Theories of Personality

Chapter 5 (Melanie Klein)

Object Relations Theory
Biography of Melanie Klein
Melanie Klein
➢ Born in March 30, 1882 in Vienna, Austria
Developed a theory that emphasized
➢ youngest of four children to Dr. Moriz Reizes
the nurturing and loving and his 2nd wife, Libussa Deutsch Reizes
relationship between parent and ➢ Klein believed that her birth was unplanned,
child but had neither a nurturant nor which led to feelings of being neglected by her
loving rs with her daughter, Melitta parents.
➢ She felt very distant to her father, who favored
her oldest sister, Emilie
➢ During her birth, her father had ceased to
Melitta practice any religion, therefore, Klein grew up
in a family that was neither proreligious nor
➢ Oldest of three whose parents antireligous
did not like each other which ➢ During her childhood, her parents worked jobs
that they didn’t enjoy. –
led to separation during her 15
yrs of age. o Her father, a physician who struggled
➢ She received her medical to make a living in medicine and
degree and became eventually was relegated to working
professionally equal to her as dental assistant.
o Her mother ran a shop selling plants
mother and reptiles, a difficult, humiliating
➢ Her analyst, Edward Glover and fearful job for someone who
was a bitter rival of her abhorred snakes.
mother which at least ➢ Klein’s early relationships was either
unhealthy or ended in tragedy, she felt
indirectly responsible for
neglected by her father, whom she saw cold
melitta’s virulent attacks on and distant. Although she idolized her mother,
her mother (in short, sulsul she felt suffocated by her.
sha) ➢ Klein had a special bond with her sister,
Sidonie who was 4 yrs older than her. When
➢ Despite being a full member
Klein was 4, Sidonie died. In later yrs, Klein
of the British Psycho- confessed that she never got over grieving for
Analytical Society, Melitta Sidonie
Schmideberg felt that her ➢ After her sister’s death, Klein became
mother saw her as an attached to her brother, Emmanuel who’s
nearly 5 yrs older and who she saw as her
appendage, not a colleague.
close confidant.
➢ Melitta went on to say that she ➢ She idolized her brother, and this infatuation
would no longer relate to her may have contributed to her later difficulties
mother in the neurotic manner with men ??
➢ When Klein was 18, her father died but a
of her younger years
greater tragedy was when her brother,
Emmanuel died 2 yrs after her father.
➢ Emmanuel’s death left Klein devastated.
While still mourning, she married her brother’s
friend, Arthur Klein.
➢ Klein believed that her marriage at 21
prevented her from becoming a physician and
for the rest of her life, she regretted that
decision.
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Chapter 5 (Melanie Klein)
Object Relations Theory
➢ Klein did not have a happy marriage; she ➢ Her slight difference of psychoanalytic theory
dreaded sex and abhorred pregnancy but she brought much criticism from her colleagues in
produced three children: Melitta, born in 1904; Berlin, causing her to feel increasingly
Hans, born in 1907; and Erich, born in 1914. uncomfortable in that city.
➢ In 1909, the Kleins moved to Budapest where ➢ in 1926, Ernest Jones invited her to London to
she met Sandor Ferenczi, a member of analyze his children and to deliver a series
Freud’s inner circle which introduced her to of lectures on child analysis. These lectures
psychoanalysis later resulted in her first book, The
➢ When her mother died in 1914, Klein became Psychoanalysis of Children
depressed and entered analysis with ➢ In 1927, she took up permanent residency in
Ferenczi, an experience that served as a England, remaining there until her death on
turning point in her life September 22, 1960. On the day of her
➢ The same time her youngest child was born, memorial service, her daughter Melitta
she discovered Freud and trained her son to delivered a final posthumous insult by giving a
Freudians principles. As part of this training, professional lecture wearing flamboyant red
she psychoanalyzes Erich, her youngest son. boots, which scandalized many in her
➢ she also attempted to analyze Melitta and audience
Hans, both of whom eventually went to other ➢ In 1934, Klein’s older son, Hans, was killed
analysts in a fall. Melitta, who had recently moved to
➢ Melitta was analyzed by Horney. An interesting London with her psychoanalyst husband,
parallel between Horney and Klein is that Klein Walter Schmideberg, maintained that her
