CHAPTER 4: MELANIE KLEIN; Object Relations Theory

Object Relations Theory In addition to Klein, she Depressive Position

speculated on the importance  Infants develop a
of a child’s early experiences realistic view of their
Overview of Object
with the mother. mother, recognizing
Relation Theory
her as an
Psychic Life of an Infant independent person
 The object relations with both good and
theory of Melanie Klein Klein emphasized the
bad qualities.
was built on careful importance of the first 4-6
observations of months of life, arguing that
infants have an innate Defense Mechanism
 young children.
predisposition to reduce
 In contrast to Freud, who
anxiety due to conflict Introjection: Fantasize
emphasized the first 4 to
between life and death taking into their body those
6 years of life.
instincts. perceptions and experiences
 Klein stressed the
that they have had with the
importance of the first 4
external object.
to 6 months after birth.
PHANTASIES
Projection: The fantasy that
BIOGRAPHY Klein's theory suggests that one’s own feelings and
infants have an active impulses actually reside in
 FULL NAME: Melanie phantasy life, representing another person and not within
Reizes Klein unconscious id instincts. one’s body.
 BORN ON: March 30, These phantasies are psychic
1882 representations of "good" Splitting: Infants develop a
 DIED: September 22, and "bad" breasts. picture of both the “good me”
1960 and the “bad me” that
As infants mature, new
 FATHER: Dr. Moriz enables them to deal with
unconscious phantasies
Reizes (Physician) both pleasurable and
emerge, shaped by reality
 MOTHER: Libussa destructive impulses toward
and inherited predispositions.
Deutsch Reizes external objects.
 THREE CHILDREN: OBJECTS
Melitta (1904), Hans Projective Identification:
(1907) and Erich (1914).  Klein and Freud both Infants split off unacceptable
 FIRST BOOK believed humans parts of themselves, project
PUBLISHED: The have innate drives or them into another object, and
Psycho-Analysis of instincts, including a finally introject them back into
Children (Klein, 1932) death instinct. From themselves in a changed or
infancy, children distorted form.
OBJECT RELATIONS relate to external
THEORY objects, both in
fantasy and reality.
Object relations theory is an Internalizations
offspring of Freud’s instinct POSITIONS
theory, but it differs from its Ego: Klein offered a unique
Klein posited that human perspective on the ego,
ancestor in at least three
highlighting its early formation,
general ways: infants constantly face a
connection to early object
conflict between life and
relations, and the use of defense
 Consistent patterns death instincts, involving mechanisms in infancy.
of interpersonal good and bad, love and hate,
relationships. creativity and destruction. Superego: Klein saw the
 More maternal, superego as a complex internal
stressing the Paranoid-Schizoid Position structure formed early on,
intimacy and  This position involves reflecting both positive and
nurturing of the a split of internal and negative aspects of our primary
relationships.
mother. external objects into
 Human contact and good and bad, Oedipus Complex: Klien
relatedness—not causing paranoid believed that it is formed around
sexual pleasure—as feelings of being 6 months of age into the first
the prime motive of persecuted. year of life. It's rooted in the
human behavior. infant's earliest struggles with
love, hate, and frustration
experienced with the primary
caregiver.

1
CHAPTER 4: MELANIE KLEIN; Object Relations Theory
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:
1. DIFFERENTIATION,
2. PRACTICING,
3. RAPPROACHMENT
4. LIBIDINAL OBJECT
CONSTANCY.
HEINZ KOHUT’S VIEW
Kohut emphasized the PSYCHOTHERAPY
process by which the self - Kleinian therapy aims to
evolves from a vague and reduce depressive
undifferentiated image to a anxieties and persecutory
clear and precise sense of fears by allowing patients
individual identity. According to re-experience early
to Kohut, infants are naturally emotions and fantasies,
narcissistic. allowing them to
understand the
John Bowlby connection between
unconscious fantasies
ATTACHMENT THEORY - and everyday situations.
Bowlby’s attachment theory
also departed from John
Bowlby psychoanalytic RELATED RESEARCH
thinking by taking childhood - Object Relations and
as its starting point and then Eating Disorder
extrapolating forward to - Attachment Theory
adulthood. and Adult
Relationship
- Bowlby observed three
stages of this
CRITIQUE OF OBJECT
separation anxiety:
RELATIONS THEORY
Protest stage, Despair
stage, Detachment - The object relations
stage. theory, influenced by the
"British School" including
Mary Ainsworth Melanie Klein and others,
Strange Situation: developed is more popular in the UK
a technique for measuring the than in the US.
type of attachment style that - The theory has a low rate
exists between caregiver and of research generation
infant. due to its reliance on
orthodox psychoanalytic
Three attachment style theory and its inability to
ratings: secure, anxious- generate testable
resistant, and avoidant. hypotheses.
- Rated low on parsimony,
SECURE ATTACHMENT
with complex phrases
STYLE
and concepts used by
some theorists.
- In a secure attachment,
when their mother
returns, infants are happy
and enthusiastic and
initiate contact.
ANXIOUS-RESISTANT
ATTACHMENT STYLE
- In an anxious-resistant
attachment style, infants
are ambivalent.
ANXIOUS-AVOIDANT
ATTACHMENT STYLE
- With this style, infants
stay calm when their
mother leaves; they
accept the stranger, and
when their mother
returns, they ignore and
avoid her.