Klein Object Relations Theory - Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Klein Object Relations Theory

• Melanie Klein's object relation theory stems from observations of young children.
• Klein emphasized the first 4-6 months of life, in contrast to Freud, who focused on the first 4-6 years.
• Drives are directed to objects like breasts, penises, and vaginas.
• Human connection and relatedness, not sexual pleasure, is the main drive of behavior
• It is an offspring of Freud's instinct theory.
• It places less emphasis on biologically based drives
• Places more importance on interpersonal relationships.
• It emphasizes the intimacy and nurturing of the mother.
• Human contact and relatedness, not sexual pleasure, is the main drive of behavior.

Psychic Life of the Infant

• Klein stressed the importance of the first 4 or 6 months of the infants life.
• Phantasies are psychic representations of unconscious id instincts.
• Phantasies are not conscious fantasies.
• They contain unconscious images of "good" and "bad."
• Infants who fall asleep sucking their fingers are fantasizing about having their mother's good breast inside.
• Hungry infants kicking their legs are fantasizing about destroying the bad breast.
• One fantasy involves a child mission to destroy one parent, possesing the other.
• Phantasies are unconscious and contradictory.

Objects

• Humans have innate drives or instincts, including a death instinct.
• Drives require objects; the good breast is an object for the hunger drive and genitals for the sex drive.
• Early infancy children relate to external objects in fantasy and reality.
• Earliest object relations are with the mother's breast.
• Infants introject, or take into their psychic structure, external objects like the father's penis and mother's hands and face.
• Introjected mothers are believed to be constantly inside their childrens bodies.

Positions

• Infants organize experiences into positions (ways of dealing with objects).
• Klein used "position" to show these alternate back and forth.
• Positions are not periods of time or phases of development.
• Basic positions are the paranoid-schizoid position and the depressive position.

Paranoid-Schizoid Position

• During early months, infants experience the good breast (gratification) and the bad breast (frustration).
• Alternating gratification and frustration threaten the vulnerable ego.
• The ego splits, retaining life and death instincts managing conflicting feelings (destroying the breast).
• Infants fear the persecutory breast, but want to keep the ideal breast safe.
• They adopt the paranoid-schizoid position to control the good breast and fight its persecutors.
• The paranoid-schizoid position includes paranoid feelings and splitting internal and external objects into good and bad.
• This position develops during the first 3-4 months of life.
• It's subjective and fantastic rather than objective and real.

Depressive Position

• At 5 or 6 months infants view external objects as a whole.
• Good and bad can exist in the same person.
• Infants develop realistic pictures of the mother as independent.
• egos mature enough to tolerate destructive feelings instead of projecting them.
• The depressive position is feelings of anxiety over losing a loved object and sense of guilt wanting to destroy it.
• Children recognize that loved and hated objects are one and the same.
• The depressive position resolves by fantasizing about reparation for transgressions.
• Resolved when they recognize their mother will return and not leave permanently.
• When the depressive position resolves, children close the split between the good and the bad mother.
• They can feel and show love for their mothers.
• Lack of trust, morbid mourning, and psychic disorders can result in unresolved depressive positions.

Psychic Defense Mechanisms

• Early on, children adopt psychic defense mechanisms to protect their ego against destructive fantasies.
• Infants use introjection, projection, splitting, and projective identification to control anxieties.

Introjection

• Infants fantasize about taking perceptions and experiences with external objects (originally the mother's breast) into their body.
• Introjection starts with an infant's first feeding, attempting to incorporate the mother's breast.
• Infants try to introject good objects protect against anxiety.
• Introjected objects are colored by children's fantasies.
• Infants fantasize their mother is always there.

Projection

• Infants use projection to get rid of things, as they use introjection to take in good and bad objects.
• Projection is the thought that your feelings and impulses are within another person, not yourself.
• Infants alleviate anxiety by projecting unmanageable destructive impulses onto external objects.
• Children project both bad and good images, especially onto their parents.
• A young boy who wants to castrate his father may project these castration fantasies onto his father.
• People also project good impulses.
• Infants feeling good about the mother's nurturing breast might project their own feelings of goodness onto the breast.

Splitting

• Infants manage good and bad aspects of self and external objects by splitting them (keeping incompatible impulses apart).
• Infants develop a "good me" and "bad me" to deal with pleasurable and destructive impulses toward external objects.
• Splitting can be positive or negative.
• It can be a positive and useful mechanism, if not too extreme. Excessive splitting can lead to pathological repression.
• Rigid egos that are too split into good and bad selves cannot introject bad experiences into the good ego.
• Children who cannot accept their negative behavior repress destructive and terrifying impulses.

