Class 3: Object relations and Attachment theories Flashcards
1
Q
Review: Drive
(Techniques)
A
- Evenly Hovering Attention
- Interpretation of unconscious conflict
- Dream Analysis
- Role of Transference
- how client is relating to you
- Goal = insight (make unconscious conscious)
2
Q
Review: Ego
(influential people and contributions)
A
- Anna Freud
- Ego Functions
- builds defense mechanisms to help manage anxiety from internal unconsious conflicts…concerned with intrapsychy conflicts
- Ego Functions
- George Vaillant
- Hierarchy of Defenses
- which are mature, healthy, psychotic…
- Hierarchy of Defenses
3
Q
Object Relations
(basics)
A
- Internal (unconscious) world of relationships
- dont realize how we have internalize things
-
Internal representations of self and others
- Different from relationships
- Evident when experience does not match expectations
- Distinguishes “Object” (other) from “Subject” (self)
4
Q
Object Relations
(1. what is object)
(2. what is it concerned with)
(3. object satisfies what?)
A
- “Object” may be a person or a thing
- Concerned with how our needs are met, or not met
- Object satisfies “needs” rather than drives
- To be to seen and valued—all parts, good and bad
- To be held tight and to be let go
5
Q
Role of the Object in Psychological Development
(Responses to loss)
(info and pic)
A
- Responses to loss
- Similar features (of Freuds view) initially
- Withdrawal from the external world
- Then divergent paths
- Similar features (of Freuds view) initially
6
Q
Mourning
(in object relations)
A
- Mourning = Grieving
- Conscious process, healthy, normal
- The world loses it’s value
- The libido detaches from the lost object through hypercathexis (i.e., excessive investment of libido in the object; energy is focused on the memory of the person)
- An attempt to keep the object alive
- Loss is “real,” is worked through
- Goal is to attaching libido to a new object
- moving on
- The Self remains stable, unchanged
- main thing with mourning
7
Q
Melancholia
(in object relations)
A
- Pathological
- Identification of the ego/self with the lost object, in an effort to maintain the idealized object
- Mourner directs anger/disappointment toward internalized image, which is identified with the self (“anger turned inward”)
- angry at self for loss…what they did to cause loss…their responsibility
- your ego is so tied into the object that a loss of object is a loss of your ego
- Allows mourner to maintain idealized view of the lost object
- Characterized by self-reproach, loss of self-regard, expectation of punishment
- self guilt, idea that have to be in pain
- Loss is emotional, unresolved
8
Q
“Object”
(in drive compared to object relations)
(chart)
A
9
Q
Drive Theory v. Object Relations Theory
(chart)
A
10
Q
Melanie Klein
(basics)
(what is the heart of personality dev?)
(positions are…)
A
- “Drives” directed toward objects
- Mother-infant relationship is at the heart of personality development
- “Positions”
- state of object relationships
- aka “Developmental moments” (Fred Pine)
11
Q
Melanie Klein
(what are the two positions and explain)
A
- Positions: state of object relations
-
Paranoid-schizoid Position
- Earliest position
- Fragmented perception
- needs stuck in good or bad…cant have both
- even withself….cant hold ambivilance
- We experience “Part-objects”
- think borderline
-
Depressive Position
- Awareness of object, and self, as good and bad (ambivalence)
- Loss of innocence
- Goal of development
-
Paranoid-schizoid Position
12
Q
Melanie Klein
(about her and concepts)
(what did she develop?)
A
- Klein was the first to analyze children (her own!)
- The Psychoanalysis of Children (1932)
- Developed “play technique”
- Play is meaningful—symbolic of unconscious
- extra
- Contemporary Kleinian Theory
- Wilfred Bion
- Thomas Ogden
- Contemporary Kleinian Theory
13
Q
D. W. Winnicott
(basic concepts)
A
-
“Bliss of Oneness”
- cannot move from pleasure principle to reality and beyond unless good-enough mother
-
The “Good Enough Mother”
- Attunement
- what child needs
- Attunement
-
“Holding Environment”
- Clinical application: therapist offers “holding environment”
- Antisocial behavior = cry for holding environment
14
Q
D. W. Winnicott
(Transitional Object)
A
- A bridge
- stands for the mother, extends the self
- Clinical application
- More common in cultures that value independence and privacy as opposed to collectivistic
15
Q
D. W. Winnicott
(Primacy of Play)
A
- Our ability to feel ALIVE
- PLAY leads to healing/growth, rather than Insight (per Freud)
- Adult activities that are creative, engaging (sports, art, meaningful conversation) are forms of play
16
Q
D. W. Winnicott
(1. attachment needs to be…)
(2. false self disorder)
A
- …flexible to nurture the “true self”
- “False self disorder”
- Child is not attuned to the needs of others
- Quality of personhood is disordered
- Overly compliant (push over) or overly constricted (stubburn)
17
Q
Defenses in Object Relations
(1. focus is on …)
(2. what do defenses do?)
