Object Relations

Question 1

Specific theorists’ contribution

Answer 1

Klein:
• Used psychoanalysis with children and used play therapy with them
• Melanie Klein developed Objects Relations in the late 1800s early 1900s
• Her theory created what is still a current divided in the psychoanalytic schools
• She was the first to use psychoanalytic with children, specifically using toys and dolls with a strong emphasis on infant development.
Winnicott:
• transitional objects, holding environment, good enough mother
• Donald Winnicott developed his theories mid to Late 1900s.
• His mother suffered from depression which influenced his theory
• His key contributions include:
o Transitional phenomena
o Holding environment
o Good-enough mothering
Bowlby:
• Founder of Attachment Theory
• British child psychiatrist and psychoanalyst
• Worked with maladjusted children and children impacted by loss of parental care
• Viewed attachment as instinctual
• Collaborated with Rene Spitz and Harry Harlow on the impact of loss and maternal deprivation on children

Question 2

Common Themes

Answer 2

• Share a common concern about the primacy of relationships over innate instinctual drives
• Shifts from instinct to early relationships Emphasizes environmental influences.
• Weight is given to how the infant develops a ‘self’ through relationships within family and how this self relates toward others

Question 3

Secure Base

Answer 3

• Infants use their attachment figure as a secure base from which to explore their environment
• The Secure base
– provides the child with the confidence to explore
– Relies on the reassurance and mindful presence of the attachment figure
• Promotes Exploration and Autonomy
– by responding to child’s proximity-seeking attachment behaviours rather than resisting it, proximity promotes autonomy rather than inhibiting it.

Question 4

Goal of OR

Answer 4

• The ultimate goal is to protect the self and still attach to objects. To do this three defenses are used to accomplish this balance.

Question 5

Concepts and practical uses of OR

Answer 5

• The Holding Environment: a good enough mother who meets the most of the infant’s needs and creates or is a safe holding environment.
• Mother’s role is two-fold:
o Ensures infants needs are met which allows the infant to believe she has created needed objects
o Mothers allows the infant periods of quiet time.
• A failure of either of these results in fragmentation of the self since the self develops out of reconciliation of both internal and external realities.
• Transitional Objects: an inanimate object such as a blanket or stuffed animal that provide that safe place between hallucination and objective reality. A child believes he created the bear because he desires it and since parents go along with it they believe the object is real – transitioning them from fantasy to interaction with the real world.

Question 6

Causes of dysfunction (psychopathology) and typical diagnoses

Answer 6

• OR believes psychological dysfunction as the result of faulty early development, emphasis on the object relations that result from less-than-optimal parenting (i.e. bad mothering).
• Child does not develop a strong sense of self and a false self develops in order to deal with the external world and protect what little self has developed
• This is a person who is terrified of abandonment and will react with extreme rage and/or neediness
• Identity Diffusion: poorly integrated concept of self and of others.
• Typical diagnosis include Borderline Personality Disorder