KLEIN: OBJECT RELATIONS THEORY

PSYCH 303 – THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

MELANIE KLEIN: OBJECT RELATIONS THEORY  Youngest child of Dr. Moriz Reizes and Libussa
Deutsch.
TOPIC OUTLINE o Klein believed that her birth was unplanned – a
1 Overview of Object Relations Theory belief that led to feelings of being rejected by
2 Biography of Melanie Klein her parents.
3 Introduction to Object Relation Theory o Felt especially distant to her father.
4 Psychic Life of the Infant o Klein grew up in a family that was neither pro-
5 Positions religious nor anti-religious.
6 Psychic Defense Mechanisms  Klein’s early relationships were either unhealthy or
7 Internalizations ended in tragedy.
8 Later Views on Object Relations  felt neglected by father; loved and idolized her
9 Psychotherapy mother but felt suffocated by her.
11 Concept of Humanity o never got over the grieving of her sister Sidonie.
o Emmanuel became her confidant; idolized her
brother and this infatuation may have
OVERVIEW OF OBJECT RELATIONS THEORY contributed to her later difficulties in relating
with men.
 Object relations theory was built on careful  Father died when she was 18.
observations of young children.  Brother died when she was 20
 Klein stressed the importance of the first 4 to 6  Klein did not have a happy marriage; dreaded sex and
months after birth. abhorred pregnancy.
o Infants’ drives (hunger, sex, etc) are directed  Children: Melitta (1904); Hans (1907); Erich (1914);
to an object – a breast, a penis, a vagina.  Sandor Ferenczi – introduced her to psychoanalysis
- the child’s relation to the breast is o At about the time that she discovered Freud,
fundamental and serves as a prototype for her youngest child, Erich, was born. Klein was
later relations of whole objects such as deeply taken by psychoanalysis and trained her
mother and father. son according to Freudian principles.
- the infants’ early tendency to relate to o Began to psychoanalyze Erich since he was very
partial objects gives their experiences an young.
unrealistic or fantasy-like quality that affects  Established a psychoanalytic practice in Berlin and
all later interpersonal relations. made her first contributions to the psychoanalytic
 MARGARET MAHLER - children’s sense of identity literature with a paper dealing with her analysis of
rests on a three-step relationship with their mother. Erich (not revealed until after her death).
o First, infants have basic needs cared for by  Began analysis with Karl Abraham
their mother. o Terminated after 14 months and she decided
o Then they develop a safe symbiotic to pursue self-analysis which she continued for
relationship with an all-powerful mother. the remained of her life.
o Finally emerge from their mother’s protective  Melanie Klein changed the situation of psychoanalysis
circle and establish their separate because she started psychoanalyzing children directly.
individuality. o Convinced her that children internalize both
 HEINZ KOHUT - children develop a sense of self during positive and negative feelings toward their
early infancy when parents and others treat them as if mother and that they develop a superego
they had an individualized sense of identity. much earlier than Freud believed.
 JOHN BOWLBY - investigated infants’ attachment to
their mother as well as the negative consequences of INTRODUCTION TO OBJECT RELATIONS THEORY
being separated from their mother.  Offspring of Freud’s Instinct Theory
 MARY AINSWORTH - developed a technique for o Differs in several ways:
measuring the type of attachment.  Object relations theory places LESS
EMPHASIS on biologically-based drives and
BIOGRAPHY OF MELANIE KLEIN MORE IMPORTANCE on CONSISTENT
 Born Melanie Reizes Klein. PATTERNS OF INTERPERSONAL
 March 30, 1882 ; Vienna, Austria. RELATIONSHIPS.
  Object relations theory tends to be more o because these phantasies are
maternal, stressing the intimacy and UNCONSCIOUS, they CAN BE
nurturing of the mother. CONTRADICTORY.
 Objects relations theorists generally see
human contact and relatedness – not OBJECTS  humans have innate drives or instincts.
sexual pleasure – as the prime motive of o humans have innate drives or
human behaviour. instincts.
 Drives are felt by the person and although they may o drives must have some OBJECT.
have separate aims, their underlying aim is always the o hunger drive as the good breast
same – to reduce tension (through the OBJECT). as its object, the sex drive has a
o object relations theorists start from this sexual organ as its object.
assumption and concentrated on how the infant’s o from early infancy, children
real or fantasized early relations with the mother relate to these external objects,
or the breast become a model for all later both in fantasy and reality.
interpersonal relationships.  in their active fantasy, infants
 an important portion of any relationship is the internal INTROJECT, or take into their psychic
psychic representations of early significant objects, structure, these external objects,
such as the mother’s breast or the father’s penis, that including their father’s penis, their
have been introjected , or taken into the infant’s mother’s hands and face, and other
psychic structure, and then PROJECTED onto one’s body parts.
partner. o o introjected objects are more
than internal thoughts about
external objects, they are
fantasies of internalizing the
PSYCHIC LIFE OF THE INFANT
object in concrete and physical
 stressed the important of the first 4 to 6 months. terms.
o infants begin life with an INHERITED
PREDISPOSITION to reduce the anxiety they
experience as a result of the conflict produced
by the forces of the life instinct and the power of POSITIONS
the death instinct.  human infants are constantly engaging in a basic
o this innate readiness to act presupposed the conflict between the life instinct and death instinct,
existence of PHYLOGENETIC ENDOWMENT. that is, between good and bad, love and hate,
creativity and destruction.
PHANTASIES  the infant even at birth possesses an o as the ego moves TOWARDS INTEGRATION,
active phantasy life. infants normally prefer gratifying sensations
o psychic representations of over frustrating ones.
unconscious id instincts.  in an ATTEMPT to deal with this dichotomy of good
 infants possess unconscious images and bad feelings, infants organize their experiences
of “good” and “bad”. into positions – or ways of dealing with both internal
o e.g. full stomach is “good” and external objects.
while empty stomach is “bad”.
 positions alternate back and forth.
 as the infant matures, unconscious o these are not periods of time or phases of
phantasies connected with the development through which a person passes.
breast continue to exert an impact o Klein intended these positions to represent
on psychic life, but newer ones NORMAL SOCIAL GROWTH and development.
emerge as well.
 Two basic positions: (1) paranoid-schizoid; and (2)
o phantasies are shaped by both
depressive position.
reality and by inherited
predispositions. PARANOID-  During the early months of life, the
o one of these phantasies is the SCHIZOID infant comes in to contact with
Oedipus Complex - child’s wish POSITION both the good breast and the bad
to destroy one parent and breast
sexually possess the other.

