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Object Relations Theory emerges wholly from the
profound impact of the work of
Melanie Klein (1882-1960). Klein sought to elaborate on and
extend Freud's original theory through her observations and clinical work with
children. Indeed, Klein's work
as a whole is an extension of Freud's work, but
also a transformation of Freud's original insights through her unique
interpretive perspectives. Klein was also profoundly influenced by Sandor
Ferenczi, her own psychoanalyst. Klein's insights were so transformative of
Freud's work, in fact, that her theoretical work was rejected by many orthodox
Freudians -- a clash best represented in the split between Klein's "London
school" and the "Viennese school," most closely associated with the figure of
Anna Freud. The initial class between Klein and Anna Freud, leading to this
profound and lasting 'split,' involved differences in opinion regarding the
treatment of children. Klein used play therapy and used interpretive techniques
which were very similar to the techniques used with adults. Anna Freud, on the
other hand, held that children's egos were not yet developed enough for
classical analysis, and, instead, she advocated a more educative role for the
analyst who works with children. The heated debates in WWII Britain -- within
the British psychoanalytic society -- led to a profound schism in the
psychoanalytic community which is still evident to this day. In fact, until
recently, most American psychoanalysts, who were more closely aligned with
Freudian ego psychology, held Klein and subsequent Object Relations Theory in
contempt for this reason, and, vice versa, the Kleinian tradition generally
demonized the ego psychology movement. Thankfully, today this schism is
beginning to heal.
Working with children, Klein felt she had observed
processes in pre-Oedipal children that were very similar to Oedipal conflicts in
older children. Throughout her career, she attempted to theoretically justify
these observations. In turn, Klein and her followers applied her practice and
theory to work with psychotic adult patients. Klein generally saw similarities
between young children's coping strategies in play and psychotic symptoms. In
general, however, Klein imagined that all adults retain, at some level, such
psychotic processes, involving a constant struggle to cope with paranoid anxiety
and depressive anxiety. Klein was led, therefore, to apply her approach to adult
neurotics, as well as psychotics and children. Klein's technique, in all cases,
involved a method of using "deep" interpretations which she felt communicated
directly to the unconscious of the client, thus by-passing ego defenses. In
conclusion, Klein's theories, for example, of the paranoid-schizoid and
depressive positions, her conception of sexuality and envy, and her discovery of
projective identification as a defense have all been highly influential
contributions to the field which, regardless of Klein's intentions, opened up
new possibilities for psychoanalysis which were quite different than Freud's
classical psychoanalytic practice and theory. The term "object relations"
ultimately derived from Klein, since she felt that the infant introjects the
'whole' other with the onset of the depressive position during the ontogenesis
of the self.
Klein's student and analysand, Wilfred
Bion (1897-1979), has been one of the most influential and gifted of Klein's
followers. Bion's work is very complex and difficult to understand, even for one
who is well-versed in Kleinian theory. Many of Bion's insights came from his
work with schizophrenics, and these observations led him to significantly
advance and re-conceptualize Klein's original thinking regarding envy and
projective identification. As for envy, Bion felt it involved self-attacks which
he called "attacks on linking" designed to sever problematic object
relationships, but which, in the end, lead to a destruction of one's good
objects. Most importantly, I would argue, Bion's contribution to Kleinian theory
is an advancement which moves her theoretically conceived subject out of a
solopsistic world of phantasy generated by instinctual drives. In the case of
Bion, the mother has a significant impact on the child by the way she assists
the child in coping with his or her anxiety. By 'containing' the anxiety of the
child, Bion felt, the mother teaches the child to cope with the anxiety. Drawing
on this fundamental insight, Bion felt that one of the central tasks of the
psychoanalyst is to contain the anxiety of the client. And these process rely on
the use of projective identification by which the child or patient projects
intolerable anxiety onto the mother or analyst, who in turn 'contains' and gives
back to the child the experience in a more manageable form.