later analyzed Horney’s two youngest brother had committed suicide, and she
daughters when they were 12 and 9 years old. blamed her mother for his death.
➢ In 1919, she separated from her husband bit ➢ During that same year, Melitta began
did not obtain a divorce for several yrs. After an analysis with Edward Glover, one
the separation, she established a of Klein’s rivals in the British Society.
psychoanalytic practice in Berlin and made Klein and her daughter then became
her first contributions to the psychoanalytic even more personally estranged and
literature with a paper dealing with her professionally antagonistic, and
analysis of Erich, who was not identified as Melitta maintained her animosity
her son until long after Klein’s death (wtf) even after her mother’s death.
➢ Not completely satisfied with her own analysis
by Ferenczi, she ended the relationship and Introduction to Object Relations
began an analysis with Karl Abraham, another Theory
member of Freud’s inner circle. After only 14
months, however, Klein experienced
another tragedy when Abraham died. At this Object relations theory is an offspring of Freud’s
point of her life, Klein decided to begin a self- instinct theory, but it differs from its ancestor in at
analysis, one that continued for the remainder least three general ways
of her life.
➢ Before 1919, psychoanalysts, including Freud, 1. Places less emphasis on biologically
based their theories of child development on based drives and more importance on
their therapeutic work with adults. Freud’s consistent patterns of interpersonal
only case study of a child was Little Hans, a
relationships
boy whom he saw as a patient only once.
Melanie Klein changed that situation by
2. As opposed to freud’s rather paternalistic
psychoanalyzing children directly. theory, object relations theory tends to be
➢ Her work with very young children, including more maternal, stressing the intimacy
her own, convinced her that children and nurturing of the mother.
internalize both positive and negative 3. Generally see human contact and
feelings toward their mother and that they relatedness- not sexual pleasure
develop a superego much earlier than Freud
had believed
Theories of Personality
Chapter 5 (Melanie Klein)
Object Relations Theory
confused with the conscious
fantasies of older children and adults
In general, Mahler’s work was concerned with
➢ When Klein (1932) wrote of the
the infant’s struggle to gain autonomy and a
dynamic phantasy life of infants, she
sense of self; Kohut’s, with the formation of the
did not suggest that neonates could
self; Bowlby’s, with the stages of separation
put thoughts into words. She simply
anxiety; and Ainsworth’s, with styles of
meant that they possess
attachment.
unconscious images of “good” and
➢ If Klein is the mother of object relations “bad.”
theory, then Freud himself is the father. o Klein said that when infants
➢ Although different drives may seem to fall asleep while sucking
have separate aims, their underlying aim their fingers are phantasizing
is always the same—to reduce tension: about having their mother’s
that is, to achieve pleasure. In Freudian “good breast”
terms, the object of the drive is any o And those hungry infants
person, part of a person, or thing through who cry and kick their legs
which the aim is satisfied. are phantasizing that kicking
➢ An important portion of any relationship is or destroying the “bad
the internal psychic representations of breast”
early significant objects, such as the
mother’s breast or the father’s penis, that ➢ As the infant matures, unconscious
have been introjected, or taken into the phantasies connected with the
infant’s psychic structure, and then breast continue to exert an impact on
projected onto one’s partner. psychic life, but newer ones emerge
as well
Psychic Life of the Infant ➢ Because these phantasies are
unconscious, they can be
contradictory.
➢ Klein stressed the importance of the first o For example, a little boy can
4 to 6 months. phantasize both beating his
➢ To her, infants do not begin life with a mother and having babies with
blank slate but with inherited her. Such phantasies spring
predisposition to reduce anxiety they partly from the boy’s experiences
experience because of the conflict with his mother and partly from
produced by the forces of the life universal predispositions to
instinct and the power of death destroy the bad breast and to
instinct. incorporate the good one.
➢ The infant’s innate readiness to act or
react relates to the phylogenetic OBJECTS
