Object Relations

Question 1

Object Relations Theory

Answer 1

Unified. Variations depending on emphasis. Internal vs. external objects. Conflict vs. deficit models.

Question 2

Object Relations Main Theorists

Answer 2

British: Klein, Winnicott, Bion, Fairbairn I American: Mahler, Kernberg I Interpersonal: Horney, Fromm, Sullivan

Question 3

Melanie Klein

Answer 3

Melanie Klein (Britsh). Moved the focus from the drive toward the object. Placed emphasis on the earliest years of development, 0 - 2 years. decreased the emphasis on sexuality (Eros) and placed greater importance on aggression (Thanatos), specifically on the experience of
envy. Highlighted very early mother-infant development.
Her main foci were on:
- Internal experience and phantasy
- Internal object world
- Constitutional aspects
Viewed the Infant’s world as quasi-psychotic, fragmented.

Question 4

The Concept of Positions - Melanie Klein

Answer 4

2 - Paranoid-Schizoid and Depressive

Question 5

Paranoid Schizoid Position

Answer 5

Back to the chain, the good v. bad experience must be split from each other prior to the psychological development of integration, when the amount of good experiences significantly outweighs the bad which allows the kid to integrate. The self and others are either good or bad “part objects” who are respectively gratifying or frustrating to the infant and are not integrated into one whole object. This mode leads to persecutory anxieties: the experience that the world is not a safe place

Question 6

Defense Modes

Answer 6

Splitting, Projection, and Projection Identification

Question 7

Projection

Answer 7

Meet friend for coffee and they say ‘oh you look tired. Oh, im not tired? Your friend projected onto you something you weren’t experiencing. In projection you dont and wont feel angry

Question 8

Projection Identification

Answer 8

‘Friend says ‘you look angry, everything ok?’ ‘Yes, I’m fine (you don’t feel angry)’ Then the friend drops coffee on your lap by accident, 2mins later your friend interrupts you…now you start to feel aggravated. Now you are actually irritated. What happened? Unconsciously your friend inflicts subtle mechanisms inciting in your estate of that feeling that they initially projected into you. In projection identification, you wind up feelings what was projected onto you. It is a central concept in how we engage with our relationships

Question 9

Splitting

Answer 9

organizes early experience into simple categories. This applies to others as well as to the self. Also safeguards the “good.” Splitting is necessary early on in order to separate the good v bad experiences until the good experiences outweigh the bad and can be integrated. ‘You’re such a good therapist compared to my last therapist’ This is the split, we are now good and the past therapist is now the bad object. This could change tomorrow.

Question 10

Depressive Position

Answer 10

The individual has developed the ability to see you and the self as a whole, integrated object with good and bad objects. There is a capacity to hold the way they saw you yesterday into their mind within you today (compared to splitting). When this happens, splitting is no longer needed bc the good is significantly stronger. Fear is hurting others which will result in the individual feeling loss, their guilt. The individual then will try to repair what they believe they have wronged. Leading anxiety is guilt, individual no longer limited to primitive coping strategies.

Question 11

Development Pathology Potential

Answer 11

1st stage = psychotic pathologies, 2nd stage (splitting) = character disorders, 3rd stage = healthy individuals that struggle w/neurotic pathologies (need to juxtapoz these w/bio and environmental factors).

Question 12

Implications for Treatment (Object Relations)

Answer 12

Interpretations need to be deep to analyze the underlying anxiety, Focus on phantasies, Focus on the internal object world

Question 13

Freud v. Klein (Drives)

Answer 13

Freud: Biological forces which become
fortuitously attached to objects through post-natal experiences. Klein: Drives are inherently attached to objects. [The body is the medium by which the psychological drives of love and hate are
expressed]

Question 14

Freud v. Klein (Phantasies)

Answer 14

Freud: Phantasies emerge when instinctual
gratification is frustrated. Phantasies accompany gratification as well as frustration. They are the basic stuff of all mental processes; they are the mental representations of instincts. [Klein believed that phantasizing is an innate capacity – content is influenced by experiences but is not entirely dependent on them

Question 15

Freud v. Klein (Internal Objects)

Answer 15

Freud: Restricts the idea of internal object and
Superego to the single internalization of parental figures after going through the Oedipal stage. Klein: Internal objects and the inner world are built through the processes of introjection and projection, which she believed operate from the beginning of life.

Question 16

Freud v. Klein (Superego Development)

Answer 16

Freud: Superego development is linked to the
Oedipal complex. It emerges out of the prohibition experienced at this stage of development. Klein: Dates Superego development to earlier phases - linked to weaning.

Question 17

Freud v. Klein (Aggression)

Answer 17

Freud: Aggression was barely addressed by him,
and only as a component of the libidinal instinct. Klein: Viewed the “breast”, the mother, and parental intercourse as the main targets of projection, which are then perceived as the cruel persecutors, and therefore aggressively attacked.

Question 18

Freud v. Klein (Sexual Development)

Answer 18

Freud: Clear psychosexual stages of development, pre-determined by biology/physiology. According to him in the Oedipal stage there is an identification with one parent and desire for the other parent. Klein: Less clear about psychosexual stages. Both boys and girls go through a “feminine phase” in which out of frustration with the mother and fear of retaliation, they turn
towards the father to seek satisfaction.

Question 19

Deficit Model - Winnicott

Answer 19

Independents - Significant emphasis on the environment and its failures. Sense of self emerges from the mother-child dyad. During the early stages of life the infant
experiences extreme dependency on the primary caretaker. It is within this relationship that the creation of
the subject takes place; in the space between
mother-infant.

Question 20

True Self

Answer 20

(1960) Winnicott - True Self: A sense of self based on spontaneous authentic experiences; a feeling of being alive, real. He called this “being.” The true self, through its continuous development, leads to a sense that life is “worth living.”

Question 21

False Self

Answer 21

(1960) Winnicott - A defensive façade, which in varying
degrees, leads to feelings of emptiness and deadness. The spontaneity of the infant is encroached by the need of the infant to comply with his/her/their perceived expectations of the wishes of the parents. Throughout life the False Self is characterized by the it being driven by the overriding importance of other people’s expectations overlaying or contradicting the original self.

Question 22

Holding Environment

Answer 22

Winnicott - Not imposing

Question 23

Impingement

Answer 23

Winnicott - Attuned to the child’s needs, not what the parents want them to be. Goes the same for the patient

Question 24

Primary Maternal Preoccupation

Answer 24

Winnicott - in the first 3 months of life, the mother is ‘crazy’. Mother must disregard her own needs in order to serve the child. The first thing that goes is time.

Question 25

Transitional Object

Answer 25

Winnicott - the infant associates with the maternal functions. The space is an intermediate area between the external and the internal. Psychotherapy is thought of as a transitional area. Thinks of play as a transitional space. He thinks of dreams as a transitional space. An in-between space between the subjective experience and the objective experience.