Object Relations Theory

🧠 Psychology By CampusDown Wiki Editorial Team Last updated October 15, 2026

Quick answer: Object relations theory is a psychoanalytic approach holding that infants internalise early relationships with caregivers (objects) as inner representations that shape later sense of self and relationships.

Contents

1. Concept
2. Key figures
3. Applications
4. Assessment
5. References

Concept

An "object" is the person a drive is aimed at, usually a caregiver. Where Freud stressed drive satisfaction, object relations theorists see relationships as the primary motive; Fairbairn wrote that libido is object-seeking.

Key figures

Melanie Klein: paranoid-schizoid position (splitting good and bad breast) and depressive position (integration).
Donald Winnicott: good-enough mother, holding environment, transitional object, true and false self.
Ronald Fairbairn: object-seeking libido and split ego structures.
Margaret Mahler: separation-individuation through differentiation, practising, rapprochement and object constancy.
Otto Kernberg: borderline personality organisation.

Applications

Therapy explores relational patterns in transference and countertransference and offers a holding environment. Splitting and projective identification are key defence mechanisms in this tradition.

Assessment

It highlighted early relationships, but claims about infant inner life are hard to test, and Mahler's "normal autism" phase was revised by later infant research.

References

Greenberg, J. R., & Mitchell, S. A. (1983). Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory. Harvard University Press.
Winnicott, D. W. (1971). Playing and Reality. Tavistock.
Mahler, M. S., Pine, F., & Bergman, A. (1975). The Psychological Birth of the Human Infant. Basic Books.
St. Clair, M. (2004). Object Relations and Self Psychology: An Introduction (4th ed.). Brooks/Cole.

Reports and materials that use this theory (Korean)

There are no materials dedicated to this theory yet, but you can search related reports in the CampusDown library (Korean).

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This article was last updated on October 15, 2026. It is based on widely recognized original works and textbooks; when citing it in a paper, please check the original sources listed in the references.