endowment, a concept that Freud also
Klein agreed with Freud that humas have innaye
accepted.
drives or instincts, including a death instinct
PHANTASIES Drives, of course must have some object
➢ Infants, even at birth, possesses an ➢ The hunger drive has the good breast as
active phantasy life. its object
➢ These phantasies are psychic ➢ The sex drive has a sexual organ as its
representations of unconscious id object
instincts; they should not be
Theories of Personality
Chapter 5 (Melanie Klein)
Object Relations Theory
positions to represent normal social growth and
development. The two basic positions are the
Klein believed that from early infancy, children
paranoid-schizoid position and the depressive
relate to these external objects, both fantasy
position
and in reality,
PARANOID-SCHIZOID POSITION
➢ The earliest object relation is with the
mother’s breast then soon develops in the infant’s contact with both the good and bad
the face and in the hands. breast causes an alternating experience of
gratification and frustration threaten the very
In their active fantasy, infants introject, or take
existence of the infant’s vulnerable ego.
into their psychic structure, these external
objects, including their father’s penis, their ➢ The infant desires to control the breast by
mother’s hands and face, and other body parts. devouring and harboring it. At the same
Introjected objects are more than internal time, the infant’s innate destructive urges
thoughts about external objects; they are create fantasies of damaging the breast
fantasies of internalizing the object in concrete by biting, tearing, or annihilating it
and physical terms.
In order to tolerate both feelings toward the
➢ For example, children who have same object at the same time, the ego splits
introjected their mother believe that she itself, retaining parts of its life and death instinct
is constantly inside their own body. while deflecting parts of both instincts onto the
Klein’s notion of internal objects suggests breast.
that these objects have a power of their
own, comparable to Freud’s concept of a ➢ Rather than fearing its own death instinct,
superego, which assumes that the the infants fears the persecutory breast.
father’s or mother’s conscience is carried ➢ The infants also has a relationship with
within the child the ideal breast which provides love,
comfort and gratification.
POSITIONS
To control the good breast and to fight off its
Klein saw infants as constantly engaging in a basic persecutors, the infant adopts what Klein called
conflict between the life instinct and the death the paranoid-schizoid position, a way of
instinct, that is, between good and bad, love and organizing experiences that includes both
hate, creativity and destruction. paranoid feelings of being persecuted and a
splitting of internal and external objects into
➢ As the ego moves toward integration and
the good and the bad.
away from disintegration, infants
naturally prefer gratifying sensations over ➢ Acc to Klein, infants develop the
frustrating ones paranoid-schizoid position during the first
3 or 4 months of life, during which time
In their attempt to deal with this dichotomy of
the ego’s perception of the external world
good and bad feelings, infants organize their
is subjective and fantastic rather than
experiences into positions or ways of dealing
objective and real.
with both internal and external objects.
➢ the persecutory feelings are considered
Klein chose the term “position” rather than to be paranoid; that is, they are not based
“stage of development” to indicate that positions on any real or immediate danger from the
alternate back and forth; they are not periods of outside world
time or phases of development through which a
person passes. Although she used psychiatric or
pathological labels, Klein intended these
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Chapter 5 (Melanie Klein)
Object Relations Theory
Psychic Defense Mechanisms
DEPRESSIVE POSITION
Klein suggested that from a very early infancy,
About 5th or 6th month, an infant begins to view children adopt several psychic defense
external objects as whole and to see that good mechanisms to protect their ego against anxiety
and bad can exist in the same person. At that aroused by their own destructive fantasies.
time, the infant develops a more realistic
picture of the mother and recognizes that she is These intense destructive feelings originate with
an independent person who can be both good oral-sadistic anxieties concerning the breast—