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 o These alternating experiences  Ambivalent feelings are not limited
of GRATIFICATION and to therapy situations.
FRUSTRATION threaten the o Most people have both positive
very existence of the infant’s and negative feelings toward
vulnerable ego. their loved ones.
o The infant desires to control  When adults adopt the paranoid-
the breast by devouring and schizoid position, they do so in a
harboring it. At the same time, primitive, unconscious fashion.
the infant’s innate destructive o May experience themselves as a
urges create fantasies of passive rather than an active
damaging the breast by biting, subject.
tearing or annihilating it.  Other people project their
o In order to tolerate both these unconscious paranoid feelings onto
feelings toward the same others as a means of avoiding their
object at the same time, the own destruction by the malevolent
ego splits itself, retaining parts breast.
of its life and death instincts o Other people project their
while deflecting parts of both unconscious paranoid feelings
instincts onto the breast. onto others as a means of
o Rather than fearing its own avoiding their own destruction
death instinct, the infant fears by the malevolent breast.
the persecutory breast. DEPRESSIVE  5th or 6th month  infants begin to
o The infant also has a POSITION view external objects as whole and
relationship with the ideal toe see that good and bad can exist in
breast – which provides love, the same person.
comfort, and gratification. o Infants develop a more realistic
o The infant desires to keep the view of the mother.
ideal breast inside itself as a o Infants develop a more realistic
protection against annihilation view of the mother.
by persecutors.  The ego is also beginning to mature
 A way of organizing experiences that to the point at which it can tolerate
includes both paranoid feelings of some of its own destructive feelings
being persecuted and a splitting of rather than projecting them outward.
internal and external objects into the o However, the infant also realizes
good and bad. that the mother might go away
 During the first 3-4 months, the ego’s and be lost forever – thus the
perception of the external world is infant desires to protect her
subjective and fantastic rather than from the dangers of its own
objective and real. destructive forces.
o Persecutory feelings are o The infant’s ego is mature
considered to be paranoid. enough to realize that it lacks
o In the child’s schizoid world, the capacity to protect the
rage and destructive feelings are mother, and thus the infant
directed towards the bad breast, experiences guilt for its own
while feelings of love and destructive urges toward the
comfort are associated with the mother.
bad breast.  The feelings of anxiety over losing a
 Infants have a biological loved object coupled with a sense of
predisposition to attach a positive guilt for wanting to destroy that
value to nourishment and the life object.
instinct and to assign a negative o Recognize that the loved object
value to hunger and death instinct. and the hated object are now
one and the same.

