Object relations theory is a branch of psychoanalysis founded by the British psychoanalyst Melanie Klein in the 20s of the 20th century. Object psychology believes that the core of personality structure is the relationship with others, that is, the object relationship. Object relations include cognition, emotion, and behavior towards others.
Object psychology believes that the formation of object relationships begins in infancy. In the interaction between the baby and the mother, the infant gradually forms an object representation of the mother. The object representation is the infant's internalization of the mother, including the cognition, emotion and behavior of the mother.
Object psychology believes that the development of object relations is a dynamic process. Babies go through a series of stages of psychological development in their interactions with their mothers. Each stage has an impact on the development of the subject matter relationship.
The goal of object psychology is to help patients repair damaged object relationships and establish healthy object relationships. Object psychology mainly adopts the method of empathy, that is, the teacher helps the patient to re-experience the early mother-infant relationship through interaction with the patient, so as to repair the object relationship.
The main concepts of object psychology include:
Object Relationship: The object relationship is the core of the personality structure and is the relationship with others. Object relations include cognition, emotion, and behavior towards others.
Object Representation: Object representation is the infant's internalization of others, including cognition, emotion, and behavior of others.
Early mother-infant relationship: Early mother-infant relationship is an important foundation for the development of object relationship.
Stages of psychological development: Babies go through a series of stages of psychological development in their interactions with their mothers. Each stage has an impact on the development of the subject matter relationship.
Object psychology has had a profound impact on psychoanalytic theory and practice. The object psychology method is widely used in psychological problems such as borderline personality disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Here are some of the main theories of object psychology:
Internalization: Internalization refers to the process of internalizing an external object into an internal object. Internal object refers to the internalization of external object, including cognition, emotion, and behavior of the object.
*:* refers to the process of dividing external objects into good and bad objects. A good object is an object that satisfies the baby's needs, and a bad object is an object that threatens the baby's needs.
Projection: Projection refers to the process of projecting one's own emotions, thoughts, or actions onto others.
Empathy: Empathy refers to the process by which the patient projects past psychological problems onto the teacher.
Object psychology believes that these theories can help us understand the development of personality and the formation of psychological problems.