and bad the dreaded, destructive breast on the one hand
and the satisfying, helpful breast on the other. To
➢ Also, the ego is beginning to mature to the control these anxieties, infants use several
point at which it can tolerate some of its psychic defense mechanisms, such as
own destructive feelings rather than introjection, projection, splitting, and projective
projecting them outward. identification.
➢ However, the infant also realizes that the
mother might go away and be lost forever. INTROJECTION
Fearing the possible loss of the mother,
the infant desires to protect her and keep Klein meant that infants fantasize taking into their
her from the dangers of its own body those perceptions and experiences that they
destructive forces, those cannibalistic have had with the external object, originally the
impulses that had previously been mother’s breast.
projected onto her ➢ Introjection begins with an infant’s first
The feelings of anxiety over losing a loved object feeding, when there is an attempt to
coupled with a sense of guilt for wanting to incorporate the mother’s breast into the
destroy that object constitute what Klein called infant’s body. Ordinarily, the infant tries to
the depressive position introject good objects, to take them inside
itself as a protection against anxiety.
➢ Because children see their mother as However, sometimes the infant
whole and also as being endangered, they introjects bad objects, such as the bad
are able to feel empathy for her, a breast or the bad penis, to gain control
quality that will be beneficial in their over them. When dangerous objects are
future interpersonal relations. introjected, they become internal
persecutors, capable of terrifying the
➢ The depressive position is resolved when infant and leaving frightening residues
children fantasize that they have made that may be expressed in dreams or in an
reparation for their previous interest in fairy tales such as “The Big Bad
transgressions and when they recognize Wolf” or “Snow White and the Seven
that their mother will not go away Dwarfs.”
permanently but will return after each
departure. When the depressive position Introjected objects are not accurate
is resolved, children close the split representations of the real objects but are
between the good and the bad mother. colored by children’s fantasies
Theories of Personality
Chapter 5 (Melanie Klein)
Object Relations Theory
➢ It enables people to see both positive and
negative aspects of themselves, to
PROJECTION evaluate their behavior as good or bad,
and to differentiate between likable and
Just as infants use introjection to take in both
unlikable acquaintances.
good and bad objects, they use projection to get
➢ On the other hand, excessive and
rid of them.
inflexible splitting can lead to
➢ Projection is the fantasy that one’s own pathological repression.
feelings and impulses reside in another
PROJECTIVE IDENTIFICATION
person and not within one’s body.
➢ By projecting unmanageable destructive a psychic defense mechanism in which infants
impulses onto external objects, infants split off unacceptable parts of themselves,
alleviate the unbearable anxiety of project them into another object, and finally
being destroyed by dangerous internal introject them back into themselves in a
forces changed or distorted form.
o For example, a young boy who
desires to castrate his father may ➢ By taking the object back into
instead project these castration themselves, infants feel that they have
fantasies onto his father, thus become like that object; that is, they
turning his castration wishes identify with that object.
around and blaming his father for ➢ projective identification exists only in
wanting to castrate him. the world of real interpersonal
o People can also project good relationships.
impulses. For example, infants
INTERNALIZATIONS
who feel good about their
mother’s nurturing breast will When object relations theorists speak of
attribute their own feelings of internalizations, they mean that the person takes
goodness onto the breast and in (introjects) aspects of the external world and
imagine that the breast is good then organizes those introjections into a
psychologically meaningful framework.
SPLITTING
In Kleinian theory, three important internalizations
Infants can only manage the good and bad
are the ego, the superego, and the Oedipus
aspects of themselves and of external objects by
complex.
splitting them, that is, by keeping apart
incompatible impulses.