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 o Reproach themselves for their  When DANGEROUS OBJECTS ARE
previous destructive urges
INTROJECTED, they become INTERNAL
toward their mother and desire
PERSECUTORS, capable of terrifying the
to make reparation for these
attacks. infant and leaving frightening residues that
o Through this, they are able to may be expressed in dreams or in an
feel EMPATHY towards the interest in fairy tales.
mother.
 The depressive position is resolved  PROJECTION
when children fantasize that they have  Fantasy that one’s own feelings and
made reparation for their previous impulses actually reside in another
transgressions and when they
person and not within one’s body
recognize that their mother will not go
away permanently but will return after o By projecting unmanageable
each departure. destructive impulses onto external
o Children close the split between objects, infants alleviate the
the good and bad mother. unbearable anxiety of being
o Children close the split between destroyed by dangerous internal
the good and bad mother.
o An INCOMPLETE RESOLUTION
forces.
of the depressive position can  Children project both good and bad
result in lack of trust, morbid images onto external objects,
mourning at the loss of a loved especially their parents.
one, and a variety of other  People also project good objects.
psychic disorders.
o Adults sometimes project their
PSYCHIC DEFENSE MECHANISMS own feelings of love onto another
person and become convinced that
the other person loves them.
 From very early infancy, children adopt several
o Allows people to believe that their
psychic defense mechanisms to protect their ego
against the anxiety aroused by their own
own subjective opinions are true
destructive fantasies.
 SPLITTING
o These intense destructive feelings originate
within oral-sadistic anxieties concerning the  Keeping apart incompatible impulses.
breast – the dreaded, destructive breast and  Can have a POSITIVE and NEGATIVE
the satisfying, helpful breast. effect on the child
o If splitting is not extreme or rigid, it
 INTROJECTION can be a positive and useful
 Infants fantasize taking into their body mechanism not only for infants but
those perceptions and experiences that also for adults.
they have had with the external object, o Enables people to see both positive
originally the mother’s breast. and negative aspects of themselves, to
o Begins with the infants’ first feeding. evaluate their behavior as good or
 Infant tries to introject good objects, to bad, and to differentiate between
take them inside itself as a protection likeable and unlikeable acquaintances.
against anxiety. o Excessive and inflexible splitting can
lead to pathological repression.

