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Essential Papers on Object Relations Peter Buckley, M.D ESSENTIAL PAPERS IN PSYCHOANALYSIS Essential Papers on Borderline Disorders Michael D. Stone, M.D. , Editor Essential Papers on Object Relations Peter Buckley, M.D. , Editor Essential Papers on Narcissism Andrew P. Morrison, M.D., Editor Essential Papers on Depression James C. Coyne, Editor ESSENTIAL PAPERS ON OBJECT RELATION S Peter Buckley, M .D. Editor i_ New York ty n New1986 York d d Copyright © 1986 by New York University All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Main entry under title: Essential papers on object relations. (Essential papers in psychoanalysis) Includes bibliographies and index. 1. Object relations (Psychoanalysis)-addresses, essays, lectures. 2. Psychoanalysis-History­ Addresses, essays, lectures. I. Buckley, Peter, 1943- . II. Title. III. Series. BFl75.5.024E87 1985 l50.l9’5 85-13882 ISBN 0-8147-1079-4 ISBN 0-8147-1080-8 (pbk.) Clothbound editions of New York University Press books are Smyth sewn and printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper. Book design by Ken Venezio For Maxine Contents AcknowledgmentsIntroduction ixvii OpposingPart I. Instincts Versus Relationships: Theories The Emergence of Two 1 l. Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality: I: The Sexual Abberations, Sigmund Freud 5 2. AStates, Contribution to theMelanie Psychogenesis of Manic-Depressive Klein 40 3. A Revised Psychopathology of the Psychoses and Psychoneuroses, W. R. D. Fairbairn 71 4. The Repression and the Return of Bad Objects (with Special Reference to the ‘War Neuroses’), W. R. D. Fairbairn 102 5. Object Concept and Object Choice, Jacob A. Arlow 127 Part II. Object Relations and the Development of the Child 147 6. The Nature of the Child’s Tie to His Mother, John Bowlby 153 7. On Human Symbiosis and the Vicissitudes of Individuation, Margaret S . Mahler 200 8. OnProcess, the First Three Margaret Subphases of the Separation-IndividuationS. Mahler 222 9. The Theory of the Parent-Infant Relationship, D. W. Winnicott 233 10. D.Transitional W. Objects Winnicottand Transitional Phenomena, 254 11. On the Development of Object Relationships and Affects, Joseph Sandler and Anne-Marie Sandler 272 SituationPart III. Object Relations, Psychopathology, and the293 Clinical 12. Narcissistic Object Choice in Women, Annie Reich 297 viii CONTENTS 13 Transference Problems in the Psychoanalytic Treatment of Severely Depressive Patients, Edith Jacobson 318 14 Primitive Object Relationships and the Predisposition to Schizophrenia, Arnold H. Modell 329 15 Structural Derivatives of Object Relationships, Otto Kernberg 350 16 HansOn the Therapeutic W. Action ofLoewald Psycho-Analysis, 385 l7 The Ailment, T. F. Main 419 18 My Experience of Analysis with Fairbairn and Winnicott (How HarryIndexComplete a Result Does Guntrip Psycho-Analytic 469Therapy Achieve?), 447 Acknowledgments We wish to gratefully acknowledge Sigmund Freud Copyrights Ltd, The Institute of Psycho-Analysis, The Hogarth Press, and Basic Books for permission to reprint “Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality: I. The Sexual Aberrations” from THE STANDARD EDITION OF THE COMPLETE PSYCHOLOGICAL WORKS OF SIGMUND FREUD translated and edited by James Strachey. We wish to gratefully acknowledge the International Journal of Psy­ cho-Analysis for permission to reprint the following: Melanie Klein, “A Contribution to the Psychogenesis of Manic-Depressive States,” Vol. 16, pp. 145-174, 1935; W.R. Fairbairn, “A Revised Psychopathology of the Psychoses and Psychoneuroses,” Vol. 22, pp. 250-279, 1941; John Bowlby, “The Nature of the Child’s Tie to His Mother,” Vol. 39, pp. 350-373, 1958; Margaret S. Mahler, “On the First Three Subphases of the Separation-Individuation Process,” Vol. 53, pp. 333-338, 1972; D.W. Winnicott, “Transitional Objects and Transitional Phenomena,” Vol. 34, pp. 89-97, 1953; Joseph Sandler and Anne-Marie Sandler, “On the Development of Object Relationships and Affects,” Vol. 59, pp. 285-296, 1978; D.W. Winnicott, “The Theory of the Parent-Infant Relationship,” Vol. 50, pp. 711-717; Arnold H. Modell, “Primitive Object Relationships and the Predisposition to Schizophrenia,” Vol. 44, pp. 282-292, 1963; Otto Kernberg, ‘ ‘Structural Derivatives of Object Relationships,” Vol. 47, pp. 236-253, 1966; Hans W. Loewald, “On the Therapeutic Action of Psycho-Analysis,” Vol. 41, pp. 16-33, 1960. We wish to gratefully acknowledge International Review of Psycho­ Analysis for permission to reprint Harry Guntrip, “My Experience of Analysis with Fairbairn and Winnicott,” Vol. 2, pp. 145-156, 1975. We wish to gratefully acknowledge The British Psychological Society for permission to reprint the following: W.R. Fairbairn, ‘ ‘The repression and the Return of Bad Objects,” Vol. 19, and T.F. Main, “The Ail­ ment,” Vol. 