To separate bad and good objects, the ego must EGO

itself be split. Thus, infants develop a picture of
both the “good me” and the “bad me” that ➢ Klein believed that the ego, or one’s
enables them to deal with both pleasurable and sense of self, reaches maturity at a much
destructive impulses toward external objects. earlier stage than Freud had assumed.
➢ Klein largely ignored the id and based
➢ Can either be positive or negative her theory on ego’s early ability to
➢ If its not extreme and rigid, it can be a sense both destructive and loving
positive and useful mechanism not only forces and to manage them through
for infants but also for adults. splitting, projection and introjection.
Theories of Personality
Chapter 5 (Melanie Klein)
Object Relations Theory
➢ Klein believed that although ego is mostly anal stage. In contrast, Klein held that
unorganized at birth, it nevertheless is the Oedipus complex begins during the
strong enough to feel anxiety, to use earliest months of life, overlaps with the
defense mechanism, and to form early oral and anal stages, and reaches its
object relations in both phantasy and climax during the genital stage at around
reality. age 3 or 4
➢ Second, Klein believed that a significant
The ego begins to evolve with the infant’s first
part of the Oedipus complex is
experience with feeding, when the good breast
children’s fear of retaliation from their
fills the infant not only with milk but with love and
parent for their fantasy of emptying the
security. But the infant also experiences the bad
parents’ body.
breast—the one that is not present or does not
➢ Third, she stressed the importance of
give milk, love, or security.
children retaining positive feelings
SUPEREGO toward both parents during the oedipal
years.
Klein’s picture of the superego differs from ➢ Fourth, she hypothesized that during its
Freud’s in at least three important respects. early stages, the Oedipus complex
serves the same need for both genders
➢ First, it emerges much earlier in life. and that is to establish positive attitude
➢ second, it is not an outgrowth of the with the good or gratifying object
Oedipus complex; and (breast or penis) and to avoid the bad or
➢ third, it is much harsher and crueler. terrifying object (breast or penis).
Klein (1933) arrived at these differences through
FEMALE OEDIPAL DEVELOPMENT
her analysis of young children, an experience
Freud did not have. ❖ During the first months, a little girl sees
her mother’s breast as both “good and
Klein would concur that the more mature
bad”.
superego produces feelings of inferiority and guilt,
❖ Then around 6 months, she begins to view
but her analysis of young children led her to
the breast as more positive than negative.
believe that the early superego produces not guilt
❖ Later, she sees her whole mother as full
but terror
of good things, and this attitude leads her
To Klein, young children fear being devoured, to imagine how babies are made.
cut up, and torn into pieces— fears that are ❖ She fantasizes that her father’s penis
greatly out of proportion to any realistic feeds her mother with riches, including
dangers. babies.
❖ Since the girl sees the gather as the giver
OEDIPUS COMPLEX of children, she develops a positive
relationship to it and fantasize that her
Although Klein believed that her view of the
father will fill her body with babies.
Oedipus complex was merely an extension and
not a refutation of Freud’s ideas, her conception If the female Oedipal stage proceeds smoothly,
departed from the Freudian one in several ways. the little girl adopts a “feminine” position and has
a positive relationship with both parents.
➢ First, Klein held that the Oedipus complex
begins at much earlier age than Freud had According to Klein (1945), penis envy stems from
suggested. Freud believed that the the little girl’s wish to internalize her father’s
Oedipus complex took place during the penis and to receive a baby from him.
phallic stage, about 4 or 5 years old and
after they have experienced an oral and
Theories of Personality
Chapter 5 (Melanie Klein)
Object Relations Theory
She later established her own observational
studies at the Masters Children’s Center in New
MALE OEDIPAL DEVELOPMENT York.
❖ Like the young girl, the little boy sees his From 1955 to 1974, she was clinical professor of
mother’s breast as both good and bad. psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of
❖ Then, during the early months of oedipal, Medicine.
development, a boy shifts some of his
oral desires from his mother’s breast to Mahler was primarily concerned with the
his father’s penis. Currently, the little boy psychological birth of the individual that takes
is in his feminine position; that is, he place during the first 3 yrs of life, a time when a
adopts a passive homosexual attitude child gradually surrenders security for autonomy.