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 o BAD BREAST – one that is not
 When children cannot accept the fact present and does not give
their own bad behavior, they must then milk, love or security.
deal with destructive and terrifying  The infant introjects both the good
breast and the bad breast, and
impulses in the only way they can – by
these images provide a focal point
REPRESSING them.
for further expansion of the ego.
o The infant’s fist object relation
 PROJECTIVE IDENTIFICATION (the breast) becomes the
 Infants split off unacceptable parts of prototype not only for the
themselves, project them onto another ego’s future development but
object, and finally introject them back for the individual’s later
into themselves in a changed or distorted interpersonal relations
form.  Before a UNIFIED EGO can emerge,
o By taking the object back into it must first become split.
themselves, infants feel that they o Infants innately strive for
have become like that object. integration, but at the same
time, they are forced to deal
 Projective identification exists only in the
with the opposing forces of
world of real interpersonal relationships.
life and death.
o E.g. man with unwanted impulses to o To avoid disintegration, the
dominate others may project those newly emerging ego must split
feelings into the wife who he will see itself into the good me and
as domineering.  he then behaves the bad me.
with excessive submissiveness in an  As infants mature, their
attempt to force his wife to display perceptions become more
the very tendencies that he has realistic, they no longer see the
deposited in her. world in terms of partial objects,
and their egos become more
integrated.

SUPEREGO  Three important aspects where

INTERNALIZATIONS
Klein’s superego differed from
 A person introjects (takes in) aspects of the external
Freud’s.
world and then organizes those introjections into a
o Emerges much earlier in life.
psychologically meaningful framework.
o NOT an outgrowth of the
Oedipus Complex.
EGO  One’s SENSE OF SELF.
o Much more harsh and cruel.
 Klein ignored the id in her theory,
 The early superego produces not
and based her theory on the ego’s
guilt but terror.
early ability to sense both
 The answer resides with the
destructive and loving forces and
INFANT’S own DESTRUCTIVE
to manage them through splitting,
INSTINCT, which is expressed as
projection and introjection.
ANXIETY.
 Although the ego is mostly
o To manage this anxiety, the
unorganized at birth, it
child’s ego mobilizes libido
nevertheless is strong enough to
(life instinct) against the death
feel anxiety, to use defense
instinct.
mechanisms and to form early
o However, the life and death
object relations in both phantasy
instinct cannot be completely
and reality.
separated, so the ego is forced
o GOOD BREAST – fills infant
to DEFEND itself against its
not only with milk but with
own actions.
love and security.

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 o The superego’s extreme o Fantasizes her father’s penis
violence is a reaction to the feed her mother with riches,
ego’s aggressive selfdefense including babies.
against itself against its own o She develops a positive
destructive tendencies. relationship with the penis
o The harsh, cruel, superego is and fantasizes that her father
responsible for many will fill her body with babies.
antisocial and criminal o If the female oedipal stage
tendencies in adults. proceeds smoothly, the little
 By the 5th or 6th year, the girl adopts a “feminine”
superego arouses little anxiety but position and has a positive
a great measure of guilt. relationship with both
o Lost most of its severity while parents.
gradually being transformed  Under less ideal circumstances,
into a realistic conscience. the little girl will see her mother as
a rival and will fantasize robbing
TYPES OF OEDIPUS COMPLEX her mother of her father’s penis
OEDIPUS  Begins at a much earlier age. and stealing her mother’s babies.
COMPLEX o Begins during the earliest o Produces a paranoid fear that
months of life, overlaps with her mother will retaliate
the oral and anal stages, and against her.
reaches its climax during the  The little girl’s PRINCIPAL ANXIETY
genital stage around 3-4 years comes from a fear that the inside
old. of her body has been injured by
 A significant part of the Oedipus her mother, an anxiety that can be
complex is children’s fear of alleviated only when she later
realization from their parent for gives birth to a healthy baby.
their fantasy of emptying the o Penis envy stems from the
parent’s body. little girl’s wish to internalize
o Stress the importance of her father’s penis to receive a
children retaining positive baby from him.
feelings toward BOTH parents, MALE OEDIPAL  The little boy sees his mother’s
that is, to establish a positive DEVELOPMENT breast as both good and bad.
attitude with the good or o During the early months of
gratifying object (breast or Oedipal development, a boy
penis) and to avoid the bad or shifts some of his oral desires
terrifying object. from his mother’s breast to
o Children of EITHER GENDER his father’s penis.
can direct their love either o At this time, the little boy is in
alternately or simultaneously his feminine position  he
toward each parent. adopts a passive homosexual
o Children are capable of both attitude toward his father.
homosexual and heterosexual o He moves to a heterosexual
relations. relationship with his mother 
FEMALE OEDIPAL  A little girl sees her mother’s but because of his previous
DEVELOPMENT breast as both “good and bad”. homosexual feeling for his
o 6 months of age – begins to father, he has no fear that his
view the breast as more father will castrate him.
positive than negative. o Passive homosexual position
o Sees her whole mother as full is a PREREQUISITE for the
of good things, and this boy’s development of a
attitude leads her to imagine healthy heterosexual
how babies are made. relationship with his mother.

