Melanie Klein’s Object Relations Theory | Therapy, Stages & Examples – Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

Video Transcript

Melanie Klein

Melanie Klein was born in Vienna in 1882 and would become one of the most influential psychoanalysts. She drew great inspiration from the work of Sigmund Freud, while expanding upon his work and producing her own significant theories.

Klein had a very difficult personal life, which caused her to seek out psychotherapy while living in Budapest, Hungary. During this time, Klein’s therapist encouraged her to try psychoanalysis on her own children. Ultimately, this would lead to the development of object relations theory, which deals with the way we develop our psyche in relation to the things around us. The way that we relate to objects in our infancy, says Klein, shapes our development throughout life.

Children Fantasy Life

Freud, along with other prominent psychoanalysts working during Klein’s time, had a number of theories on child development. There was, however, a key difference. Unlike Klein, none of the other psychoanalysts actually worked with children. They based their theories on their work with adults. Klein was the first to work directly with young children, and she started with infants.

Klein believed that all children are born with an unconscious fantasy life, not as blank slates. Fantasies are constructions of reality that allow infants to make sense of the world; however, they’re different from daydreams. Objects are very important to these fantasies in Klein’s theory, but they’re not inanimate objects, but instead are humans or related to humans. The most important object in a child’s life is the mother’s breast.

Klein believed that infants categorize the objects they see as good or bad. For example, the mother’s breast can be good or bad based on whether it is providing the infant with milk or not. If the child is hungry, he or she will become frustrated and begin to see the breast as a bad object. An infant is not able to understand that the breast is the same object.

This results in the infant feeling conflicted because an object he or she loves is also an object he or she hates, depending on whether or not the child is full or hungry. So, for Klein, infants have life and death drives. In other words, infants want to both have an object, but also to destroy it. According to Klein, this results in two positions: the paranoid-schizoid position and the depressive position.

The paranoid-schizoid position results from the child getting mad at an object. In this moment, the child sees the object as bad, and when this happens, he or she will fantasize about killing it. This results in the depressive position, where the infant is sad that he or she killed the object during the fantasy episode. When this happens, the child feels motivated to try and get the good object back.

Klein sees these positions as ways for the infant to gain control of the anxiety that comes from seeing the same object as good and bad. She theorized that infants do this through a few defense mechanisms.

Psychic Defense Mechanisms

There are some ways that infants can protect their fragile egos. One way is through introjection, which happens when an infant wants to try to take a good object in so that it is always there, almost making it a part of themself. This could be, for example, fantasizing that the mother’s breast is always there. Or, a child could incorporate aspects of a parent’s persona into him or herself.

Projection happens when a child casts his or her bad thoughts or anxieties onto another person, usually a parent. Then, as mentioned before, infants engage in the process of splitting, which is viewing the same object as good or bad. Splitting allows children to compartmentalize their good versus bad feelings about objects.

Our attachment style, or how we relate to others, can also impact relationships in adulthood. Klein believed that our attachments are formed very early in life. If we’re anxious or stressed or feel unloved as infants, this can impact our future relationships. We might become overly dependent on our partners, or we might distance ourselves from loved ones. Klein believed that our adult life is shaped by what happens in infancy.

For example, during the process of introjection, the external world is taken in by the infant, becoming part of his or her internal world; part of the self. Klein believed that some babies are greedier, or more difficult to satisfy, than other babies. A hungry or greedy baby will be dissatisfied with his or her mother, might feel unloved, and may experience anxiety. Klein argued that this would then shape greediness in the adult person. At the same time, if a child is happy and satisfied and can deal with frustrations productively, these attributes will carry through to adulthood.

Lesson Summary

Melanie Klein was an influential psychoanalyst, inspired by the work of Sigmund Freud. She developed the object relations theory, which explores how we develop our psyche in relation to important objects around us. Klein’s theory emphasized the idea of objects, which are related to human contact during infancy. The most important objects to a child are the mother and the mother’s breast.

According to Klein, infants are born with an unconscious fantasy life. These fantasies allow children to construct reality and make sense of the world. Children also categorize all objects as good or bad. When a child is mad at an object, the paranoid-schizoid position results, whereby he or she fantasizes about destroying the object. Consequently, the child will experience the depressive position and feel sad.

Klein also theorized that infants develop defense mechanisms to deal with the anxiety of seeing objects as both good and bad. Introjection happens when an infant fantasizes that the good object is always there. Projection happens when a child casts bad thoughts or anxieties onto another person, usually a parent. Splitting takes place when an infant compartmentalizes good versus bad feelings.

Our earliest attachments impact how we develop as adults and can influence our relationships later in life. As a result of our early interactions with objects, our feelings of anxiousness, greediness, or abandonment as infants can impact our adult lives.