towards his father.
➢ Originally, her ideas came from
❖ Next, he moves to a heterosexual
observation of the behaviors of
relationship with his mother, but because
disturbed children interacting with
of his previous feeling for his father, he
their mothers.
has no ear that his father will castrate
him. To Mahler, an individual’s psychological birth
❖ As the boy matures, he develops oral- begins during the first weeks of postnatal life and
sadistic impulses toward his father and continues for the next 3 years or so.
wants to bite off his penis and to murder
By Psychological birth, Mahler meant that the
him.
❖ These feelings arouse castration anxiety child becomes an individual separate from his/her
and the fear that his father will retaliate primary caregiver, an accomplishment that leads
ultimately to a sense of identity.
against him by biting off his penis. This
fear convinces the little boy that sexual Three Major Developmental Stages:
intercourse with his mother would be
extremely dangerous to him. Normal Autism
❖ The boy’s Oedipus complex is resolved
➢ Birth until age 3 or 4 weeks
only partially by his castration anxiety.
➢ Mahler borrowed Freud’s analogy that
A more important factor is his ability to establish compared psychological birth with an
positive relationships with both parents at the unhatched bird egg. The bird can satisfy
same time. At that point, the boy sees his its nutritional needs autistically (without
parents as whole objects, a condition that regard to external reality) because its
enables him to work through his depressive food supply is enclosed in its shell.
position. Similarly, a newborn infant satisfies
various needs within the all-powerful
Later Views on Object Relations protective orbit of a mother’s care
➢ Unlike Klein, who conceptualized a
newborn infant as being terrified, Mahler
Margaret Mahler’s View pointed to the relatively long periods of
sleep and general lack of tension in a
Was born in Sopron, Hungary, and received a neonate.
medical degree from the university of Vienna in ➢ She believed that this stage is a period of
1923 absolute primary narcissism in which an
infant is unaware of any other person.
In 1913, she moved to NY, where she was a
Thus, she referred to normal autism as an
consultant of Children’s Service of the New
“objectless” stage, a time when an
York State Psychiatric Institute.
infant naturally searches for the mother’s
Theories of Personality
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Object Relations Theory
breast. She disagreed with Klein’s notion external world as being more dangerous
that infants incorporate the good breast than it was during the first two stages
and other objects into their ego.
Mahler divided the separation-individuation stage
As infants gradually realize that they cannot into four overlapping substages.
satisfy their own needs, they begin to recognize
Differentation
their primary caregiver and to seek a symbiotic
relationship with her, a condition that leads to ➢ lasts about 5th month until the 7th to 10th
normal symbiosis, the second developmental month of age and marked by a bodily
stage in Mahler’s theory breaking away from the mother-infant
symbiotic orbit.
Normal Symbiosis
➢ Mahler observed that infants smile in
➢ Begins around 4th or 5th week of age but response to their own mother,
reaches its zenith during the 4th or 5th indicating a bond with a specific other
month. person.
➢ During this time “the infant behaves and ➢ Psychologically healthy infants who
functions as though he and his mother expand their world beyond the mother will
were an omnipotent system—a dual unity be curious about strangers and will
within one common boundary” inspect them; unhealthy infants will fear
➢ In the analogy of the bird egg, the shell is strangers and recoil from them
now beginning to crack, but a
As infants physically begin to move away from
psychological membrane in the form of a
their mothers by crawling and walking, they enter
symbiotic relationship still protects the
the practicing substage of separation-
newborn.
individuation,
Mahler recognized that this relationship is not a
Practicing
true symbiosis because, although the infant’s
life is dependent on the mother, the mother ➢ about the 7th to 10th month of age to
does not absolutely need the infant. about the 15th or 16th month.
➢ During this subphase, children easily
➢ The infant sends cues to the mother of
distinguish their body from their
hunger, pain, pleasure, and so forth, and
mother’s, establish a specific bond
the mother responds with her own cues,
with their mother, and begin to develop
such as feeding, holding, or smiling. By
an autonomous ego.
this age the infant can recognize the
➢ They don’t like to lose sight of their
mother’s face and can perceive her
mother; they follow her with their eyes
