Object Relations Theory Research Articles

ICD-11 Personality Disorders: A Psychodynamic Perspective on Personality Functioning.

The new ICD-11 introduces a fully dimensional classification of personality disorders representing a fundamental change in personality disorder diagnosis with major implications for clinical practice and research. The new system centers on the evaluation of the severity of impairment in the areas of self and interpersonal functioning. This focus on personality functioning converges with long-standing psychoanalytic/psychodynamic conceptualizations of personality pathology. In a detailed conceptual analysis and review of existing empirical data, points of convergence and notable differences between major exponents of the psychodynamic tradition—object relations theory as developed by Kernberg et al. and the Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnosis—and the ICD-11 system are critically discussed. Personality functioning can be considered to be the current “common ground” for the assessment of personality disorders and constitutes a considerable step forward in making personality disorder diagnosis both clinically meaningful and suitable for research purposes.

‘Strong clinging to objects’: materiality and relationality in Melanie Klein’s Observations after an Operation (1937)

This article presents and analyses a set of notes written by the psychoanalyst Melanie Klein following an operation in 1937. The notes, entitled Observations after an Operation, act as a case study of the intersection of psychical, material and social relations as they play out in the immediate aftermath of surgical intervention. Using a close reading method, the article contextualises an analysis of Observations after an Operation by linking it to Klein’s wider corpus of theoretical work. It deals in turn with the representation of anxiety mechanisms in the patient experience, drawing upon Klein’s notes on the similarity with ‘anxiety-situations’ in early childhood; with Klein’s changed relation with both external objects and their counterparts in the individual’s mental landscape; with the role of sensation in phantasy, and the connection to bodily pain; with the doctor-patient relationship and the way this is perceived as being embodied in material objects, played out across two dreams experienced by Klein during her recovery; with the emphasis on illness as a form of mourning; and with the creative potential that the experience offers for a renewed structure of object relations. The article concludes that a greater attention to the role and representation of material objects, using psychoanalytic object relations theory as a starting point, can enhance how we collectively understand and assess the psychical impact of healthcare settings upon the patient. It also invites other scholars across the critical medical humanities to consult and analyse the newly available text upon which this article is based.

Lilith: A Rabbinic Projection of the Demonic Female

Why has the ancient Sumerian myth of the demon goddess Lilith become part of Jewish lore? Rabbinic sages (100 C.E. to 600 C.E.) applied midrash, a method of Jewish textual analysis, to the original biblical creation story to validate the position that Eve was Adam’s equal partner. Why did the rabbinic sages of the Talmud feel the compulsion to augment the biblical story of Adam and Eve with the Near Eastern myth of the dark feminine of Lilith? These questions are addressed using object relations theory and the Jungian archetypes of the Great Mother and the anima. The lens of psychological theory shows that this mythic goddess has the potential to re-emerge from the depths of the unconscious.

Neuroscience of Object Relations in Health and Disorder: A Proposal for an Integrative Model.

Recent advances in the neuroscience of episodic memory provide a framework to integrate object relations theory, a psychoanalytic model of mind development, with potential neural mechanisms. Object relations are primordial cognitive-affective units of the mind derived from survival- and safety-level experiences with caretakers during phase-sensitive periods of infancy and toddlerhood. Because these are learning experiences, their neural substrate likely involves memory, here affect-enhanced episodic memory. Inaugural object relations are encoded by the hippocampus-amygdala synaptic plasticity, and systems-consolidated by medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Self- and object-mental representations, extracted from these early experiences, are at first dichotomized by contradictory affects evoked by frustrating and rewarding interactions (“partial object relations”). Such affective dichotomization appears to be genetically hardwired the amygdala. Intrinsic propensity of mPFC to form schematic frameworks for episodic memories may pilot non-conscious integration of dichotomized mental representations in neonates and infants. With the emergence of working memory in toddlers, an activated self- and object-representation of a particular valence can be juxtaposed with its memorized opposites creating a balanced cognitive-affective frame (conscious “integration of object relations”). Specific events of object relations are forgotten but nevertheless profoundly influence the mental future of the individual, acting (i) as implicit schema-affect templates that regulate attentional priorities, relevance, and preferential assimilation of new information based on past experience, and (ii) as basic units of experience that are, under normal circumstances, integrated as attractors or “focal points” for interactive self-organization of functional brain networks that underlie the mind. A failure to achieve integrated object relations is predictive of poor adult emotional and social outcomes, including personality disorder. Cognitive, cellular-, and systems-neuroscience of episodic memory appear to support key postulates of object relations theory and help elucidate neural mechanisms of psychodynamic psychotherapy. Derived through the dual prism of psychoanalysis and neuroscience, the gained insights may offer new directions to enhance mental health and improve treatment of multiple forms of psychopathology.

