Object Relations

Object Relations Theory

• Primary source: Glickauf-Hughes & Wells (1997). Object relations psychotherapy.
• A collection of ideas by many psychoanalytic theorists
• Foundation laid by Melanie Klein in 1930s

Object Relations Theory

• British School
• Melanie Klein
• W.R.D. Fairbairn
• D.W. Winnicott
• American School
• Margaret Mahler
• Otto Kernberg

Object Relations Theory

• Built on drive and ego psychology, but is uniquely an interpersonal perspective (vs. intrapsychic)
• The primary human motivation is to have relationships with other people (rather than to gratify sexual and aggressive drives)

Object Relations Theory

• A person’s character or personality is significantly shaped by their early interactions with primary caregivers during critical developmental stages
• Early experiences are internalized and become organized into mental representations or cognitive schemas of one’s self in relation to objects (important others)

Object Relations Theory

• These schemas form the person’s "internal world" (vs. external reality)
• They influence the way (are lenses through which) a person experiences and relates to the external world
• Character disorders are viewed as the external manifestation of inaccurate internal schemas of interpersonal relations resulting from specific developmental deficits

Object Relations Theory

• Inaccurate schemas lead a person to assume a rigid and maladaptive interpersonal stance that prevents them from being fulfilled in important areas of life (love, work, play)

Object Relations Theory

• Emphasis is on:
• Pre-oedipal (vs. oedipal) issues, especially separation-individuation
• Primitive defense mechanisms--splitting, projection, and projective identification (vs. higher level repression)--used to manage intense feeling states

Object Relations Theory

• The caregiver’s ability to provide a holding environment (Winnicott) or contain (Bion) the infant’s intense feeling states of anxiety, frustration, and rage
• Note. Theorists disagree over the extent to which these feeling states are constitutional (Klein) or result from a traumatic or inadequate environment (Fairbairn, Winnicott)

Object Relations Theory

• Ideally, the caregiver is able to tolerate these feelings, thereby transforming them into more benign experiences which the infant can introject back into his/her internal world
• This helps the child learn to tolerate feeling states, soothe themselves, and develop a positive view of self (worthy and lovable) in relation to others (trustworthy and loving)

Object Relations Theory

• In contrast, environmental failure leads to affect dysregulation, coping deficits, and impaired object relations (negative view of self and other)

Object Relations Theory

• Splitting
• Keeping primitive affect states (e.g., hate and love) separated from each other
• Spoiled milk metaphor
• Viewing self or other as all good vs. all bad
• Clinical example

Object Relations Theory

• Projection
• Evacuating an unacceptable and/or intolerable impulse, feeling, or thought into another person
• e.g., impulse toward infidelity attributed to spouse

Object Relations Theory

• Projective identification
• Person A projects an unwanted or intolerable aspect of the self or a bad internal object onto/into Person B
• Person A then behaves toward Person B in such a way as to induce the feelings or thoughts in Person B that correspond with the projection

Object Relations Theory

• Person B feels controlled, like something has been forced into them, or like they’re being pressured or coerced to play a part in someone else’s unconscious interpersonal script
• Person A then identifies with (introjects, or takes back) Person B’s metabolization, or handling of the projection (like between infant and caregiver)

Object Relations Theory

• This process is often difficult to fully comprehend or appreciate in the moment
• There is a tendency for the therapist to act out (countertransference), based on what the patient has done (note the contemporary perspective on CT as useful information)
• Clinical example

Therapeutic Implications

• An object relations approach to therapy helps the patient gain insight into their internal world and modify their maladaptive interpersonal schemas
• This is done by containing, confronting, and interpreting the patient’s projective identifications; thus, allowing them to rework developmental issues (e.g., separation-individuation) and create healthy internal representations of self and other

Therapeutic Implications

• Ogden (1982): "…the essence of what is therapeutic for the patient lies in the therapist’s ability to receive the patient’s projections, utilize facets of his own more mature personality system to process the projection, and then make the digested projection available for reinternalization through the therapeutic interaction (p. 20)."

Self Psychology

• Developed by Heinz Kohut (1977)
• Based on his work with narcissistic patients
• A deficit model: "Tragic man" struggling to develop a cohesive and integrative sense of self
• Argued that a breakdown in the extended family system in our society has led to earlier "selfobject" (caregiver) failures, which has resulted in more narcissistic disorders

Self Psychology

• Caregiver’s failure to mirror the infant’s healthy grandiosity leads to a sense of inner emptiness, badness, and shame
• Person may develop grandiosity as a defense to compensate for early disappointments and failures of the holding environment
• Will use primitive defense mechanisms such as splitting and idealization/devaluation

Therapeutic Implications

• Provide a "corrective emotional experience" by giving the patient what they missed during childhood (mirroring, containment, good enough parenting/environment)
• Empathize with the patient’s subjective experience (Kohut), rather than confronting pathological defenses (Kernberg)

Therapeutic Implications

• Inevitable, non-traumatic frustrations will induce the patient to do for the self what the therapist (good-enough mother) has previously done
• e.g., angry patient soothes self when therapist arrives 5 minutes late to session
• Gradually, the patient will internalize the therapist’s selfobject functions and develop a healthy sense of self

Therapeutic Implications

• Having done so, the patient will (1) have a more realistic, positive self-concept and (2) be able to relate to others as whole objects (autonomous with their own needs) rather than using people for their selfobject functions (e.g., seeking constant admiration to bolster a fragile sense of self)