Object Relationship Theory

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Although there were disagreements between the representatives of classical psychoanalysis almost from the very beginning, which often led to the fact that the followers of Freud offered new (and I must say, very productive) ideas and approaches, the theory of object relations became the first truly alternative school of psychoanalysis.

Its creator, Melanie Klein (née Reycess) was born in Vienna in 1882, studied art history at the University of Vienna and, due to her own psychological difficulties, underwent personal analysis with such luminaries of psychoanalysis as Karl Abraham and Sandor Ferenczi. Having become interested in psychoanalytic teaching, Melanie Klein got acquainted with the work of Z. Freud in 1919 - "Beyond the Pleasure Principle", which largely predetermined the essence of her theory.

Melanie Klein devoted herself to the deep development of the problem of early child development, about which classical psychoanalysis had made mainly general conclusions before her. Thanks to the identification of psychological patterns that were formed in the earliest childhood, M. Klein was able to approach the solution of problems that her predecessors considered insoluble, namely, the treatment of children and persons with psychotic disorders.

Although Freud himself conducted an absentee analysis of the five-year-old boy Hans, as well as an analysis of his own daughter Anna (at that time the ethical principles of modern psychoanalysis, which did not allow working with loved ones, were not yet developed), it was still believed that children, like psychotic individuals are unable to develop transference, which is the main tool of psychoanalysis. It is also obvious that it is impossible to work with young children in the technique of free associations, since their speech activity has not yet been developed.

Observing small children, M. Klein put forward the assumption that with the very birth they perceive the world around them and themselves through fantasies, the form and content of which are due to the peculiarities of children's perception. So, it is believed that children are far from being able to perceive the objects around them and themselves integrally from birth; moreover, they are incapable of separating the inside from the outside. For example, the mother is perceived not as a single object, but as a set of "mother objects" - face, eyes, arms, chest, etc. Moreover, each such partial object can disintegrate into "good" and "bad". If the object is pleasurable, the infant perceives it as "good."

If the object becomes a source of displeasure, frustration, then for the baby it is “bad,” hostile, and dangerous. For example, if a child suffers from hunger, and his mother does not feed him, then he, not yet knowing how to distinguish the external from the internal, perceives this situation in such a way that he is attacked by a "bad" breast. If the baby is fed in excess, then for him it is also a "bad", aggressive, haunting breast.

When an infant experiences interaction with a “good” object, he develops a sense of security, security, trust, and openness to the world around him.

If the “bad” experience of the infant prevails over the “good” one, his aggression intensifies, which, according to M. Klein, comes from the innate drive for death, which comes into conflict with the drive for self-preservation.

The infant experiences a constant fear of persecution, a sense of mortal danger and reacts to the "bad", pursuing objects with their own aggression.

In his fantasy, the infant tries to keep the “good” and “bad” objects separate, otherwise the “bad” ones can spoil the “good” ones by mixing with them.

This first stage of a child's development, which lasts the first 3-4 weeks from birth, was called by M. Klein a "schizoid-paranoid position", thereby emphasizing that this is not just a transitory period of life, but a kind of predisposition that becomes a personal quality of a person on all his life.

In the next position, which M. Klein called "depressive-manic", the child gradually begins to perceive his mother as an integral object that no longer breaks down into "good" and "bad". Thus, if the child's previous experience was mostly bad, and he tried to destroy the “bad” mother with his aggression, now it turns out that he simultaneously tried to destroy the nursing, caring “good” mother. Every time after an outburst of aggression, the child has a fear that he could destroy his “good” mother too. He begins to feel a sense of guilt (depression) and tries to make amends, i.e. to do something that could restore the "good" mother "destroyed" by him.

Otherwise, the child can take advantage of the fantasy of his omnipotence, the ability to fully control, destroy and restore the object (mania). As for the "good" aspects of the mother, her ability to give milk, love and care, the child may feel envy, devalue them. If the child experiences this stage of his development relatively calmly, then he develops the ability to experience reciprocity, gratitude, the ability to accept and provide help.

M. Klein also developed a new view on the formation of a super-ego in a child, which takes place in different ways in boys and girls, since a boy in his attraction to his mother always competes with only his father, while a girl is forced to compete with her primary object of love - the mother. - for the sake of his new love - his father. M. Klein also introduced a new concept into psychoanalytic use - a specific defense mechanism, which she called "projective identification", the essence of which is still under discussion, however, in general, a situation is meant when a person ascribes his "bad" qualities to another. for this he begins to be hostile to him.

The technique of psychoanalytic work with children according to M. Klein is based on the interpretation of play, which reflects the child's relationship with objects that are significant for him. Talking with the child the plot of the game, the analyst organizes the child's drives, makes them more controllable for the child, thereby reducing his anxiety and aggression.

Adult psychoanalysis according to M. Klein is distinguished by an active interpretation of the client's fantasies and drives, which unfold in the transference, as a rule, bypassing the interpretation of defense mechanisms.