Object Relations Theory by Melanie Klein

Study Notes

Melanie Klein developed the Object Relations Theory, which emphasizes interpersonal relationships, especially between mother and child.
Klein believed humans are driven to connect and relate.

Klein joined the Berlin Psychoanalytical Society at age 38.
Working under Karl Abraham, she began analyzing children, which formed the foundation of her theory.
Klein's first significant publication was "The Psychoanalysis of Children".
- The book was divided into two parts: "Techniques of Child Analysis" and "Early Anxiety Situations and their Effect on the Development of the Child".
Klein recognized the value of play therapy in her work with children.
After her son's death, Klein developed concepts related to depression, such as the "depressive position", and published "Mourning and its Relation to the Manic-Depressive States."
Her final paper was titled "On the Sense of Loneliness”.

According to Object Relations Theory, the infant’s psychic life is organized around:
- Objects: Representations of the child’s early relationships (e.g., the mother's breast).
- Drives: The basic instincts of life (e.g., survival) and death (e.g., aggression). The drive leads to the object and towards a specific aim.
- Phantasies: Imaginary representations of the infant's id.
- Positions: Ways the infant organizes good and bad experiences.

Paranoid-Schizoid Position:
- Occurs in the first three to four months of life when the ego is still developing.
- The child experiences both frustration (e.g., hunger) and satisfaction (e.g., being fed) from the object (e.g., mother's breast)
- This conflict leads to an ego threat, resulting in a desire to destroy the object.
- The ego splits into two to manage the destructive feelings:
  - Ideal Breast: Represents the good, satisfying object
  - Persecutory Breast: Represents the bad, frustrating object
Depressive Position:
- Develops around five to six months as the ego matures.
- The child becomes anxious about the possibility of the mother's absence, leading to destructive feelings.
- A more mature ego understands the impact of these feelings, leading to guilt about wanting to harm the mother.
- To overcome this, the infant fantasizes about making amends for their destructive feelings, seeking reassurance from the mother's presence.

Defense mechanisms protect the ego from the anxiety associated with destructive feelings.
Introjection: 'Taking in' objects (e.g., good objects for protection, bad objects for control).
Projection: Believing that feelings originate from someone else, rather than oneself.
Splitting: Dividing the self into a "good me" and a "bad me". This allows for a person to simultaneously grasp both positive and negative aspects, but difficulty separating these aspects can lead to repression of the "bad me".
Projective Identification: Projecting the unacceptable aspects of the self (the "bad me") onto an object and then identifying with that object.

Ego: Develops from the child's first experiences with feeding, which can be either good or bad. This experience becomes the standard for future experiences.
Superego: Emerges from the ego's aggressive use of defense mechanisms to avoid destructive feelings. It produces feelings of guilt, shame, and self-criticism.