Creative Expression as Transitional Object: Bridging Personal-Professional Identity.

The authors share their observations on the implications of concepts originated in object relations theory in art therapy students' and clinicians' identity development. Through the lens of object relations theory, students considered how the personal informs the professional, as reflected in assemblage and artwork inspired by personal or found objects. Through their own creative expression, students learned how to apply object relations theory beyond its original formulation, and how their artwork acts as a transitional object between their personal history and professional individuation. The authors explore how creative expression may serve as a bridge between these two aspects of the self, thus facilitating an educated and creatively informed personal/professional integration in the process of clinical training and practice.

Together and apart: using Plasticine as a sensory therapeutic intervention for a service user diagnosed with severe learning disabilities

ABSTRACT Background The prevalence of mental illness among people diagnosed with severe learning disabilities is well documented, however limitations in verbal, cognitive, emotional and social skills are often used as reasons to withhold referrals for psychotherapeutic interventions within this client group. Context This paper describes the one-year art-therapy informed psychotherapeutic work carried out with Ioanna, a 61-year-old lady with a dual-diagnosis that took place in a Residential Unit providing psychosocial support for people with severe psychiatric disorders and/or learning disabilities in Athens Greece during 2018. Approach Within the case-vignette the use of Plasticine as a therapeutic medium is presented. Concepts from psychodynamic and object-relations theory are also used as a framework for understanding the course of this therapeutic intervention. Outcomes The contribution of sensory materials appeared valuable in this psychotherapeutic intervention with an apparently ‘untreatable’ institutionalised service user, helping to build a trusting psychotherapeutic relationship, and enable Ioanna to regulate some of her challenging behaviours. Conclusions The use of Plasticine and play, and the development of a ‘together and apart’ game within a psychotherapeutic intervention, appeared to modify Ioanna's challenging behaviour, and improve her ability to relate and communicate with the therapist and her carers. Implications for research Research into the use of Plasticine as part of an art therapy programme for people with severe learning difficulties, would provide a useful addition to the knowledge in this area. A review of the current psychiatric services in Greece and of what constitutes ‘clinical progress’ also seems necessary. Plain-language summary This paper describes the one-year art-therapy informed psychotherapeutic work I undertook with Ioanna, a 61-year-old lady with a diagnosis of severe learning disabilities and mental illness. This took place in a Residential Unit providing psychosocial support for people with severe psychiatric disorders and/or learning disabilities in Athens Greece during 2018. At this time, I was also undergoing my art therapy training. The practice description in this paper describes the contribution of Plasticine as a sensory, therapeutic medium. Theories related to the relationship that a baby or child develops with its primary care giver are used as a framework for understanding the course of this therapeutic intervention. The relationship between learning disabilities and mental illness is well documented in clinical literature, however people with dual diagnosis or severe learning disabilities are often overlooked where referrals for psychotherapy are concerned, as it is believed that they cannot take part due to a perceived lack of communication skills. This paper describes how the use of Plasticine and playing a ‘together and apart' game appeared to contribute to Ioanna’s development of a trusting therapeutic relationship, the modification of challenging behaviour, and improved communication through the medium of Plasticine and play. Research into the use of Plasticine and the ‘together and apart game' with this client group is recommended. It is also important to rethink and reflect on the provision of psychotherapeutic services within the current psychiatric services in Greece for this client group, and consider what constitutes clinical ‘progress' from the client’s perspective.

'Strong clinging to objects': materiality and relationality in Melanie Klein's Observations after an Operation (1937).

This article presents and analyses a set of notes written by the psychoanalyst Melanie Klein following an operation in 1937. The notes, entitled Observations after an Operation, act as a case study of the intersection of psychical, material and social relations as they play out in the immediate aftermath of surgical intervention. Using a close reading method, the article contextualises an analysis of Observations after an Operation by linking it to Klein's wider corpus of theoretical work. It deals in turn with the representation of anxiety mechanisms in the patient experience, drawing upon Klein's notes on the similarity with 'anxiety-situations' in early childhood; with Klein's changed relation with both external objects and their counterparts in the individual's mental landscape; with the role of sensation in phantasy, and the connection to bodily pain; with the doctor-patient relationship and the way this is perceived as being embodied in material objects, played out across two dreams experienced by Klein during her recovery; with the emphasis on illness as a form of mourning; and with the creative potential that the experience offers for a renewed structure of object relations. The article concludes that a greater attention to the role and representation of material objects, using psychoanalytic object relations theory as a starting point, can enhance how we collectively understand and assess the psychical impact of healthcare settings upon the patient. It also invites other scholars across the critical medical humanities to consult and analyse the newly available text upon which this article is based.