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  He develops oral-sadistic impulses  To Mahler, an individual’s psychological birth
toward his father and wants to begins during the first weeks of postnatal life and
bite off his penis and to murder continues for the next 3 years or so.
him. o PSYCHOLOGICAL BIRTH - the child becomes an
o Feelings arouse castration individual separate from his or her primary
anxiety and the fear that the caregiver.
father will retaliate against o An accomplishment that leads ultimately to a
him by biting off his penis. SENSE OF IDENTITY
 The boy’s Oedipus complex is  To achieve psychological birth and individuation, a
resolved only partially by his child proceeds through a series of THREE MAJOR
castration anxiety. DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES and FOUR substages.
o A more important factor is his
ability to establish positive  NORMAL AUTISM
relationships with both  birth until about 3-4 weeks.
parents at the same time.  A newborn infant satisfies various needs
 For both boys and girls, a healthy within the all-powerful protective orbit of a
resolution of the Oedipus complex mother’s care.
depends on their ability to allow  Neonates have a sense of omnipotence –
their mother and father to come since their needs are cared for automatically
together and to have sexual and without their having to expend any
intercourse with each other. effort.
 People are born with TWO  Period of absolute primary narcissism in
STRONG DRIVES – the life instinct which an infant is unaware of any other
and death instinct . person.
o Infants develop a passionate  “Objectless” stage - the infant naturally
caring for the good breast and searches for the mother’s breast.
an intense hatred for the bad
breast.  NORMAL SYMBIOSIS
o Because of this, it causes the  begins when an infant realizes that they
person to struggle a lifetime cannot satisfy their own needs.
to reconcile these unconscious  They begin to recognize their PRIMARY
psychic images of good and CAREGIVER and to seek a symbiotic
bad, pleasure and pain. relationship with her.
o Most crucial stage of life is the  “the infant behaves and functions as though
first few months. he and his mother were an omnipotent
system – a dual unity within one common
boundary”.
 NOT A TRUE SYMBIOSIS – although the
LATER VIEWS ON OBJECT RELATIONS
infant’s life is dependent on the mother, the
mother does not absolutely need the infant
1. MARGARET MAHLER’S VIEW
o Symbiosis is characterized by a mutual
 Sopron, Hungary
cuing of infant and mother.
 1923 – Medical degree from University of Vienna
 Infant can recognize the mother’s face and
 Established her own observational studies at the
can perceive her pleasure or distress.
Masters Children’s Center in New York.
 Established her own observational studies at the
 SEPARATION-INDIVIDUATION
Masters Children’s Center in New York.
 4th/5th month of age until about the 30th
o A child gradually surrenders security for
to the 60th month.
autonomy.
 Children become psychologically separated
 Mahler’s theory came from her observations of
from their mother, achieve a sense of
disturbed children interacting with their mothers.
individuation, and begin to develop feelings
of personal identity.