30, pp. 129-145. We wish to gratefully acknowledge The Psychoanalytic Quarterly for permission to reprint Jacob A. Arlow, “Object Concept and Object Choice,” Vol. 49, pp. 109-133, 1980. x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We wish to gratefully acknowledge International Universities Press to reprint from the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association the following: Margaret S. Mahler, “On Human Symbiosis and the Vicissitudes of Individuation,” Vol. 15, pp. 740-763; Edith Jacobson, “Transference Problems in the Psychoanalytic Treatment of Severely Depressive Patients,” Vol. 2, pp. 595-606; Annie Reich, “Narcissistic Object Choice in Women,” Vol. l, pp. 22-44. Introduction The history of psychoanalysis has been punctuated by theoretical dis­ sension but perhaps no debate has been as wide ranging and has had such profound implications as that involving object relations theory. It is the purpose of this book to bring together those papers which have been seminal to the development of this theory. Many different authors are represented and, as will quickly become apparent from reading them, they often hold radically different viewpoints concerning the importance, meaning, and functions of “objects” and, by extension, the environment in the psychological development and mental life of individuals. Questions of the relationships between what is “internal” and what is “external” abound in writings on this subject. How do our significant early relationships with others become internalized and af­ fect our subsequent view of the world and other people? What aspects of our early relationships determine those whom we choose as lover, spouse, or friend? What is the dynamic nature of our internal object world, how does it evolve and what are the implications for therapy? What is biologically innate in the psychology of the individual and what is modulated by direct environmental experience? What is the nature of motivation-the pressure of instinctual wishes or the seeking of relationships with others? Questions of this magnitude which are central to an understanding of human psychology do not easily lend themselves to a unitary theory, and it may be more accurate to speak of a continuum of object relations theories. Two opposing poles of this continuum can be discerned. The first lies within the classical psychoanalytic realm and sees objects as the person or things on to which the biological drives are concentrated. A crucial element of this view of the object is that the mental representation of the thing or person is cathected with aggressive or libidinal energy and not the external thing or person. Arlow (1980) summarized this concep­ tualization: “Fundamentally, it is the effect of unconscious fantasy wishes, connected with specific mental representations of objects that colors, distorts and affects the ultimate quality of interpersonal rela­ tions. It is important to distinguish between the person and the object. xii INTH()DUCTI()N This is essentially the core of transference, in which the person in the real world is confused with a mental representation of the childhood object, a mental representation of what was either a person or a thing.” Arlow thus emphasized the concept of the object as an intrapsychic mental representation whose evolution cannot be separated from the vicissitudes of the drives. He stated “in later experience these (drives) become organized in terms of persistent unconscious fantasies that ultimately affect object choice and patterns of loving.” He further comments that it is not simply “the experience with the object, but what is done with the experience, that is decisive for development.” The work of W. R. Fairbairn is the opposite of Arlow’s. Concepts of drives as being central to human motivation are abandoned. In their place object relations are seen as being the determining factors in de­ velopment. The role of the object as merely the goal of the drive to enable its discharge is replaced by the predominance of the object. Fairbairn (1952) states: “Psychology is a study of the relationships of the individual to his objects, whilst, in similar terms, psychopathology may be said to resolve itself more specifically into a study of the rela­ tionship of the ego to its internalized objects.” Here the experience of the object in reality becomes of crucial importance and determines psychic structure and the internal objects are viewed as reflections of experiences with real persons. Object seeking is dominant, while the pleasure principle is not. Guntrip (1961, p. 288) a follower of Fairbairn writes: “Freud’s impersonal ‘pleasure-principle’ treated the object as a mere means to the end of a purely subjective and impersonal tension­ relieving ‘process’ and not as sought for its intrinsic value in a relation­
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