Will sexual robots modify human relationships? A psychological approach to reframe the symbolic argument

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to understand if and how interactions with Sexual Robots will modify users’ relational abilities in human-human relations. We first underline that, in today’s scholar discussion on the ‘symbolic argument’, there is no theoretical framework explaining the process of symbolic shift between human-robot interactions (HRI) and human-human interactions (HHI). To clarify the symbolic shift mechanism, we propose the concept of objectual mediation. Moreover, under the lens of Winnicott’s object-relation theory, we argue that HRI can structurally modify users relationality, degrading intersubjective abilities: Sexual Robots may blurry the limit between the ‘internal object’ and the external one. We conclude that, under certain conditions, interactions with Sexual Robots may bring the user back to an infantile object-relation setting, worsening the user ability to manage relational frustration. This will negatively impact on human-human interactions and social values in general.

The space to heal heroin addiction: The psychoanalytic case for harm reduction

AbstractHarm reduction approaches to heroin addiction treatment are safe and effective, particularly those using medication‐assisted therapy, yet they remain underutilized in the drug treatment field. This paper posits the need for a psychoanalytic formulation of harm reduction. It draws on object relations theory, to illustrate the ways in which harm reduction, as a philosophy and as a practice, maps onto the particular developmental and attachment themes of addiction. It explores heroin addiction and harm reduction at the intersection of the psyche and the social and calls upon psychoanalysis to challenge oppressive systems in the lives of heroin users.

Contemporary artworks as transformational objects in art psychotherapy museum groupwork

This paper examines two group art psychotherapy programs held in 2017 at the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMST). It focusses on three contemporary artworks by Kimsooja, Ilya Kabakov and Sophia Kosmaoglou belonging to the EMST collection and how working with these groups was explored through objects relations theory. The paper looks at how these artworks became evocative as transformational objects to bring about change. The conclusion is that contemporary art is beneficial when working psychotherapeutically in the museum environment through relating it to existing object relations theory. We conclude that professionals who run museum and gallery-based psychotherapy groups will find the contributions of object relations theory and contemporary art beneficial in this way.

Organizational socialization as kin-work: A psychoanalytic model of settling into a new job

Socialization, the transition from newcomer to embedded organizational citizen, is an inevitable feature of organizational life. It is often a painful and traumatic experience, but why this is so, and how its difficulties can be ameliorated, is not well understood. This article addresses this issue by developing a new person-centred model of socialization. We introduce the concept of kin-work, i.e. the replication of one’s first experiences of becoming part of a family, to explain how ‘successful’ socialization is achieved. Drawing on the methodology of memory work and psychoanalytical theories of object relations, we illustrate how entry into new jobs involves the unconscious re-enactment in adult life of the infant’s initiation into the family. On entry as a stranger to a new organization, one’s sense of self is fractured; processes of kin-work knit the pieces back together and one develops a sense of personhood and being at home. However, there is a sting in this tale: the homely contains its uncanny, unhomely opposite, so socialization is always ambivalent – one can never be at home in this place that feels like home.

