Object Relations Theory FIRST BOOK PUBLISHED: The
Psycho-Analysis of Children (Klein,
Overview of Object Relation
Theory
The object relations theory of
Melanie Klein was built on careful
observations of
young children.
In contrast to Freud, who
emphasized the first 4 to 6 years of
life.
Klein stressed the importance of the
first 4 to 6 months after birth.
BIOGRAPHY
FULL NAME: Melanie Reizes Klein
BORN ON: March 30, 1882
DIED: September 22, 1960
FATHER: Dr. Moriz Reizes
(Physician)
MOTHER: Libussa Deutsch Reizes
THREE CHILDREN: Melitta (1904),
Hans (1907) and Erich (1914).
due to conflict between life and
death instincts.
1932)
OBJECT RELATIONS THEORY
PHANTASIES
Object relations theory is an
Klein's theory suggests that infants
offspring of Freud’s instinct theory,
have an active phantasy life,
but it differs from its ancestor in at
representing unconscious id
least three general ways:
instincts. These phantasies are
 Consistent patterns of psychic representations of "good"
interpersonal and "bad" breasts.
relationships.
As infants mature, new unconscious
 More maternal, stressing
phantasies emerge, shaped by
the intimacy and nurturing
reality and inherited predispositions.
of the mother.
 Human contact and OBJECTS
relatedness—not sexual
pleasure—as the prime  Klein and Freud both
believed humans have innate
motive of human behavior.
drives or instincts, including
In addition to Klein, she speculated a death instinct. From
on the importance of a child’s early infancy, children relate to
experiences with the mother. external objects, both in
fantasy and reality.
Psychic Life of an Infant
POSITIONS
Klein emphasized the importance of
the first 4-6 months of life, arguing
that infants have an innate
predisposition to reduce anxiety
Klein posited that human infants
constantly face a conflict between
life and death instincts, involving
good and bad, love and hate,
creativity and destruction.
Paranoid-Schizoid Position
 This position involves a split
of internal and external
objects into good and bad,
causing paranoid feelings of
being persecuted.
Depressive Position
 Infants develop a realistic
view of their mother,
recognizing her as an
independent person with
both good and bad
qualities.
Defense Mechanism
Introjection: Fantasize taking into
their body those perceptions and
experiences that they have had with
the external object.
Projection: The fantasy that one’s
own feelings and impulses actually
reside in another person and not
within one’s body.
Splitting: Infants develop a picture
of both the “good me” and the “bad
me” that enables them to deal with
both pleasurable and destructive
impulses toward external objects.
Projective Identification: Infants
split off unacceptable parts of
themselves, project them into
another object, and finally introject
them back into themselves in a
changed or distorted form.
Internalizations
Ego: Klein offered a unique
perspective on the ego, highlighting
its early formation, connection to
early object relations, and the use
of defense mechanisms in infancy.
Superego: Klein saw the superego
as a complex internal structure
formed early on, reflecting both
positive and negative aspects of our
primary relationships.
Oedipus Complex: Klien believed
that it is formed around 6 months of
age into the first year of life. It's
rooted in the infant's earliest
struggles with love, hate, and
frustration experienced with the
primary caregiver.
Female Oedipal Development
 Earlier onset of the Oedipus
complex.
 Greater emphasis on pre-
Oedipal attachment to the
mother.
 The central role of
aggression and anxiety.
Male Oedipal Development
 For Klein, it's less about
sexual possession of the
mother and more about
managing powerful anxieties
arising from love-hate
feelings and the fear of
punishment.
LATER VIEWS ON OBJECT
RELATIONS
MARGARET MAHLER
To Mahler, an individual’s
psychological birth begins during
the first weeks of postnatal life and
continues for the next 3 years or so.
To achieve psychological birth and
individuation, a child proceeds
through a series of three major
developmental stages and four
substages
1. NORMAL AUTISM (from
birth until about age 3 or 4
weeks)
2. NORMAL SYMBIOSIS (4th
or 5th week of age but
reaches its zenith during the
4th or 5th month)
3. SEPARATION –
INDIVIDUATION (4th or 5th
month of age until about the
30th to 36th month)
SUBSTAGES:
DIFFERENTIATION,
PRACTICING,
RAPPROACHMENT, AND
LIBIDINAL OBJECT CONSTANCY.
HEINZ KOHUT’S VIEW
Kohut emphasized the process by
which the self evolves from a vague
and undifferentiated image to a
clear and precise sense of
individual identity. According to
Kohut, infants are naturally
narcissistic.
John Bowlby ANXIOUS-RESISTANT
ATTACHMENT STYLE
ATTACHMENT THEORY -
Bowlby’s attachment theory also - In an anxious-resistant
departed from John Bowlby attachment style, infants are
psychoanalytic thinking by taking ambivalent.
childhood as its starting point and
ANXIOUS-AVOIDANT
then extrapolating forward to
ATTACHMENT STYLE
adulthood.
- With this style, infants stay
- Bowlby observed three
calm when their mother
stages of this separation
leaves; they accept the
anxiety: Protest stage,
stranger, and when their
Despair stage, Detachment
mother returns, they ignore
stage.
and avoid her.
Mary Ainsworth
PSYCHOTHERAPY
Strange Situation: developed a - Kleinian therapy aims to
technique for measuring the type of reduce depressive anxieties
attachment style that exists and persecutory fears by
between caregiver and infant. allowing patients to re-
experience early emotions
Three attachment style ratings: and fantasies, allowing them
secure, anxious-resistant, and to understand the connection
avoidant. between unconscious
fantasies and everyday
SECURE ATTACHMENT STYLE
situations.
- In a secure attachment,
when their mother returns,
RELATED RESEARCH
infants are happy and
enthusiastic and initiate - Object Relations and Eating
contact. Disorder
- Attachment Theory and Adult
Relationship

CRITIQUE OF OBJECT
RELATIONS THEORY

- The object relations theory,

influenced by the "British
School" including Melanie
Klein and others, is more
popular in the UK than in the
US.
- The theory has a low rate of
research generation due to
its reliance on orthodox
psychoanalytic theory and its
inability to generate testable
hypotheses.
- Rated low on parsimony,
with complex phrases and
concepts used by some
theorists.