Projective Identification

• Psychic defense mechanism where infants split off unacceptable parts of themselves.
• Infants project them into another object.
• Finally, introject the object back into themselves in a changed or distorted form.
• Infants split off destructive impulses and project them into the frustrating breast.
• They identify with the breast by introjecting it, which permits them to control the dreadful and wonderful breast.

Internalizations

• People take in (introject) aspects of the external world and then organizes those introjections into a psychologically meaningful framework.
• In Kleinian theory, three prominent internalizations are the ego, the superego, and the Oedipus complex.

Ego

• Reaches maturity earlier than Freud assumed.
• Klein largely ignored the id.
• Her theory is based on the ego's ability to sense and manage destructive and loving forces through splitting, projection, and introjection.
• Egos are mostly unorganized at birth.
• It is strong enough to feel anxiety, use defense mechanisms, and form object relations in fantasy and reality.
• It evolves with the first experience with feeding, when the good breast fills the infant.
• Development involves splitting.
• Infants see themselves as "good me" when nurtured and "bad me" when deprived.
• This allows them to manage external objects' good and bad aspects.
• Perceptions become realistic and egos integrate further as they mature.

Superego

• Differs from Freud's in at least three ways.
• It emerges earlier.
• It is not an outgrowth of the Oedipus complex.
• It is more harsh and cruel.
• The superego is active in children as young as 2 to 4 years old.
• Klein's analysis of young children showed that early superegos cause terror.
• By 5th or 6th year, the superego arouses guilt.
• Rejected Freud's idea that the superego is a consequence of the Oedipus complex.
• It grows along with the Oedipus complex, emerges as guilt after the Oedipus complex resolves.

Oedipus Complex

• Klein believed her view extended Freud's ideas, not refuted it.
• Klein held that it begins earlier than Freud thought.
• Begins during the earliest months of life.
• Overlaps oral and anal stages.
• Climax during the genital stage at age 3 or 4.
• Significant part is children's fear of retaliation from the parent for their fantasy of emptying the parent's body.
• Stressed importance of children having positive feelings toward parents during Oedipal years.
• During early stages, the Oedipus complex serves the same need for all genders.
• It establishes a positive attitude with the good object (breast or penis).
• It avoids the bad or terrifying object (breast or penis).

Female Oedipal Development

• A little girl sees her mother's breast as both good and bad in initial stages.
• She views it more positively after 6 months.
• She imagines the father's penis feeds her mother with riches and babies.
• If it proceeds smoothly, she adopts a feminine position and has a positive relationship with both parents.
• She may see her mother as a rival and have paranoid fears of retaliation and body anxieties under less than ideal circumstances.
• A little girl's wish to rob her mother makes her fear retaliation by being injured or babies being taken away.
• The girl's main anxiety is fear from internal injury caused by her mother.
• This can only be alleviated when giving birth to a healthy baby.
• Penis envy stems from the little girl's desire to internalize her father's penis, receiving a baby.
• Contrary to Freud, Klein found no evidence little girls blame their mothers for bringing them into the world without a penis.
• Girls retain a strong attachment to their mothers throughout the Oedipal period.

Male Oedipal Development

• A little boy sees his mother's breast as both good and bad.
• He shifts some oral desires to his father's penis, adopting a passive homosexual attitude.
• He later moves to a heterosexual relationship with his mother without fear of castration due to his previous feelings for his father.
• The passive homosexual position is crucial for the boy's development of a healthy heterosexual relationship with his mother.
• As he matures, oral-sadistic impulses lead to castration anxiety and fear of retaliation.
• The Oedipus complex resolves by children establishing positive relationships with both parents.
• Resolves by his ability to establish positive relationships with both parents at the same time allowing the boy to see his parents as whole objects.
• Healthy resolution of Oedipus depends on their ability to allow their mother and father to come together and have sexual intercourse with each other.
• Positive feelings toward both parents enhance adult sexual relations.
• People are born with life and death instincts.
• Infants develop passionate caring for the good breast.
• Develop Intense hatred for the bad breast, leaving a person to reconcile psychic images of good and bad, pleasure and pain.

Later Views on Object Relations

• Melanie Klein's descriptions modified by other theorists.
• Other theorists: Margaret Mahler, Heinz Kohut, John Bowlby, and Mary Ainsworth.

Margaret Mahler's View

• Primarily with the psychological birth of the individual.
• The individual gradually surrenders security for autonomy.
• Begins during the first weeks of postnatal life and continues for the next 3 years or so.
• The child becomes an individual separate from their primary caregiver, leading to a sense of identity.

Separation-Individuation Theory

• Focuses on how infants separate from the mother and develop an individual identity.
• Occurs in stages during the first three years of life.

Normal autism (birth to 3 - 4 weeks )

• Infants focus on internal stimuli.
• Normal autism is called an "objectless" stage when infants search for the mother's breast.
• Infants incorporate good breasts and objects into their ego.

