Object-Relations & Attachment Theory

Question 1

How do defense mechanisms work?
What are Klein’s defense mechanisms?

Answer 1

Klein suggested that, from very early infancy, children adopt several psychic defense mechanisms to protect their ego against the anxiety that stems from their destructive fantasies about the breast

Introjection, Projection, Splitting and Projection Identification

Question 2

Introjection

Answer 2

Infants fantasize taking into their body those perceptions/experiences that they have had with an external object like their mother’s breast.

• Example: infants will fantasize that their mother is constantly present (and inside their body) The real mother isn’t but infants will fantasize so that she becomes a constant internal object

Question 3

Projection

Answer 3

The fantasy that one’s own feelings and impulses actually reside in another person and not within one’s body
- This helps infants to alleviate their anxiety of being destroyed by dangerous internal forces

• Example : A young boy who desires to castrate his father may project these castration fantasies onto his father, thus turning his castration wishes around and blaming his father for wanting to castrate him

Question 4

Splitting

Answer 4

Bcause infants can only manage the good and bad aspects of themselves and of external objects, they split the ego
- As a result they develop the “good me” and the “bad me”

• Example : When a baby splits their mother’s breast into the Good Breast which feeds and nourishes, and the Bad Breast which withholds feedings

Question 5

Projective Identification

Answer 5

Occurs when infants split off unacceptable parts of themselves, project them into another object, and finally introject them back into themselves in a distorted form

• Example : infants typically split off parts of their destructive impulse and project them into the bad breast. Next, they identify with the breast by introjecting it, a process that permits them to gain control over the breast

Question 6

What do object-relations theorists focus on? What does the word “object” mean in the context of these theories?

Answer 6

They focus on the mother-child relationship

Determine that an infant’s drives are driven by objects.
- Object : is any person, part of a person, or thing through which their drive is satisfied

Question 7

Compare and contrast Klein’s theory with Freud’s theory. How do they differ and how are they alike?

Answer 7

Klein’s theory is related to Freud’s instinct theory but differs in three ways:
- Emphasizes consistent patterns of interpersonal relationships.
- Stresses maternal nurturing and intimacy.
- Views relatedness as the prime motive of human behavior.

Question 8

Explain Klein’s Paranoid-schizoid position and Depression position

Answer 8

Paranoid-schizoid position :
- Organizes experiences in a way that includes both feelings of persecution and splitting of internal and external objects into the good and the bad.

Depressive position :
- Consists of anxiety over losing a loved object.
- There is a sense of guilt for wanting to destroy a loved object.

Question 9

Discuss the development of the ego and superego according to Klein.

Answer 9

Ego
- Klein believed that the ego reaches maturity at a much earlier stage than
- The ego begins to evolve with the infant’s first experience with feeding where is introduced to :
- The good breast that fills the infant with love and milk
- The bad breast that is not present or does not give milk
- The infant introjects both the good breast and the bad breast
- Before a unified ego can emerge, it must first split into the good me and bad me

Superego
- Klein believed that it emerges much earlier in life
- That it is not an outgrowth of the Oedipus complex
- Early superego produces not guilt like freud believed but terror

Question 10

What is the importance of phantasy in Klein’s theory? How are the infant’s responses to the mother interpreted in her theory?

Answer 10

Klein believed infants possess an active phantasy life.
- The most basic phantasies are of what is “good” and “bad”
- This connects to the infants responses to its mother’s good breast and bad breast

Question 11

Horney’s Psychoanalytic Social Theory

Answer 11

Horney believed that social and cultural influences are more important than biological factors
- She believed that early childhood experiences, especially traumatic ones, can impact a child’s personality

Question 12

How do Horney’s theories on women differ from Freud’s? (esp. penis envy and the Oedipal complex)

Answer 12

Horney insisted that the oedipus complex is due to environmental conditions and that it is not universal
- Believed that it is an expression of the neurotic need for love
- Freud thought it was due to biology and that it was universal

Horney believed that there is no more anatomical reason why girls would have penis envy
- Argued that if “penis envy” existed, “womb envy” would exist as well
- Freud believed that penis envy is a part of a girl’s development

Question 13

What are Bowlby’s four attachment styles.?

Answer 13

Secure attachment
Anxious-Resistant attachment
Anxious-Avoidant attachment
Disorganized attachment

Question 14

Secure attachment

Answer 14

Infants actively explore their environment and interact with strangers while their caregivers are present; when the caregiver returns they actively seek interaction

Question 15

Anxious-Resistant attachment

Answer 15

Infants are very cautious in the presence of a stranger; when the caregiver returns, the infant is difficult to soothe.

Question 16

Anxious-Avoidant attachment

Answer 16

Infants avoid contact with their caregivers after separation and show less distress at being alone.

Question 17

Disorganized attachment

Answer 17

Infants have no consistent strategy for managing their stress and are unpredictable.