Psychodynamic Approaches

1
Psychodynamic Approaches

• Object Relations Theory

2
Psychodynamic Approaches

• Neo-Freudian Tradition
• Alfred Adler, Wilhelm Reich, Carl Jung, Otto
  Rank, and Sullivan
•  Ego-Analytic Tradition
• Self-Psychology and Object Relations Theories
• Originated with Anna Freud and Melanie Kleins
  observation of infants in the 1930sd 1940s
• Winicott, Erikson, Mahler, Fairbarn

3
Neo-Freudian Tradition

• Objected to Freuds emphasis on instinct theory,
  infantile sexuality and his view of the Oedipus
  complex
•  More concerned with
• The nature of conscious experience cognition and
  will
• The concept of psychological health and normal
  development
• Socio-cultural determinants of behavior
• External sources of conflict

4
Ego-Analytic Tradition

• Based on work with young children and severely
  disturbed adults
• Emphasizes Egos functioning in adaptation,
  coping, and mastery unrelated to instinctual
  forces
• Development of self and psychological
  characteristics are explained in terms of the
  internalization of psychosocial experiences
• Views personality and motivation in terms of
  interpersonal transactions and not instincts

5
Psychodynamic Approaches

• Agree with Freud in
• The importance of early life
• The importance of the unconscious
• The role of defense mechanisms
• The use of transference, counter transference,
  interpretation, insight, resistance and catharsis
  in therapy
• Abandoned the couch and pay attention to the
  therapeutic alliance (real therapist client
  relationship)

6
Object Relations Theory

• Concerned with the formation of the self during
  early infancy before the Oedipal stage
• Major drive of humans is the drive to relate
• Egos role is to seek relationships rather than
  to control an unruly ID (Fairbarn)
• The self is formed in the context of early
  relationships
• Examine the influence of early relationships in
  present psychic and social functioning

7
Objects

• Object Relations
• Interpersonal relations
• External Objects
• Significant persons that are the target of a
  persons feelings
• Internal Objects
• Internalized images of the external person, which
  may differ from the real person

8
Psychological Function of Infants

• Splitting (normal and defensive process)
• Keeping apart contradictory feelings about
  others- good mother vs. frustrating mother
• Internalization
• An aspect of the external world is introjected
  and becomes part of the childs internal world
• Internal objects carry out functions performed by
  the external object trust, self-worth,
  condemnation.
• Lead to the formation of self-representations

9
Self-Representations

• How the infant perceives him/herself in relation
  to significant others in their lives
• Initially external objects and self are not
  differentiated
• Pleasurable feelings are internalized as good
  me
• Frustrating feelings as painful, bad me
• Self-representations and internalized objects
  shape how one relates to others in the world

10
Inner and Outer World of Objects
11
Development of the Self

• Crucial development task of early infancy is to
  move from a state of fusion and dependence on
  care-giver to a state of increased independence
  and differentiation (attachment-individuation
  processes)
• Good relations in this early stages lead to good
  feelings about self
• Disruptions in this period leave the child
  feeling depleted and empty

12
Development of the Self - Mahler

• Normal Autism First 3 to 4 weeks
• Objectless period of primary narcissism
• Responses based on physiological tensions
• Normal Symbiosis 3 to 8 months
• Dim awareness of mother as separate
• Differentiates pleasurable from frustrating
  experiences
• Investment in the relationship with caretaker is
  the crucial point from which all subsequent
  relationships form

13
Development of the Self - Mahler

• Separation Individuation 10 months to 21/2
  years
• Moves away from caretakers and reaches back
• No period - disengagement from symbiotic
  relationship emergence of the Ego
• Mother needs to provide a balance between letting
  go and being emotionally available to allow the
  childs autonomous ego to attain its best
  functioning
• Lack of emotional availability of the caretaker
  will hamper exploration of environment and child
• will desperately focus energy on getting
  attention.
• may revert to earlier splitting mechanisms that
  may lead to narcissistic and borderline disorders

14
Development of the Self - Mahler

• Emotional Object Constancy and Individuality
  3 years old on
• Internalization of a positive image of caretaker
  comforts the child in her/his absence and allows
  for individuation
• Image of caretaker merges from a long process
  of unification of good and bad aspects of the
  internalized object
• Child starts developing a unified self-image
• Development of complex cognitive functions
  including language
• Increased reality testing and curbing of
  aggressive feelings