(3. issues when defenses indicate…(hint two differnt models))
A
- … early development = “Primitive” Defenses
- Primitive refers to earliest developmental period
- Keep anxiety related to object relations at bay
- issue is if the defense indicates
- Developmental arrest (aka Deficit model—the person is stuck)
- Regression (aka Conflict Model—regression in response to stress)
18
Q
Primitive Defenses in
Object Relations
(Introjection)
A
- the good or bad of the other is taken into the self
- e.g., victim of abuse hates self rather than abuser
- they have introjected (believed) that what abuser says is true
- e.g., victim of abuse hates self rather than abuser
19
Q
Primitive Defenses in
Object Relations
(Projection)
A
- unwanted feelings are placed on others (e.g., paranoia)
- ex. saying you sense anger in someone else when you’re the one feeling anger
- just like Freuds concept of the defense
20
Q
Primitive Defenses in
Object Relations
(Projective Identification)
A
- unique to object relations
- the other experiences the projection
- buys into the other persons projection
- a big part of this is empathy
- cant have this defense if you dont empathize
21
Q
Primitive Defenses in
Object Relations
(Denial)
A
- classsic….no different
22
Q
Primitive Defenses in
Object Relations
(Splitting)
A
- good and bad are kept separate
- self or other
- think borderline
- interpersonal relationships are scattered…might praise you for being a special therapist…either best or worst
23
Q
Primitive Defenses in
Object Relations
(Idealization)
A
- focus on positive, keeps painful feelings at bay
- think victims of domestic violence….idea that the abuser is not all that bad…bc here is all the good they do…and when the bad stuff comes up minimizing it
24
Q
Primitive Defenses in
Object Relations
(Devaluation)
A
- keeps painful feelings out of consciousness
- making jokes about painful things to keep pain out of consciousness
- ex…making jokes about how father used to hit you
- ex. think of someone who smiles when talking about painful situations
25
Margaret Mahler
(what is her theory called? and its basics)
* Separation-Individuation Theory
* Rooted in Western cultural values
* Developmental schema, related to maturation
* Developmental Phases
26
Margaret Mahler
| (Separation-Individuation Phases)
* Separation-Individuation Phases
* _Autistic Phase (infancy-6 weeks)_
* non relatedness (no evidence!)
* infant thinks everything is about self...thats all there is
* _Symbiotic Phase (6 weeks - 10 months)_
* begins to get barings of separation of self and other
* individual identity begins to form
* blissful one-ness
* _Differentiation (5 - 12 months)_
* growing interest in the world...not just the oneness with caregiver
* _Practicing (10 - 24 months)_
* exploration, experiencing power-pushing limits...see first seeds of consequences
* _Rapprochement (2 – 3 yrs)_
* ambitendency: 2 wishes/fears
* either overcome by fear of engulfment (not going to get individuation) or fear of abandonment (going to be left to own tools)
* _On the way to Object Constancy (3 yrs - end of life)_
* mixing of fragmentation
* idea of an object can stay constnat in life...even if not physically present
* Belief in object goodness despite needs not being met
27
Object Relations and the Practice of Psychotherapy
(Therapeutic encounter)
* Therapeutic encounter
* Patient’s object relations are expressed in the encounter with the therapist
* Patient and therapist experience these dynamics together
28
Object Relations Critique
* Theory focuses on mother-infant relationship
* Pathology = mother’s fault
* but....really if follwing ths model know it is about representation not just mother...but what you interpreted
* Nuclear family as model
* Primacy of individuation
* assumes everybody wants to be an individual....which is more western culture
29
Attachment Theory
| (Spitz)
* Renee Spitz (1946)
* Observed difference in infants who had physical connection with mothers and those that didnt
* studied infants and mothers in prison
* Protest
* Withdrawal: “Anaclitic Depression”
* Detachment/lack of connection
30
Attachment Theory
| (progression of theorists)
* John Bowlby
* Mary Ainsworth (“Strange Situation”)
* Mary Main (Adult Attachment Interview)
31
John Bowlby
* Integrative theorist
* Need for attachment is biological
* Anxiety: rooted in separation from the object of attachment
32
Mary Ainsworth
* Patterns of Attachment (1982)
* Strange Situation Classification
* Quality of Attachment
* Secure Attachment
* Insecure: Anxious-Avoidant
* Insecure: Anxious Ambivalent or Anxious Resistant
* Resistant
33
Mary Ainsworth
(quality of attachment)
(Secure)
* children feel confident that the attachment figure will meet their needs
* easily soothed by attachment figure when upset
* developed when caregiver is sensitive to their signals and responds approriately to needs
* freely explores enviornment while in presence of caregiver, when they leave they show distress and dont explore, when they return they are happy to see caregiver and freely explore again
34
Mary Ainsworth
(quality of attachment)
(Insecure: Anxious-Avoidant)
* do not orientate to their attachment figure while investigating their enviornment
* does not seem willing to explore enviornment. appear frightened when caregiver is in room and apprehensive to explore. when caregiver leaves they show distress and still wont explore. when caregiver returns they avoid caregiver and are not happy to see them
35
Mary Ainsworth
(quality of attachment)
(Insecure: anxious ambiv or anxious resistant)
* children adopt ambivalent behavioral style toward attachment figure
* might be clingy and dependent but also rejecting of attachment figure when they engage in interactoins
* anxious to explore envionrment even in presence of caregiver. when they leave they may be upset or may not be. when caregiver returns they do not seem to care that they came back . they want to be near caregiver but dont appear happy that they have returned
36
Mary Main
* Internal Working Models of Attachment
* Adult Attachment Interview
* Extends model into adulthood
* Quality of Adult Attachment
* Secure
* Dismissing (Avoidant)
* Preoccupied (Ambivalent)
* \*Disorganized
37
Attachment Theory and the Practice of Psychotherapy
* Therapist as secure base
* Transference
* Therapist’s own attachment style
38
Critique of Attachment
* Mother focus
* Impact of Trauma
* Abuse associated with disorganized attachment
* Continuity across the lifespan
* Attachment v. Temperament
* interventions resulted in shift in attachment, not temperament
* Psychopathology: some correlation
* Gender and Culture: generally consistent