British object relations theory, as already
mentioned, is indebted to the work of Klein. Interestingly, however, the major
figures of object relations theory, including Fairbairn, Winnicott, Balint,
Bowlby and Guntrip, developed their positions without taking sides in the
debates at the British Psychoanalytic Society. Although billing themselves as
"independent" from the traditional Freudians of the "Viennese school" and the
Kleinians of the "London school," they were deeply indebted to Klein's work,
and, vice versa, Klein was often directly influenced by this "middle school,"
particularly by Fairbairn.
W. R. D. Fairbairn (1889-1964) dedicated himself
to solving the theoretical problems inherent in Freud's hedonic drive theory,
which he was never able to reconcile with his observations of the "repetition
compulsion." In order to do this, Fairbairn had to reconceptualize
Freud's theory of motivation -- thus, the libido. If the
libido is primarily pleasure-seeking as Freud has argued, thought Fairbairn, why
do people continually involve themselves in traumatic experiences? How can one
explain, for example, nightmares, sexual masochism, and traumatic neurosis
involving the repetition compulsion? Fairbairn's answer to this riddle is that
the libido is not primarily pleasure-seeking, but object-seeking. In other
words, intimacy and a connection to others is the primary motivation in human
beings and pleasure is rather a secondary motivation derived from this more
primary motivation. Also, unlike Klein, internal objects are not inevitable consequences of
development, but rather the result of compensations for a real connection with
others and stem from disruptions in early object relations with primary
caregivers. These insights led Fairbairn to develop a new structure of the
psyche which differed from Freud's original tripartite id, ego and superego
structure. In particular, Fairbairn conceptualized a "splitting of the ego" into
a libidinal and anti-libidinal ego to account for his observations.
D.
W. Winnicott (1896-1971) began his career as a pediatrician and used his
experience with children to develop his innovative ideas. Like Fairbairn,
Winnicott conceptualized the psyche of the child as developing in relation to a
real, influential parent. For a child to develop a healthy, genuine self, as
opposed to a false self, Winnicott felt, the mother must be a "good-enough
mother" who relates to the child with "primary maternal preoccupation."
Anticipating the insights of Kohut and self psychology, Winnicott felt that a
good-enough mother allows herself to be used by the infant so that he or she may
develop a healthy sense of omnipotence which will naturally be frustrated as the
child matures. Winnicott's theory is especially innovative regarding his
conceptualization of the psychic space between the mother and infant, neither
wholly psychological or physical, which he termed the "holding environment" and
which allows for the child's transition to being more autonomous. This concept
of the "holding environment" led Winnicott to develop his famous theory of the
"transitional object." Winnicott felt that a failure of the mother -- the
not-good-enough mother -- to provide a "holding environment" would result in a
false self disorder, the kind of disorders which he saw in his practice.
Winnicott's theory of "false self disorders" is uncannily similar to Laing's
description of the schizoid personality in The Divided Self. Winnicott
also felt that the therapist's task is to provide such a "holding environment"
for the client so that the client might have the opportunity to meet neglected
ego needs and allow the true self of the client to emerge.
Other important figures in the Object Relations
tradition include Michael Balint, John Bowlby, and Harry Guntrip, as well as the
following contributors: Susan Isaac, Hanna Segal, Herbert Rosenfeld, Paula
Heimann, Heinrich Racker, Joseph Sandler, Betty Joseph, John Steiner, Elizabeth
Bott Spillius, Esther Bick, Thomas Ogden, John D. Sutherland, James Grotstein,
Jill Savage Scharff, Otto Kernberg, Nina Coltart, Patrick Casement, Neville
Symington, Stephen Mitchell, Christopher Bollas, Henry Ezriel, Henry V. Dick,
David E. Scharff, and Elliott Jaques.
For an in depth exploration of Object Relations
Theory from an existential-phenomenological perspective, I highly recommend
reading an article I've written:
The Paranoid-Schizoid and Depressive Positions in the
Psychogenesis of the Self:A Phenomenological Investigation into the Ontological
Foundations of Object Relations Theory |
