Melanie Klein’s Object Relations

TheoryPresented by:

Mary Anne A. Portuguez, MP, RPm

BRIEF BIOGRAPHYMelanie Klein was born in Vienna in 1892, the youngest of four children. Klein believed that her birth was unplanned. She had neither a PhD nor an MD degree but became an

analyst by being psychoanalyzed. As an analyst, she specialized in working with young children. In 1927, she moved to London where she practiced until her death in

1960.

IMPORTANT• Emphasizes interpersonal relations, primarily in the family and

especially between mother and child. "Object" actually means person (Martin Buber, where are you now that we need you?), and especially the significant person that is the object or target of another's feelings or intentions. • "Relations" refers to interpersonal relations and suggests the residues

of past relationships that affect a person in the present. Object relations theorists are interested in inner images of the self and other and how they manifest themselves in interpersonal situations(Daniel, retrieved as of 2016).

BASIC TENETObject relations theorists see personality as being a product of the early mother-child relationship, and thus they stress determinism over free choice. The powerful influence of early childhood also gives these theories a low rating on uniqueness, a very high rating on social influences, and high ratings on causality and unconscious forces. Klein and other object relations theorists rate average on optimism versus pessimism.

How it is different from Freud?1. Object relations theory places less emphasis on

biologically based drives and more importance on consistent patterns of interpersonal relationships.

2. More maternal, stressing the intimacy and nurturing of the mother.

3. Object relations theorists generally see human contact and relatedness—not sexual pleasure—as the prime motive of human behavior.

Some important terms• Phantasies, psychic representations of unconscious id instincts.• Objects• Positions, ways of dealing with both internal and external

objects• Paranoid-schizoid position (3rd -4th), a way of organizing

experiences that includes both paranoid feelings of being persecuted and a splitting of internal and external objects into the good and the bad.• Depressive position (5th-6th ), the ego is beginning to mature• to the point at which it can tolerate some of its own destructive

feelings.

STRENGTHS• Importance of early development• Direct treatment of children• Formation of play therapy• Use of free association

WEAKNESSES• Lack of controlled studies• Theories based on personal, clinical experience• Lack of agreement with fellow psychoanalysis