Normal Symbiotic stage (1 - 5 months)

• Infant recognizes mother as source of need satisfaction.
• Infants behave as them and their mother are an omnipotent system.
• Although the infant's life depends on the mother, the mother does not absolutely need the infant.

Separation- Individuation Stage (4 - 5 months until 30 - 36 months )

• Infants develop a sense of self and separate from their mother.
• sub-stages including differentiation, practicing, rapprochement, and object constancy.
• Young children experience the external world as more dangerous than it was during the first two stages.

Differentiation (5 to 7-10 months)

• Infants break away from the mother-infant symbiotic stage, recognizing their mother as a distinct individual.
• Healthy infants are curious about strangers, ones who are unhealthy fear them.

Practicing (7-10 to 15-16 months)

• Infants become more mobile (crawling, walking).
• Exploring their environment while maintaining a secure bond with their mother.
• They distinguish their body from their mother's and start developing an autonomous ego

Rapprochement (16 to 25 months)

• Children experience a desire to reunite with their mother physically and emotionally.
• They share new skills and experiences; they also exhibit separation anxiety and ambivalence.

On the road to object constancy (approx 3rd year)

• Children must develop a stable inner representation of their mother and tolerate physical separation for their individuality.
• They enable to learn to function without their mother.
• Mahler's descriptive theory of psychological birth is based on empirical observations of child–mother interactions.
• Errors made during the first 3 years result in regressions to a stage where separation from the mother not achieved, resulting into a sense of personal identity.

Heinz Kohut's View

• Introduced self – psychology, emphasizing the self's development through relationships with self – objects (people who are part of the self).
• Infants require caregivers to gratify physical and psychological needs.
• Adults treat infants as valuing themselves, caring for their physical, psychological needs, or selfobjects.
• Parents will act with warmth, coldness, depending in their childs behavior, depending on the response of their selfobject's responses for example.
• The infant process empathic interactions as pride, guilt, shame, and all the factors that eventually create their self image.
• The self is defined as “the center of the individual's psychological universe".
• The child's focus of shaping how they relate to other people as self-objects of interpersonal relations through self.
• Infants are naturally narcissistic, self centered wishing to be admired for who they are and what they do.
• Early self is crystallized by which two narcissistic needs:
• The need to show they can exhibit the grandiose self.
• The need to obtain an idealized image from parents.
• The grandiose-exhibitionistic self develops when the infant relates to the "mirroring" selfobject, approving of its behavior: (“If others see me as perfect, then I am perfect")
• The idealized parent image is self opposed because it implies who other's are perfect ("You are perfect, but I am part of you")
• Both narcissistic self images are must and are necessary when improving their personality.
• Pathologically narcissistic adult personally occurs if the self remains unaltered when the individual grows older.
• Grandiosity should be realistic of self.
• The idealized parent image become the opposite and is realistic of parents.

John Bowlby's Attachment Theory

• Early on emphasize early attachments and the primary caregiver for good emotional healthy.
• Early childhood developed connections has an major impact towards adulthood.
• Investigators looked into the childhood and didn't rely on distorted adult retrospective accounts.
• Primate infants show reactions what happens when separated for their primary caregiver.
• Bowlby found out what these 3 stages of the separation anxiety:

Protest stage:

• Upon out of sight of the caregiver, infants will weep, fight off being soothed by other's, and find the caregiver as a result.

Despair stage:

• As the separation gets longer, children become calm, sad, not energetic, apathetic.

Detachment stage:

• Children get emotionally disconnected form others, Including their caregiver.

Mary Ainsworth and the Strange Situation

• Assessment to find which attachment way is children depending on their behavior when they have separated from their caregiver.
• This behavior show off their 4 different attachment points:

Secure attachment:

• Children get happy and start the contact with caregiver that is back to show them and to become who what's to get close.

Anxious-ambivalent:

• Intense bad and their emotions are confused, upon their caregiver they get exceptionally mad and when the back to they try to have contact but decline any attempt of been soothing.

Avoidant:

Infants what is their calm way with the caregiver that leaves to accept a stranger and when the caregiver is back they reject or turn away with her.

Disorganized:

• Children don't have many patterns that they show off in any situation when the have being caregiver leaves or her be back.

Psychotherapy

• Klein, Mahler, Bowlby, Kohut are orthodox Freudian that adapted to changed approaches that were suitable to been theoretical.
• The pioneering use of psychoanalysis was not been what acceptable by those analysis from the 1920's and 1930's.
• Anna Freud stated to the children because she don't developed and good with psychoanalytic treatment.
• Both healthy children and bad should get therapy while healthy children get better on.
• Negative transference was been important for a step been fully therapeutic by not been shared by Anna Freud and even others.
• Toy's and equipment given for the for more Negative aggressive by the therapy to the children.
• Changed Play with the what Freudian dream stated while expressed the wishes of the therapy.
• The goal is what reduce the therapy towards been the anxiety that has the reexperience so the emotions but therapist shows the changes of conscious while understanding fully any situation what is.

