KLEIN AND ADDITIONAL THEORISTS

• Psychodynamic theories: Melanie Klein's object relations theory
• Object relations theory


  Built on careful observations of young children, stressed the importance of the first 4 to 6 months after birth, insisted that an infant's drive is directed to an object, the child's relation to the breast (e.g. breast) is fundamental and serves as a prototype for later relations to whole objects (e.g. mother/father), places less emphasis on biologically based drives and more importance on consistent patterns of interpersonal relationships, opposed to Freud's paternalistic theory that emphasizes the power and control of the father, object relations theory tends to be more maternal, stressing the intimacy and nurturing of the mother, generally see human contact and relatedness as the prime motive of human behavior – not sexual pleasure
• Phantasies


  The psychic representations of unconscious ID instincts, the unconscious images of "good" and "bad"
• Positions


  The infant's ways of dealing with both internal and external objects, choose the term "positions" to indicate that it alternates back and forth, not periods of time or phases of development
• Paranoid-schizoid position


  The way of organizing experiences that includes both paranoid feelings of being persecuted and the splitting of internal and external objects into the good and the bad, developed during the first 3 to 4 months of life
• Depressive position


  Begins at about 5 to 6 months of life, the feelings of anxiety over losing a loved object coupled with a sense of guilt for wanting to destroy that object
• Psychic defense mechanisms


  • Introjection
  • Projection
  • Splitting
  • Projective identification
• Introjection


  Infants fantazise taking into their body those perceptions and experiences that they have had with the external object, originally the mother's breasts, infant tries to introject good objects as a protection against anxiety, begins with an infant's first feeding
• Projection


  The fantasy that one's own feelings and impulses actually reside in another person and not within one's body
• Splitting


  The process of keeping apart incompatible impulses, infants develop a picture of both the "good me" and the "bad me"
• Projective identification


  The psychic defense mechanism in which infants split off unacceptable parts of themselves, project them into another object, and introject them back into themselves in a changed or distorted form
• Internalizations


  The process of taking in (introjecting) aspects of the external world and then organizing those introjections into a psychologically meaningful framework
• Ego


  The one's sense of self that reaches maturity at a much earlier stage, begins to evolve with the infant's first experience with feeding
• Object relations


  The relationship an infant had with the external object, originally the mother's breasts
• Introjection


  The fantasy that one's own feelings and impulses actually reside in another person and not within one's body
• Splitting


  The process of keeping apart incompatible impulses
• Ego


  One's sense of self that reaches maturity at a much earlier stage, begins to evolve with the infant's first experience with feeding
• Superego


  Emerges much earlier in life, not an outgrowth of the Oedipus complex, and much more harsh and cruel
• Oedipus complex


  Children's fear of retaliation from their parents for their phantasy, stressed the importance of children retaining positive feelings toward both parents
• Margaret Mahler's theory


  • Children's sense of identity rests on three-step relationship with their mother: 1) Infants have basic needs cared for by their mother, 2) Infants develop a safe symbiotic relationship with an all-powerful mother, 3) Infants emerge from their mother's protective circle and establish their separate individuality
• Normal autism


  The first developmental stage, spans the period from birth until about age 3 or 4 weeks, the "objectless" stage, a time when an infant naturally searches for the mother's breast
• Normal symbiosis


  The second developmental stage, begins around the 4th or 5th week of age until 4th or 5th month of age, infants realize that they cannot satisfy their own needs and begin to recognize their primary caregiver and to seek a symbiotic relationship with her
• Separation-individuation


  The third developmental stage, spans from about the 4th or 5th month of age until about 30th to 36th month of age, children become psychologically separated from their mothers, achieve a sense of individuation, and begin to develop feelings of personal identity
• Separation-individuation substages


  • Differentiation
  • Practicing
  • Rapprochement
  • Libidinal object constancy
• Differentiation


  Lasts about the 5th month until the 7th or 10th month of age, marked by a bodily breaking away from the mother-infant symbiotic orbit
• Practicing


  From about the 7th or 10th month to about 15th or 16th month, begin to walk and to take in the outside world
• Rapprochement


  From about 16 to 25 months of age, the desire to bring their mother and themselves back together, both physically and psychologically
• Libidinal object constancy


  Approximates the 3rd year of life, must develop a constant inner representation of their mother so that they can tolerate being physically separate from her
• Heinz Kohut's theory


  Children develop a sense of self during early infancy when parents and others treat them as if they had an individualized sense of identity
• Grandiose-exhibitionistic self


  Established when the infant relates to a "mirroring" self-object who reflect approval of its behavior, "If others see me as perfect, then I am perfect."
• Idealized parent image


  Opposed to the grandiose self because it implies that someone else is perfect, "You are perfect, but I am part of you."
• John Bowlby's theory


  Investigated infants' attachment to their mother as well as the negative consequences of being separated from their mother
• Stages of separation anxiety

  • Protest stage
  • Despair
  • Detachment
• Protest stage


  When the caregiver is out of sight, infants will cry, resist soothing by other people, and search for the caregiver
• Despair


  As separation continues, infants become quiet, sad, passive, listless, and apathetic
• Detachment


  The only one unique to humans, infants become emotionally detached from other people, including their caregiver
• Mary Ainsworth's Strange Situation


  Technique developed for measuring the type of attachment style that exist between the caregiver and the infant
• Secure attachment


  When their mother returns, infants are happy and enthusiastic, and initiate contact
• Anxious-ambivalent attachment


  When their mother returns they seek contact with her but reject attempts at being soothed
• Avoidant attachment


  Infants stay calm when their mother leaves; they accept the stranger, and when their mother returns, they ignore and avoid her