PSY 111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 25: Psy, Object Relations Theory, Psych
11 Sep 2020
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Klein found enormous amount of violence/sadism in the fantasy of small children. The fantasy often included immense amount of cruelty to parents, who, in fantasy, would be bitten, torn, cut, stamped on, etc . Klein spent the next 15 years investigating this phenomenon. After the child"s sadism has spent itself in these fantasies; apparenty unchecked by any inhibition, a reaction would set in, in the form of a deep depression, anxiety, and bodily exhaustion - klein, 1929. Klein discovered that the child"s depression was due to the sense that the child"s actions had destroyed the mother: The dread that the real, loving mother may be lost and that the girl will be left solitary and forsaken. klein, 1929. In early infancy: the child"s perceptual and cognitive mechanisms are very underdeveloped. Can perceive person only as separate parts: i. e. objects: hence, object- relations theory. Examples of parts = objects; (a) mothers hand, (b) mothers smile.