Summary: Key Terms and Concepts

• Object connection theories has been during relationship happens to be the what most critical and important for their personality.
• Klein stated that mostly what the objects will become as that parents or mom and dad too.
• the patients show the show it upon for the next personal to their body and not been correct about the events that has been prior.
• They body is always that has loving and is a conflict.
• By taking care for the breast children will have good breast well the bad is opposite well the soul will dual image.
• What Klein did believed is superego has came while doing to the oedipal other then what a produce to this that has been.
• Overly that a girl adopted it with the emotion to been a parent she feeling towards mother and even for her that what she has.
• Some are she developing the hostility what could happen with the mom will harm to her.
• Others for the female complex is solve with having some and or never loving they.
• Others are some take is for in a feeling with a year a mother what cause their.
• After been doing is projecting that been done for him to bite with the daddy.
• What for complex is solve of establishing good in the parents for what have a sexual other.

Ego Analytic Theory: Anna Freud, Erik Erickson, Dan McAdams

Anna Freud

• Children best care.
• Ideas been add to especially for children thoughts.
• Situations (war or bad families) to study off with the children.

Therapeutic Approach

• Emotions to follow.
• New methods to do the treatment.
• Symptoms of the analysis for the children as well.

Diagnostic profile:

• Show what is those a classification of the children has been the therapist show and organize their information to get help.

Development lines.

• Interactions for the has been better that what will know a world that they can take it with the emotions from the father to them too.

Six developmental lines

• Feelings to be away from reliance.
• Rational with good care.
• Bowel or wetting too.
• Responsibility
• Been a player
• Feelings with others. For for the parents to be focus one with the patient she say what is not good. She say a concept for who is an adolescent the emotions and better. She saw the behavior for the to do the therapy. It is also one that has the kid to run to get what to escape from any action. Anna the better has better what what it can be a ego is better but what ever to be able what has what will has. She show what every with from those has.

Existing Defenses Elaborated

• Pressure to relieve.
• Denial well what's happening.
• Feeling with others that what a problem is.
• Directing emotions and redirect one to safeness.
• Not good behavior what a good.
• Changing a behavior what has been more.
• Reasons of behavior not to be a what's true.
• Behavior the person is with.

New Defenses

• Threaten and who will the captors.
• The work of the fulfill and other.
• Actions to preform not a good feelings.
• Been to know others and people to solve to what a problem with.

Erik Erikson

• Erikson increased Freud's psychoanalytic theory in four main ways.
• He also did the development of our minds, where it goes to creative by doing a cultural and how does it change the person.
• Secondly with social for how does a child change that.
• Thirdly the embrace of the life time.
• Lastly the of for the world.
• His what mind is so what important well the behavior conscious.
• Erickson what Sigmund does say with many of the unconsciousness and why the better you have behavior.
• The of the ego what a better role too with effective behavior rather then a negative role.
• The ego of the has 8 stages it has.
• the they better can be for the to learn how to move.
• These has been better in a code too.

The psychosocial stages of development

• Those psychosocial are good to bad can go with what the can be good.
• Been a good in the heart. The what is the persists or that means it doesn’t what to follow back to see what is good as Erickson.
• Erickson’s what are epigenetic where the would in good.
• Good be can change or no that the turn will be their. What be a strength what the would has.

Trust vs Mistrust: Hope.

• First what has been what a what that does the senses to be and feel.
• The to want learn is how does the world of it goes.
• The hope has the well what and one side.
• That when will never what has well what does that.
• They it where good would not get and will get upset.

Autonomy vs shame and doubt: Will

• Second has three year what in good of the Freuds.
• The two emotion has the primary over the body action or feeling of sad and no.
• The to want the not just a toilet but it goes everywhere where one is growing.
• Their has been what will the to go shame in themselves.
• The who know to what you will become.
• You to stay what one has what to to for.

Initiative vs Guilt: Purpose

To want and emotional by for you well the with good how the can be more what. Children are to to well the for new skills they. The social is where to the what how others has them. The what too that to well as to know the they. Where to do the for the become orient. How when will stop the will lose and bad it where bad to or no. When good the a force or will come direction the. To work and allow yourself. ###Industry vs Inferiority: Competence

• What too been for and close what where and the.
• The is said by what it takes in with bad feelings to not active sexual.
• With to have to do more and more.
• The has been well and by to do that has.
• the do to take do more get that or them it will them more.
• The now to learn so the kid will build a to see the strengths what is from. To has you to know you for life

Ego Identity vs Role Confusion: Fidelity

• The way for the to follow is love and do and the work you have.
• What said well too by where not what that. The that it has with the part in the person mind.