how we interact with others and integrate into our psychological structure, influencing our personality and instincts.
First 4-6 Months: Crucial for personality development.
Anxiety & Conflict: Infants are born with a drive to reduce anxiety from life and death instincts.
Phylogenetic Endowment: Infants have an inherited fantasy life from birth.
Phantasies: Unconscious images of good and bad, unlike adult fantasies.
Drives & Objects: Basic drives are linked to objects (e.g., hunger = “good breast”).
Internalized Relationships: Infants introject objects, shaping ego development.
- Klein challenged Freudian perspectives by emphasizing the importance of early experiences in shaping psychological development.
- Instincts: Klein believed instincts are inherent from birth, influencing our lives from the very beginning. These instincts manifest through fantasies that we cannot articulate but which unconsciously shape our behavior.
- Good & Bad: Klein argued that humans have both good and bad aspects. As children, we struggle with unmet desires, leading to feelings of frustration. As we mature, we must understand and integrate these conflicting feelings.
- These early experiences, whether conscious or unconscious, have a profound impact on the development of the ego and shape how the child relates to the world.
Paranoid-Schizoid Position:
Splits experiences into good and bad objects (e.g., breast).
Leads to ambivalence toward people.
Depressive Position:
Sees objects as whole (good and bad in one person).
Guilt for destructive feelings toward loved ones, leading to empathy.
Resolving this allows for mutual love.
- Internal representations shape how we relate to others, influenced by early experiences.
- Struggling with good and bad objects occurs as needs are sometimes met and sometimes not, leading to fear of persecution.
- Splitting is a defense mechanism, where we categorize things as “good” or “bad” to manage anxiety.
- Early experiences of good and bad help form our relationship framework. As we grow, we realize that parents can be both good and bad.
- The recognition that objects (like the mother) can be lost leads to empathy and helps develop prosocial behavior.
- Moving through these positions allows us to experience love and let go of destructive feelings toward “bad” objects, setting the stage for healthy relationships.
Introjection:
Internalizing good and bad objects (e.g., mother’s breast).
Projection:
Attributing own feelings to others to reduce anxiety.
Splitting:
Separating good and bad aspects; creates “good me” and “bad me”.
Projective Identification:
Projects unwanted parts onto others, then introjects them in a distorted form.
- Klein used “terrifying” to describe the intense life-and-death feelings children experience but can’t articulate. These feelings of terror drive the need for defense mechanisms.
- Projections: When we project our own unrecognized feelings onto others, such as hatred or fear. It’s a defense mechanism to avoid confronting our own feelings.
- Splitting: Helps alleviate anxiety by dividing feelings into good and bad, but can lead to depression if overused.
- Projection allows people to externalize their inner conflicts. For example, a man who feels powerless may project dominance onto others, reflecting his own struggles with power.
The Ego and Superego (Klein)
Ego:
Unorganized at birth but detects loving and destructive forces.
Develops through early object relations (e.g., “good” breast as source of security).
Matures over time, becoming integrated, with less splitting of objects.
Superego:
Emerges early, but is more harsh than Freud’s.
Creates terror in the child, exaggerated in phantasies.
Evolves into a more realistic conscience as the child matures.
- Klein’s approach is rooted in Freud but differs significantly from other theorists.
- Unlike Freud, Klein’s view of the ego develops early in life, shaped by experiences with good and bad objects.
- Partial good and bad: This can lead to splitting, which is problematic as it divides experiences into extremes.
- Klein’s theory doesn’t rely on Freud’s complex ideas. Initially, feelings of terror and unrealism are present, but with age and more interaction with objects, they become more realistic and integrated.
Focus: Development of autonomy and identity through early mother-infant bonding.
Three Stages:
Normal Autism (Birth to 3-4 weeks):
Infant in primary narcissism, unaware of others, feels omnipotent.
Normal Symbiosis (4 weeks to 5 months):
Infant and mother form a dual unity, recognizes mother, but others are pre-objects.
Separation-Individuation (5 to 36 months):
Infant becomes separate from mother, develops personal identity.
Four substages: differentiation, practicing, rapprochement, and object constancy.
- Margaret Mahler was influenced by Klein’s theory, focusing on early experiences with objects and their role in development.
- Mahler, like Erikson and Piaget, proposed stages that shape how we interact with objects and structure cognition.
- Normal symbiosis: Early on, the child and mother are not distinct, with the mother being essential for the child.
- Separation-individuation: The child becomes separate from the mother, marking the beginning of personality development.
Training: Psychoanalysis and object relations with Melanie Klein.
Integration with Evolutionary Theory:
Combined object relations with an evolutionary perspective to address empirical gaps and expand the theory.
Separation Anxiety Stages:
Protest, despair, detachment observed in infants when separated from caregivers.
These reactions influence later relationships, with detached children forming superficial and cold connections.
Attachment Theory Assumptions:
A responsive caregiver provides a secure base for the child.
Early bonding becomes internalized and forms the model for future relationships.
- Bowlby wanted a more empirical approach and aimed to integrate object-relations with evolutionary theories.
- By linking the theory to science, he sought to extend its application and understand how it relates to animals.
- Early experiences create a secure base, reassuring the child that things will be alright.
Hazan & Shaver (1987) - expanded on Mary Ainsworth work by applying these styles of adult romantic relationships:
Secure attachments lead to more trust, closeness, and positive emotions in relationships compared to insecure attachment groups.
Simpson et al. (2007):
Securely attached individuals have more positive emotional experiences and cope better with romantic relationship conflicts.
Rholes et al. (2007):
Avoidant individuals seek less information about partners, while anxious individuals seek more.
Trauma & Object Relations
Impact of Trauma: Leads to negative views of relationships, PTSD, and low self-esteem.
Therapy: Focuses on changing distorted relational patterns.
Avoidant attachment = fear of closeness, emotional independence.
Anxious attachment = preoccupation with relationships, obsessive behaviors.
Avoidant seek less emotional info, anxious seek more.
Pathological jealousy linked to insecure attachment styles.
Insecure attachments = poor conflict management and emotional reactivity.
Secure parents adjust better to parenthood and conflict resolution.
Secure leaders are more effective than insecure ones.
Anxious-ambivalent employees need supportive leadership.
Critique of Object Relations Theory:
Attachment theory generates more research than object relations.
Object relations lacks testable hypotheses and is hard to falsify.
Focus on early mother-child relationships but lacks utility beyond childhood.