pleasure or distress. However, object
and show distress when she is away.
relations have not yet begun mother and
others are still “preobjects.” Rapprochement
Separation-individuation ➢ About 16 to 25 months of age. They desire
to bring their mother and themselves
➢ 4th or 5th month of age until about the
back together, both physically and
30th to 36th month.
psychologically.
➢ children become psychologically
separated from their mothers, achieve a ➢ Mahler noticed that children this age
sense of individuation, and begin to want to share with their mother every
develop feelings of personal identity new acquisition of skill and every new
➢ young children in the separation- experience.
individuation stage experience the
Theories of Personality
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Object Relations Theory
➢ Now that they can walk with ease, He was a professional lecturer in the
children are more physically separate Department of Psychiatry at the University of
from the mother, but paradoxically, Chicago, a member of the faculty at the
they are more likely to show Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, and
visiting professor of psychoanalysis at the
separation anxiety during the
University of Cincinnati.
rapprochement stage than during the
previous period. In 1971, Kohut upset many psychoanalyses with
➢ Their increased cognitive skills make his publication of The Analysis of the Self, which
them more aware of their replaced the ego with the concept of self. In
separateness, causing them to try addition to this book, aspects of his self-
psychology are found in The Restoration of the
various ploys to regain the dual unity
Self (1977) and The Kohut Seminars (1987), edited
they once had with their mother.
by Miriam Elson and published after Kohut’s
➢ Because these attempts are never death.
completely successful, children of
this age often fight dramatically with ➢ Kohut emphasized the process by
their mother, a condition called the which the self evolves from a vague and
undifferentiated image to a clear and
rapprochement crisis
precise sense of individual identity.
Libidinal Object Constancy ➢ He also focused on the early mother-
child relationship and the key to
➢ 3rd year of life understanding later development
➢ During this time, children must ➢ Kohut believed that human relatedness,
develop a constant inner not innate instinctual drives, are at the
representation of their mother so that core of human personality.
they can tolerate being physically According to Kohut, infants require adult
separate from her. caregivers not only to gratify physical needs but
➢ If this libidinal object constancy is not also to satisfy basic psychological needs. In
developed, children will continue to caring for both physical and psychological needs,
depend on their mother’s physical adults, or self-objects, treat infants as if they had
presence for their own security. a sense of self
➢ Besides gaining some degree of ➢ Kohut defined the self as “the center of
object constancy, children must the individual’s psychological
consolidate their individuality; that universe”
is, they must learn to function
Kohut (1971, 1977) believed that infants are
without their mother and to develop
naturally narcissistic. They are self-centered,
other object relationships
looking out exclusively for their own welfare
and wishing to be admired for who they are and
Heinz Kohut’s View what they do
Was born in Vienna to educated and talented Two basic narcissistic needs:
Jewish parents
➢ the need to exhibit the grandiose self
On the eve of world War II, he emigrated to ➢ the need to acquire an idealized image
England and, a year later, he moved to the of one or both parents
United States, where he spent most of his
professional life.
Theories of Personality
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Object Relations Theory
➢ Bowlby’s attachment theory also
departed from psychoanalytic thinking by
The grandiose exhibitionistic self is established
taking childhood as its starting point and
when the infant relates to a “mirroring” self-
the extrapolating forward to adulthood.
object who reflects approval of its behavior.
The infant thus forms a rudimentary self-image The origins of attachment theory came from
from messages such as “If others see me as Bowlby’s observations that both human and
perfect, then I am perfect.” primate infants go through a clear sequence of
reactions when separated from their primary
The idealized parent image is opposed to the
caregivers.
grandiose self because it implies that someone
else is perfect. Nevertheless, it too satisfies a Protest Stage - When their caregiver is first out of
narcissistic need because the infant adopts the sight, infants will cry, resist soothing by other
attitude “You are perfect, but I am part of you.” people, and search for their caregiver.