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 o They must surrender their delusion of their mother and to develop other object
omnipotence and face their relationships.
vulnerability to external threats.
o Experience the external world as being  the strength of this theory is its ELEGANT
more dangerous than it was during the DESCRIPTION of Psychological Birth based on
first two stages. empirical observations that she and her colleagues
made on child-mother interactions.
 FOUR OVERLAPPING STAGES  any errors made during the first 3 years – the time of
 DIFFERENTATION psychological birth may result in later regressions to a
 5th to 7th-10th month stage when a person had not yet achieved separation
 Bodily breaking away from the mother- from the mother and thus a sense of personal
infant symbiotic orbit. identity.
 Psychologically healthy infants who expand
their world beyond the mother will be
curious about stranger and will inspect
them. 2. HEINZ KOHUT’S VIEW
 Unhealthy infant will fear strangers and  Vienna ; settled in the US
recoil from them.  “The Analysis of the Self” – replaced the ego with the
concept of self.
 PRACTICING  Kohut emphasized the process by which the self
 7th to 10th month until 15th to 16th month. evolves from a vague and undifferentiated image to a
 Physically begin to move away from their clear and precise sense of individual identity.
others by crawling and walking. o Focused on the early mother-child relationship as
 Distinguish their body from their mother’s, the key to understanding later development.
establish a specific bond with their mother, o Human relatedness, not innate instinctual drives,
and begin to develop an autonomous ego. are at the core of human personality.
 During the early stages, they do not like to  Infants require adult caregivers not only to gratify
lose sight of their mother. physical needs but also to satisfy basic psychological
needs.
 RAPPROCHEMENT o Adults are SELF-OBJECTS.
 16 to 25 months. o Adults treat infants like they had a sense of self.
 Desire to bring their mother and themselves o E.g. people will act with warmth, coldness, or
back together. indifference depending in part on their infant’s
 Want to share with their mother every new behaviour.
acquisition of skill and every new  Through EMPHATIC REACTION – infant takes in the
experience. self-object’s responses as pride, guilt, shame, or envy.
 More likely to show ANXIETY at this stage. o All attitudes that eventually form the building
 Their increased cognitive skills makes them blocks of the self.
more aware of their separateness.  SELF- the center of the individual’s psychological
 Children at this stage often fight universe.
dramatically with their mother. o Gives unity and consistency to one’s experiences,
remains relatively stable over time.
 LIBIDINAL OBJECT o The center of initiative and a recipient of
impressions.
 3rd year of life
 Infants are naturally narcissistic
 Children must develop a constant inner
o Self-centered, looking out exclusively for their
representation of their mother so that they
own welfare and wishing to be admired for who
can tolerate being physically separate from
they are and what they do.
her.
 If this is not developed, children will
continue to depend on their mother’s
physical presence for their own security.
 Children must consolidate their individuality
– they must LEARN TO FUNCTION without

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  The early self becomes crystallized around two basic 3. Detachment - infants become emotionally
NARCISSISTIC NEEDS. detached from other people, including their
1) The need to exhibit the grandiose self. caregiver.
2) The need to acquire an idealized image of one or - Children who are emotionally detached
both parents. are no longer upset when their mother
leaves them.
 Grandiose Exhibitionistic Self – established when the - As they grow older, they can interact and
infant relates to a “mirroring” self-object who reflects appear to be sociable; but their
approval of its behaviour. interpersonal relations lack social
o Infant forms a rudimentary self-image. warmth.

 Idealized Parent Image – opposed to the grandiose  “ATTACHMENT AND LOSS”

