Object Relations Theories
Klein, Mahler, Kohut, Bowlby
…
• Object Relations Theories has its roots
partly in the Psychoanalytic Perspective
• Theorists became increasingly aware
that personality is essentially social
• Built on careful observations of young
children
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Object Relations Theory
Related to Freud’s theory but differs in
three important ways
• Less emphasis on biologically based drives, more
importance on consistent patterns of
interpersonal relationships
• Stresses maternal nurturing and intimacy
• Views relatedness as the prime motive of human
behavior
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Object Relation Theories
• Theories focusing on relations with
others
• Bonds with other people are important
in their own right; not necessarily to
satisfy the id
• These bonds are a basic ego function
and personality’s main focus
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…
• Main theme:
how infants interact with care givers
and
how affected by care givers/other
people
• Adult personality is a reflection of the
infancy
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Object Relation Theories
• «Object» refers to a «person»
• Many theories with some overlap:
– Patterns of relating to others established
in early childhood
– Patterns recur throughout life
– Object relations developed very early in
life are CRITICAL to establishing healthy
and meaningful object relationship in
adulthood
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…
• Mental representations formed in
childhood, influence one’s experiences in
new relationships
“residues of past experience….shape
later perceptions of individuals and
relationships”
Michael St. Clair, 1986
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…
• Issues of trust diffuse all theories
– Object relation theories imply a sense of
trust required for an investment of energy
in others
– Trust is a key issue in secure attachment
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Melanie Klein (1882-1960)
• Born in Vienna in 1882
• Complex family relationships
• Met Sandor Ferenczi in 1909
– Read «On Dreams» in 1914
– Deeply taken by psychoanalysis
and trained her son according to
Freudian principles
– First in Freud’s circle to
psychoanalyze children directly
– Slight divergence from standard
psychoanalytic therapy, moved to
England in 1926
– «The Psycho-Analysis of
Children» was published in 1932
• Died in England in 1960
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Psychic Life of the Infant
Phantasies
• Infants possess an active phantasy life
• Most basic phantasies are of what is “good” and
“bad”, for example, good and bad breast
Objects
• Instincts have an object
• Objects are introjected or taken into a child’s
fantasy world and have a life of their own
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Positions
Paranoid-Schizoid Position
• Organizing experiences in a way that includes
both feelings of persecution and splitting of
internal and external objects into the good and
the bad
Depressive Position
• Anxiety over losing a loved object
• Sense of guilt for wanting to destroy a loved
object
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Psychic Defense Mechanisms
• Introjection
• Projection
• Splitting
• Projective Identification
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Margaret Mahler (1897-1985)
• Born in Hungary
• Medical degree form
Vienna in 1923,
moved to New York
in 1938
• Children’s Service of
the New York State
Psychiatric Institute
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Margaret Mahler’s View of Object
Relations
• Observed normal babies as they bonded
with their mothers during the first 36
months of life, psychological birth
• Examined change from security to
autonomy
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…
• Children pass through a series of three
major developmental stages
• Normal autism, from birth until age three
or four weeks
• Normal symbiosis, fourth week to fifth
month: Initial state of infant—fusion or
symbiosis with mother
• Differentiation between self and mother
does not exist
• Separation-individuation, fifth to 36th
month
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…
• Development represents a process of
separation- individuation
– This need is in conflict with need to be taken care
of
– If process goes too fast = separation anxiety
– At age 3, stable representation of mother develops
derived from experiences
– Uses image as lens to view mother in future
– Uses image to generalize to other people
• These patterns form the core of adult
patterns of relationships
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Heinz Kohut (1913-1981)
• Born in Vienna
• During World War II
emigrated to USA
• Neurologist and
psychoanalyst
• Concept of «Self»
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Heinz Kohut’s View of Object
Relations
• Emphasized the process of development
of the self
• In caring for infants’ physical and
psychological needs, adults or self-
objects treat them as if they had a
sense of self
• Kohut defined self as the “center of the
individual’s psychological universe”
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Self Psychology (Heinz Kohut)
• Relationships create the structure for
the self
• Initial needs involving others
(selfobject) are narcissistic
• Responding to a child’s narcissistic
needs in an empathic accepting way
establishes a sense of self
• Emphatic mirroring: providing attention
and praise to children during the
establishment of the sense of self
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…
Early self is characterized by two
narcissistic needs
• Need to exhibit the grandiose self
• Need to acquire an idealized image of parents
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…
• Grandiosity eventually evolves into
ambition and self-esteem
• Failures of mirroring damage adequate
sense of self
• Love illustrates an adult form of
mirroring—people represent self
objects for each other and demonstrate
mutual mirroring
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…
• According to Kohut a healthy
personality can occur when;
individuals combine their talents, goals and
desire for success with the support of
significant selfobjects who provide
empathic mirroring
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John Bowlby (1907-1990)
• Born in London
• Received medical
degree in 1933
• Trained in child
psychiatry under
Klein
• During World War
II served as army
psychiatrist
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John Bowlby’s Attachment
Theory
• Realized that object relations theory
could be integrated with an evolutionary
perspective
• Childhood was the starting point
• By studying human and other primate
infants, he observed three stages of
separation anxiety
• Protest, despair, and detachment
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Attachment Theory
• Attachment—basic element of human
nature involving an emotional connection
to others
• John Bowlby proposed that many infant
behaviors serve the biological purpose
of keeping the infant in close proximity
to its mother.