John Bowlby’s Attachment Theory Despair - As separation continues, infants

become quiet, sad, passive, listless, and
Was born in London, where his father was a well- apathetic.
known surgeon.
Detachment - the only one unique to humans.
From an early age, Bowlby was interested in During this stage, infants become emotionally
natural science, medicine, and psychology— detached from other people, including their
subjects he studied at Cambridge University. caregiver.

After receiving a medical degree, he started his ➢ If their caregiver (mother) returns, infants
practice in psychiatry and psychoanalysis in will disregard and avoid her. Children who
1933. At about the same time, he began training in become detached are no longer upset
child psychiatry under Melanie Klein. when their mother leaves them. As they
become older, they play and interact with
During World War II, Bowlby served as an army
others with little emotion but appear to be
psychiatrist, and in 1946 he was appointed
sociable. However, their interpersonal
director of the Department for Children and relations are superficial and lack warmth.
Parents of the Tavistock Clinic.
Bowlby’s theory rests on two fundamental
During the late 1950s, Bowlby spent some time at assumptions:
Stanford’s Center for the Advanced Study in the
Behavioral Sciences but returned to London, ➢ First, a responsive and accessible
where he remained until his death in 1990 caregiver (usually the mother) must
create a secure base for the child
In the 1950s, Bowlby became dissatisfied with
➢ A second assumption of attachment
the object relations perspective, primarily for its
theory is that a bonding relationship (or
inadequate theory of motivation and its lack of
lack thereof) becomes internalized and
empiricism
serves as a mental working model on
➢ With his knowledge of ethology and which future friendships and love
evolutionary he realized that object relationships are built.
relations theory could be integrated
with an evolutionary perspective. By
forming such an integration, he felt he
could correct the empirical shortcomings
of the theory and extend it in a new
direction.
Theories of Personality
Chapter 5 (Melanie Klein)
Object Relations Theory
stranger, and when their mother returns,
they ignore and avoid her.
Mary Ainsworth and the Strange
Situation
Mary Dinsmore Salter Ainsworth (1919–1999) was
born in Glendale, Ohio, the daughter of the
president of an aluminum goods business.

She received her BA, MA, and PhD, all from the
University of Toronto, where she also served as
instructor and lecturer. During her long career,
she taught and conducted research at several
universities and institutes in Canada, the United
States, the United Kingdom, and Uganda.

Influenced by Bowlby’s theory, Ainsworth and her

associates developed a technique for measuring
the type of attachment style that exists
between caregivers and infants, known as the
Strange Situation

➢ This procedure consists of 20 mins

laboratory session in which mother and
infants are alone in a playroom. Then a
stranger comes, and after a few mins,
the stranger begins interacting with the
infant. Then the mother goes away for
two separate 2 mins period. During the
first period, the infant is left alone with
the stranger; during the second period,
the infant is left completely alone

The critical behavior is how the infant reacts when

the mother returns; this behavior is the basis of
the attachment style rating. Ainsworth and her
associates found three attachment style ratings:
secure, anxious-resistant, and avoidant

➢ In a secure attachment, when their

mother returns, infants are happy and
enthusiastic and initiate contact
➢ In an anxious-resistant attachment
style, infants are ambivalent. When their
mother leaves the room, they become
unusually upset, and when their mother
returns, they seek contact with her but
reject attempts at being soothed.
➢ In anxious avoidant, infants stay calm
when their mother leaves; they accept the