self because it implies that someone else is perfect. o Theory rests on TWO FUNDAMENTAL
o “you are perfect, but I am part of you”. ASSUMPTIONS:
1. A responsive and accessible caregiver
 Both self-images are necessary for health personality (usually the mother) must create a secure
development. base for the child.
o Both must CHANGE as the child grows older. - Child must know that caregiver is
o If they remain unaltered, they result in a accessible and dependable.
pathologically narcissistic adult personality. - If this is present, the child is better able to
o Grandiosity must change into a realistic view of develop confidence and security in
the self, and the idealized parent image must exploring the world.
grow into a realistic view of self, and idealized 2. A bonding relationship (or lack thereof)
parent image must grow into a realistic picture of becomes internalized and serves as a mental
the parents. working model on which future friendships
 A narcissistic adult does not transcend the infantile and love relationships are built.
needs and continues to be self-centered and to see - The first bonding attachment is the most
the rest of the world as an admiring audience. critical of all relationships.
- For bonding to take place, and infant must
3. JOHN BOWLBY’S ATTACHMENT THEORY
be more than a mere passive receptor the
 London,1907 caregiver’s behaviour.
 Practice in psychiatry and psychoanalysis in 1933.
 Trained in psychoanalysis under Melanie Klein.  Attachment style is a relationship between two
 1950s – became dissatisfied with the object relations people and not a trait given to the infant by the
perceptive, primarily for its inadequate theory of caregiver.
motivation and its lack of empiricism. o The infant and caregiver must be responsive to
 Realized that object relations can be integrated with each other and each must influence the other’s
an evolutionary perspective. behaviour.
 Proponent of the Attachment Theory.
o Posited that attachments formed during 4. MARY AINSWORTH AND THE STRANGE SITUATION
childhood have an important impact on  Glendale, Ohio
adulthood.  Developed a technique for measuring the type of
attachment style that exists between the caregiver
and infant.
 SEPARATION ANXIETY
o Three Stages: STRANGE SITUATION
1. Protest Stage - when the caregiver is first
out of sight, infants will cry, resist soothing  20-minute laboratory session
by other people and search for their o The mother and infant are initially alone in
caregiver. the playroom.
2. Despair - as separation continues, infants o Stranger comes into the room, and after a
become quiet, sad, passive, listless, and few minutes the stranger begins a brief
apathetic. interaction with the infant.

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 o once this connection is made, patients feel
o Mother goes away for two separate 2-minute
less persecuted by internalized objects,
period.
o The infant is left alone with the stranger. experience reduced depressive anxiety, and
o The infant is left completely alone. are able to project previously frightening
 The critical behavior is how the infant reacts when internal objects onto the outer world.
the mother return.
o This behavior is the BASIS of the attachment
style rating. CONCEPT OF HUMANITY
THREE ATTACHMENT STYLES
 Object relations theorists generally see
1. Secure attachment - infants are happy and human personality as a product of the early
enthusiastic and initiate contact. mother-child relationship—a prototype in
2. Anxious-resistant attachment - infants are
adults’ interpersonal relations—high on
ambivalent; when mom leaves, they become
usually upset, and then their mother returns they determinism and low on free choice.
seek contact with her but reject attempts at being
soothed.  Either pessimistic or optimistic, depending on
3. Anxious-avoidant attachment - calm when the the quality of the early mother-infant
mom leaves; when mom returns, they ignore and relationship.
avoid her.
 More causal.
o In both insecure attachment, infants lack the
ability to engage in effective play and
 High on unconscious determinants of
exploration.
behavior because most of the theorists trace
PSYCHOTHERAPY the prime determinants of behavior to very
early infancy.
 All of the object relations theorist modified
psychoanalytic treatment to fit their won  Looks at Biology as more important than
theoretical orientation. environment in shaping personality, since the
 Klein’s pioneering use of psychoanalysis with mother-child relationships is the foundation
children was not well accepted by other analysts of personality, then lean towards social
during the 1920s and 1930s. influence.

 PLAY THERAPY  More toward similarities than uniqueness

o Assumed the young children express their
conscious and unconscious wishes through
play therapy.

 The aim of Kleinian therapy is to reduce depressive

anxieties and persecutory fears and to mitigate
the harshness of internalized objects.
o encouraged her patients to re-experience
early emotions and fantasies but this time
with the therapist pointing out the differences
between reality and fantasy, between
conscious and unconscious.
o allowed patients to express both positive and
negative transference – essential for patients’
understanding of how unconscious fantasies
connect with present everyday situations.

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