15
Psychopathology

• Deficits in the early relations
• Generate feelings of aggression and anger
• Hinder the development of a cohesive self
• Result in disintegrated internalized objects (or
  psychic structures)
• May lead to serious difficulty in adult
  relationships
• Narcissistic Personality Disorder
• Borderline Personality Disorder

16
Therapy

• Enable client to re-experience early stages of
  development and achieve a more positive level of
  object relations
• Exploring repressed negative experiences
• Explore how current conflicts repeat patterns
  established earlier including in relation with
  therapist
• The therapist provides some of the functions that
  client lacked in childhood
• Therapist serves as an auxiliary ego to help
  client cope with painful, overwhelming emotions
• Foster process of integration and synthesis of
  self

17
Ainsworth Strange Situation Research

• Laboratory procedure used to assess infant
  attachment style. (Connell Goldsmith, 1982
  Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, Wall, 1978)
• Mother and baby introduced into room
• Mother and baby alone, baby free to explore (3
  minutes)
• Stranger enters, sits down, talks to mother and
  then tries to engage the baby in play (3 minutes)
• Mother leaves.  Stranger and baby alone (up to 3
  minutes)
• First reunion.  Mother returns and stranger
  leaves unobtrusively.  Mother settles baby if
  necessary, and tries to withdraw to her chair (3
  minutes)
• Mother leaves.  Baby alone (up to 3 minutes)
• Stranger returns and tries to settle the baby if
  necessary, and then withdraw to her chair (up to
  3 minutes)
• Second reunion.  Mother returns and stranger
  leaves unobtrusively.  Mother settles baby and
  tries to withdraw to her chair (3 minutes)

18
Two aspects of the child's behavior
are observed

• The amount of exploration (e.g. playing with new
  toys) the child engages in throughout, and
• The child's reactions to the departure and return
  of its caregiver (mother)

19
Insecure-avoidant attachment

• Childs Behavior (22 in original study)
• Avoids or ignores mother, shows little emotion
  when the mother departs or returns.
• Does not explore very much. Strangers are not be
  treated much differently from the mother.
• Avoids the stranger, but not as strongly as the
  mother on her return
• Not much emotional range displayed regardless of
  who is in the room or if it is empty.
• This attachment style develops from a mothering
  style which is more disengaged. The child's needs
  are frequently not met and the child comes to
  believe that communication of needs has no
  influence on the mother.
•      

20
Insecure-ambivalent attachment

•   Childs Behavior (12 in original study)
• Child is anxious of exploration and of strangers,
  even when the mother is present.
• When the mother departs, the child is extremely
  distressed.
• Child is ambivalent when mother returns, seeking
  to remain close to the mother but resentful and
  resistant when the mother initiates attention.
  Or, child may scream and rage, rather than be
  pacified when the mother returns.
• Child shows ambivalent behavior towards the
  stranger, similar to the pattern of resistance
  and interest shown to the mother
• This style develops from a mothering style which
  is engaged but on the mother's own terms. That
  is, sometimes the child's needs are ignored until
  some other activity is completed attention is
  sometimes given to the child but more to meet
  the parents needs than from the child's
  initiation.

21
Secure attachment

• Childs Behavior (66 in original study)
• This style represents a balance between
  involvement with the environment or with the
  mother.
• Explores freely while the mother is present,
• Shows moderate avoidance of the stranger,
  although is friendly when the mother is present.
• Is visibly upset when the mother departs, and
• Is happy to see the mother return.

22
Adult Attachment

• Securely attached people are able to place trust
  in their partner which, in turn, means they can
  confidently spend time apart.
• People with an anxious ambivalent attachment
• needy or clingy towards heir partner
• are prone to worry about whether their partner
  loves or values them
• Phillip Shaver, Cindy Hazan, and others 1/2

23
Adult Attachment

• People with an avoidant attachment style
• uncomfortable being close to others
• difficulty in trusting others
• These patterns are believed to be working models
  that develop in infancy, but may be modified as
  people enter into new relationships.
• Phillip Shaver, Cindy Hazan, and others
  2/2