Object relations theory explains how an infant’s mind develops in relation to objects in their environment. The theory involves two stages of development, the paranoid-schizoid position and the depressive position, and includes defense mechanisms such as introjection, projection, and projective identification. British psychologists Ronald Fairbairn and Melanie Klein are co-founders of the object relations school.
Object relations theory is a psychodynamic theory that builds on and expands on the work of Sigmund Freud on psychoanalysis to try to explain how an infantile subject’s mind develops in relation to objects – usually people or parts of people – in his or her environment. . In this theory, the infantile subject forms mental concepts by testing his preconceptions against reality. In the first six months of life, the baby ideally moves through two positions, or stages of development. The child learns to tolerate conflicting feelings towards objects and to better distinguish between himself and the other. These milestones are crucial for ego integration and healthy psychological development into adulthood.
British psychologist Ronald Fairbairn was the first to officially use the term “object relations theory” in 1952. Fairbairn and psychoanalyst Melanie Klein are considered co-founders of the object relations school. Other well-known object relations theorists include Harry Guntrip, Margaret Mahler, and DW Winnicott.
Although Klein viewed object relations theory as an expansion of Freud’s work, a rift developed between British object relations theorists and the American school of ego psychology, based on the work of Anna Freud. Sigmund Freud had theorized the object relationship, but believed that the subject relates to the object in order to satisfy his drives. In contrast, Klein and other object relations theorists argued that the subject’s goal was the fulfillment of the inherent desire to relate to objects in her environment.
From her psychoanalysis of young children, Klein theorized that children’s minds begin to develop by testing preconceptions against reality. Preconceptions can be thought of as instincts, such as a newborn’s search for her mother’s nipple. According to this theory, as the child gains experience with her environment, she forms concepts about which she can fantasize.
In this initial phase, which Klein calls the paranoid-schizoid position, the infant’s environment is filled with part objects, such as his mother’s breast or his father’s hand. The child learns to focus energy on these objects and creates internal objects, which are mental representations of external objects, which he fantasizes about. Objects that satisfy the child’s drives are seen as “good” objects, and objects that frustrate his drives are seen as “bad” objects.
It is important to note that in the paranoid-schizoid position, the child subject cannot reconcile good and bad feelings towards the same object, and therefore sees them as separate objects. The “good” breast that satisfies the baby’s desire to be nursed is not the same breast as the “bad” one that causes him to go hungry. The inability to tolerate conflicting feelings toward the same object is known as “splitting” and is a common psychic defense mechanism for individuals in the paranoid-schizoid position.
In this phase of development, the newborn subject also makes use of other defense mechanisms. Introjection is a mechanism by which the infant uses a phantasy to internalize comforting aspects of objects in her environment, such as feeling safe in the shelter of her mother’s breast. Projection is a mechanism by which the infantile subject psychologically transfers his feelings to an object in his environment, and can thus free himself from destructive or threatening feelings. The infant also uses projective identification, which is a mechanism by which he transfers part of himself to an object to feel a sense of control over that object.
As the infantile subject matures psychologically, he enters what Klein calls the depressive position. This should happen when the baby is three to four months old. In this stage, the child learns to reconcile conflicting feelings and realizes that the same object can have both positive and negative, or drive satisfying and frustrating aspects. The environment that was dominated by part objects in the paranoid-schizoid position is now populated by whole objects; it refers to his mother rather than just his mother’s breast. In the depressive position, the child begins to integrate the ego and whole objects are recognized as separate and autonomous beings.
Due to the importance of ego psychology, the British school of object relations theory was largely ignored by American psychology until the 1970s. Modern derivations of object relations theory include attachment theory and self psychology.
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