Public Things: Democracy in Disrepair by Bonnie Honig

Reviewed by: Public Things: Democracy in Disrepair by Bonnie Honig Nica Siegel (bio) Bonnie Honig, Public Things: Democracy in Disrepair New York: Fordham University Press, 2017; 160 pp. In a telling aside in in her first book, Political Theory and the Displacement of Politics (1993), political theorist Bonnie Honig notes that “Arendtian action runs the risk of starting from nowhere and encountering or engaging nothing at all” (Honig 1993, 123). This is because, “Arendt sometimes seems to assume that political space has to be an empty site, situated in a stable place … rather than an unstable fissure in an otherwise highly ordered and settled practice or identity.” In Honig’s re-reading of Arendt there is no “properly political” space of action, closed off from the messiness of the private sphere, with all of the exclusions on the basis of gender, race, class, and disability that this entails. Instead, precisely because the space of action is not restricted to one domain, nor determined in advance, action’s generative power can be used to “proliferate the sites” within which action is possible. Insistence on the irrepressibility of action is one of the characteristic gestures of Honig’s “agonism”—one that posits inexhaustible forms of world-building under conditions that otherwise seem to deny its possibility, what Arendt famously called “loss of world.” In her newest book, Public Things: Democracy in Disrepair (2017), Honig reflects on the status and stakes of this project today. In Public Things, a series of lectures first offered in Sydney in 2013, Honig takes up the permanent entanglement of even the most improbable forms of action with political worldliness, finding our messy, disowned, ongoing implication in remainders and [End Page 286] ruins worthy of attention, and offering a distinctive form of care for the world. Thinking anew about the capacity that Arendt granted to objects to “stabilize a world fit for human inhabitation” (34), Honig refocuses her critical attention on the worldly things themselves under conditions of contemporary “loss of world,” with an emphasis on the rampant privatization and neoliberalization of the last decades. Democracy, Honig writes, is “rooted in common love for, antipathy to, and contestation of public things” like infrastructure, libraries, prisons, museums, and monuments. Without public things, “action in concert is undone and the signs and symbols of democratic life are devitalized” (4). In this account, which draws together democratic theory and object relations theory, the world is never totally lost—it is only waiting to be “refurnished.” The purpose of Public Things is to reconsider, under conditions of neoliberalization, the form of object relations necessary for democratic politics, the specific role of public things in democratic relations, and to rethink the conditions of political action from this perspective. Neoliberalism’s drive to privatize everything has not quelled our object-attachments, although it has placed them under strain. Following recent work under the heading of “new materialism,” a sustained focus on what Honig calls “thinging out loud” offers us not just the stabilizing function of objects, but also their unexpected vitality, their ability to hold us and disrupt us, to reflect in material, historical ways the forms of our investments in them. Building on Arendt’s account of the inter-est, the political space in which we simultaneously drawn together and held apart as though gathered around a large table, the Arendt of Public Things is specifically attuned to the democratic elements of object relations, their ability to constitute a public perspective, to “hold and be held.” In this sense, democratic objects relations can be opposed to object fetishism, which rejects love for the world in favor of the love of home, the love of self, or (we might assume, although Honig doesn’t name it) the pitfalls of the love of only one’s own people (47). With an idiosyncratic materialism, Honig puts Arendt brilliantly into conversation with an unexpected interlocutor, the twentieth-century British psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott. As Honig writes, “The wager of these lectures is that these two thinkers’ unexpectedly convergent ideas about stability, adhesion, attachment, resilience, concern and care … can be usefully extended to think about specifically political and public things in democratic contexts” (3). The text hopes both to...

СОРЕВНОВАТЕЛЬНАЯ ТРЕВОГА В СПОРТЕ. ВЗГЛЯД АНАЛИТИЧЕСКОГО ПСИХОЛОГА

The success of sports activity in a competitive situation is largely determined by psychological readiness, how the athlete’s mental apparatus is configured, how much the athlete is able to cope with the challenges of a competitive situation, the mental mechanisms that the athlete uses to cope with anxiety. In the article, the situations of competitive difficulties are considered from the point of view of the theory of object relations, microdynamic shifts in the intrapsychic reality of an athlete. In a situation of increased anxiety and the difficulties of its processing, primitive mental defenses can be involved: splitting, idealization, projection, denial of external and internal reality, projective identification. Their most typical consequences are feelings of self-doubt, a decrease in the accuracy of understanding and anticipation of the opponent’s actions, a feeling of muscle stiffness, underestimation/ overestimation of the opponent, a decrease in the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of sports action. The article presents two cases of athletes of different sports qualifications, on the basis of which the manifestations and consequences of these primitive forms of protection are discussed. It also describes the specifics of the position of a psychologist in sports, the importance of understanding the mental reality of an athlete, the needs behind anxiety, as well as the need for help in integrating the “I”, despite the prevailing target orientation for a quick result.

Social TV User's Object Relations Theory Factors Effects of Interaction and Viewing Satisfaction on Psychological Well-being

Social TV User's Object Relations Theory Factors Effects of Interaction and Viewing Satisfaction on Psychological Well-being

Relationship Resonances in the Learning Process as Found in Stevenson’s Kidnapped and the Cherokee Story, The Gambler

In a time of racial division, this critical study explores both the history and possibility of reconciliation of, not only the complicated relationship between the Scottish and Cherokee peoples, but also within an analysis of, two stories: Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson and the traditional Cherokee story, The Gambler. Using Object Relations Theory, along with the concept of Resonance, readers will find connections between the main characters, David Balfour and Cooch, as well as implications further analysis and the relationships teachers may establish in the classroom.