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…
Two fundamental assumptions
• Responsive and accessible caregiver must
create a secure base for the child
• Bonding relationship becomes internalized
and acts as model for future relationships
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…
• Infant attachment
– Carries survival benefits (proximity
maintenance)
– Develops as mother (caretaker) responds to
infant’s needs and provides a secure base
from which the infant can explore the
world and retreat from threat
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…
• When caregivers are responsive and
dependable, the infant develops a sense
of security.
• During development, the child builds
“working models” of the self and others
based on experiences with the
caregiver.
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Working Models
• Working models are mental
conceptualizations /mental
representations that individual have
about themselves, others and their
relationships with these others
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…
Sensitive, responsive care giving develop
Positive working models of self:
I am loveable
Positive working models of others:
People are dependable
Neglectful care giving develop
Negative working models of self:
I am unworthy
Negative working models of others:
People cannot be trusted
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Mary Ainsworth and the
Strange Situation
• Mary Ainsworth’s “strange situation” –
infant left alone with a stranger until the
mother returns
– Secure attachment – normal distress at
mother’s leaving; happy enthusiasm at return
– Insecure attachments:
• Anxious-resistent (ambivalent) attachment – great
distress at mother’s leaving; ambivalent response-
approach, rejection and anger- at return (proximity-
seeking, but won’t be soothed)
• Anxious-avoidant attachment – stays calm at mother
‘s leaving; ignores /avoidance and rejection at return
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Adult Attachment Patterns
• Idea that working models of relationships
developed in childhood, carry over into adulthood
(Hazan and Shaver)
– Relationships of Secure people:
• More happy; friendly; trusting; longer lasting
• Mental model of love: It’s real and it stays
– Relationships of Avoidant people:
• Less accepting of lovers’ imperfections
• Mental model of love: Romantic love doesn’t last
– Relationships of Ambivalent people
• Obsessive; preoccupied; extremes of emotions, sexual
attraction, and jealousy; love at first sight
• Mental model of love: Falling in love is easy, but doesn’t last
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Alternate Conceptualization
of Adult Attachment
• Two dimensional approach
– Self (positive vs. negative) / Other (trustworthy
vs. not trustworthy)
– Anxiety (high/low) / Avoidance (high/low)
Self (anxiety)
Positive (low) Negative (high)
Trustworthy
Secure Preoccupied
(low)
Other
(Avoidance)
Not
trustworthy Dismissing Fearful
(high)
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Problems in Behavior
• Problems are rooted in relationship
issues
• Narcissism may stem from inadequate
childhood mirroring (Kohut)
• Insecure attachment creates risk for
psychopathology
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Assessment
• Since childhood experience is seen as an
important determinant of adult
behavior, emphasis is on childhood
assessment
– Play as a means of assessment allows
expression of concerns not possible with
words
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Psychotherapy
• Play therapy: Helping children express
their thoughts and feelings through the
use of free-play activities
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Psychotherapy
• Emphasis on role of relationships
• Desire to restore sense of
connectedness with others
• Therapist uses role to allow patient to
reorganize problematic parts of self and
ways of relating to others
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