Object relations theory

Object Relations theory, one of the many theories falling under the psychoanalytic umbrella, focuses on interpersonal relationships. Object relations theory is interested in how people interact with one another, particularly within one’s family, primarily the mother-infant relationship. In this theory, the object is often the significant person that is the object of another person’s feelings or intentions, again primarily focused on the mother as the object for the child. Object-relations theorists examine interpersonal relationships from the past, often focusing on the mother-child, in order to determine how one is impacted in the present. These theorists examine one’s self-image and how this is portrayed within interpersonal situations in the present. Object-relations theorists believe that the mother-infant relationship, or whoever the primary caregiver is, is central to the formation of one’s personality development. This theory posits that the need for this attachment relationship leads to the development of the infantile self. A central focus of this theory is that of the internal object. Different theorists within…

The construct “object” has been used to explain relationships toward or with people throughout various psychoanalytic theories. Particularly, the theories Object Relations theory and Classical Drive theory. Object Relations theory addresses an object as a part of a relationship or attunement with other people, particularly parental relationships. According to Melanie Klein, an object is a person or a role of a person in a particular person’s life. This person generally serves as a template in…

The object relations theory focuses on understanding the human being primary need for attachment. A child’s inner world is shaped by internal representations of others. According to Donald Winnicott both child’s need for attachment and need for separateness are important. However, there is a need of a holding environment, a place where a baby feels safe, protected internal and external. Children often use transitional objects when deal with separateness. Winnicott believe in order for a child to…

One of the major theories in social work practice is object relations theory, this theory stems from psychodynamic theory. Though object relations theory is a much disputed theory in which many theorist have contributed, two of the most well known theorist with regards to object relations theory were two pediatrician Donald Winnicott and Margaret Mahler. Though both theorists have different views they also have many commonalities. According to the reading “Theories for Direct Social Work…

Donna’s representation of self is also negative as evidenced by her referring to herself as “odd”. Per Berzoff, Flanagan, and Hertz (2016), an individual in the depressive position begins to understand that the same object and self can be equally good and bad. Donna got “stuck” in that position because she could not develop tolerance of an integrated sense of self and others (Berzoff et al., 2016). Per Applegate (1993), “false” self develops because a caregiver is not able to provide an infant…

gratifying sensations over frustrating ones as the ego shifts towards integration and away from disintegration. Klein introduced some new conceptual statements from her object relations theory in contrast to Freud’s. Klein organize the good and bad feelings into “positions”; ways of dealing with both internal and external objects. She indicated that positions alternate back and forth throughout development. The first position is the Paranoid-Schizoid position and the second is the Depressive…

Two very intriguing topics are Ego’s and relations. These topic are interesting because no matter who you are, what culture you come from and how you identify yourself as, one must deal with their emotions, external and internal. To fully cmprenhende these topics one must understand how past experiences affect our unconscious and conscious reactions. I found both reading of chapter 4 “Ego Psychology” and chapter 5 The Relational Theories, with a Focus on object relations” useful and…

Three women were responsible for the feminist theory. Each one helped open the door to the future of female researchers each left their own unique marks. Starting with Anna Freud she developed her theory of mechanism of defense. This theory suggest that when the ego goes through something it cannot handle (traumatic) it goes into defense mode. This is then broken down to nine different defense mechanisms: displacement, denial, projection, intellectualization, sublimation, regression, repression,…

Film & Character Garden State is coming-of-age comedic drama that attempts to capture the multifaceted transitions often experienced by young adults. This film, released in 2004, was directed by Zach Braff, who also stars in the movie as the main character and focus of this paper, Andrew Largeman. This paper will attempt to more deeply explore Andrew’s development using the postulates of Object Relations and Psychosocial theories (Braff, Sher, Shamberg, & DeVito, 2004). This film portrays…

nor in conjunctions, these two forces are constantly in conflict with one another, in where the splitting of egos allows the internalization of bad objects to be viewed as both frustrating and exciting (Celani, 1993; Greenberg, Mitchell, 1983; St. Clair, 2004) This internal constant struggle accounts for the extreme mood swings, people often experienced in BPD. Also for the emotional dysregulation and hypersensitivity to emotions based on their expectations derived from and all or nothing…