The Precedent of Good Enough Therapy During Unprecedented Times

The unprecedented nature of the coronavirus pandemic and clinicians’ own concerns for safety and stability amidst collective uncertainty have threatened to undermine our ability to trust what we already know about our clients and how to help them. Rather than search for a novel solution, I suggest that what we need during a shared crisis is to renew our trust in the existing ethos of good enough therapy, a metaphoric corollary to Winnicott’s concept of good enough mothering, which presupposes the realities of imperfection and uncertainty along the continuum of growth. Using personal reflections, clinical vignettes from my psychotherapy practice, and drawing from modern attachment theory, contemporary relational psychoanalysis, and object relations theory, I posit in this article that clinical social workers already possess the framework, skills, and knowledge needed to deeply understand and meaningfully work with clients as they, and we, endure shared trauma. Through the clinical material, I examine opportunities to make use of clients’ reactions, as well as my own, in order to deepen the therapeutic process. I discuss the necessity of holding the therapeutic frame with increased flexibility in light of my use of self-disclosure surrounding my COVID-19 diagnosis and recovery, and I assess the impact of this disclosure.

Young adults’ transition to a plant-based diet as a psychosomatic process: A psychoanalytically informed perspective

This study examined transition to a plant-based diet by young adults and the challenges and conflicts this brings. Interviews were conducted with nine young adults in Sweden and the answers were analysed guided by a psychological method from descriptive phenomenology. The results indicate that the transition to a plant-based diet is a process comprising five dimensions: 1) Exploring new ways of living based on health anxieties, 2) regulating conflicting emotions through differentiation, 3) transforming traditional models into new alternatives, 4) confirming new skills and abilities and 5) integrating experiences and emotions into a whole. These five dimensions reflect how transition to a plant-based diet is experienced physically and emotionally. The results also indicate that plant-based meals and ingredients used in the new diet are loaded with symbols and conflicting emotions. Psychoanalytically informed theory, especially object relation theory, was used in discussing what can happen to the mind during the transition. In a wider perspective, this study provides insights into how a dietary transition can bring stability to the life of young adults and help them endure and master their situation. More research is needed to assess the role of mental health in transitioning to a plant-based diet and to draw more general conclusions, an area where psychodynamic theory can provide insights.

In the Fertile Minefield: Navigating Challenges and Opportunities with Facilitating Self-development and Growth in the Intercultural and Interracial Clinical Treatment Dyad

The “use of self” is a powerful tool that social workers rely upon to facilitate treatment growth for their clients. Yet, for many ethnic and racial minority clinicians, their self contains personal, psychological, social, and cultural aspects that they must acknowledge, examine and negotiate as they enter into the clinical arena. The therapeutic world is increasingly diverse, therefore, the profession must address issues relating to researching, educating, training, supervising, and supporting clinicians from diverse backgrounds to attend with greater knowledge and self-examination. They must attend to the nuances of use of self with respect to issues of intersectionality in order to provide attuned, culturally responsive, and socially just treatment. This paper demonstrates how clinical social work practitioners can facilitate self-development and growth in clients through their strategic use of self as grounded in early British and American object relations theories and contemporary relational theory. The clinical materials in the composite case study (employed to protect the confidentiality of the clients) are used to illustrate that when clinicians embrace the challenges of working in the intercultural and interracial treatment arena and dive deeply beyond the choppy surface, there are many opportunities to further the therapeutic progress while providing a culturally sensitive and socially just clinical practice. Implications for clinical social work practice, education and research are identified.

Gender Composition, Loan Repayments, and Financial Capital Formation in Microcredit Groups

Whereas theories in various disciplines explain why men generally create more capital than women as business owners, development literature has demonstrated that poor female business owners with access to microcredit perform comparatively well. We build on object relations theory in order to explain the reported high loan repayments of all-female groups. A comparison is made based on a sample of 182 microfinance groups collected in central Mexico. Utilizing structural equation modeling, tests of latent mean differences and t-tests, this study finds support for females applying more peer-group pressure in microfinance groups than males even though social sanctions hinder loan repayments. Moreover, questioning assumptions made by object relations theory and microfinance literature, we find all-female groups do not participate more harmoniously than groups with a greater composition of males. Overall, however, all-female groups perform comparatively well in regards to the repayment of loans and financial capital creation.

Fairbairnian approaches to King Roger , the opera by Karol Szymanowski

In what follows I will develop an account of Fairbairn's object relations theory as I have understood and developed it, and, apply that theory to an understanding of the threeact opera King Roger, Op. 26 (1926) by Karol Szymanowski. My Fairbairnian approaches to the opera come from my previous work on Fairbairn's object relations theory. In order to fully understand the first of the approaches I employ you may need to read my book Personal Relations Theory (Clarke, 2006), in particular chapters one, five, and six. In order to fully understand the second of the approaches I am using you need to read Thinking Through Fairbairn (Clarke, 2018a), in particular chapters two, three, and four, as well as my paper in the journal Attachment (Clarke, 2018b) on MPD/DID and Fernando Pessoa's heteronyms.