181 Lecture 6 05

Lecture 6: Object Relations
Theory and Self-Psychology
The Theories of D.W. Winnicott
and H. Kohut
Freud’s theory of transference
• It is the analysts task constantly to
Freud, age 16, with his mother
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tear the patient out of his illusion
and to show him again and again
that what he takes to be new real
life is a reflection of the
past…Freud, 1917
Transference as a theory of templates
Repetition compulsion
Transference as “in the way” of free association
Transference as an opportunity for insight
Modern Psychoanalysis
– Ego Psychology
• emphasizes the role of the ego in regulation of development
and behavior, and makes strong use of phases I and III of
Freud’s theorizing.
– Object Relations Theory
• “the British School” including Klein, Bowlby, Fairbairn,
Winnicott, Guntrip
Sullivan’s Interpersonal Psychiatry in the U.S.A.
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– Self-Psychology
• an American variant of Object Relations Theory largely
based on the work of Heinz Kohut
Object Relations Theory
• Melanie Klein
– 1882-1960
Anna Freud
• Klein’s revisionism and the British Society
• Anna Freud comes to London
– Klienians, Freudians, and ‘Independents’
• Fairbairn’s decisive break with orthodox PA
Libido as “object-seeking”
D.W. Winnicott’s OR Theory
• Donald Winnicott, Pediatrician and
Psychoanalyst
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Unintegration
Holding environment
Subjective omnipotence
Empathic anticipation
– Attunement and responsiveness, non-intrusive
– Mirroring
– Capacity to be alone
Winnicott (cont.)
• D.W. Winnicott (1896-1971)
• Primary Maternal Preoccupation (PMP)
• Empathic failures
• Good enough mothering
Winnicott (cont.)
• D.W. Winnicott working playfully in a
therapy session
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False Self versus True Self
Impingement
“environmental deficiency diseases”
Therapy
Alice Miller’s “Prisoners of Childhood” (The drama of the gifted child)
Self-Psychology
• Heinz Kohut (1913-1981)
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From orthodoxy to “self-psychology”
Restoration of the Self (1977)
Transference and the awaking of past deprivations
From Drive Theory to the Needs of the Self
• “We could say that after an
eighty-year-long detour, we are
returning to Freud’s original
seduction theory--though not in
the form in which Freud has
entertained it. The seduction that
we have in mind related not to the
overt sexual activities of the
adult…but to the fact that the
parents’ empathic responsiveness
to their children is distorted in a
specific way (Kohut, 1984)
Self-Psychology (continued)
• Mother and child
• Mirroring need (grandiose/exhibitionistic need)
– Self-esteem
– Empathic failures
– Transmuting internalization
• Idealizing need
– Power, knowledge, safety
– Self-confidence, self-control, ideals and values
• Twinship need
– Belonging, fitting in
Self-psychology (cont.)
• Narcissus
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The emergence of healthy Self-structures
Self disorders and self-objects
Compensatory structures
Therapy
Transference
Empathy (not gratification)
Understanding and explanation
Kohut (cont.)
• Kohut on EMPATHY
• “….the capacity to think and feel oneself into the inner
life of another person. It is our lifelong ability to
experience what another person experiences, though
usually….to an attenuated degree”