PSYCO333 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Self Psychology, Object Relations Theory, Personality Development

• School: University of Alberta
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCO333
• Professor: Jamin Blatter

Document Summary

Object relations the object is the person. These theories focus on one person"s relations to others. Core theme of this view is from freud"s idea that the ego develops bonds to external objects to release id energies effectively. Object relations theories focus on these bonds, but only for people as objects: the point isn"t to satisfy the id, the bond is a basic ego function, share 2 broad themes: Emphasize that a person"s pattern of relating to others is laid down in early childhood. They all assume that these patterns tend to recur over and over throughout life. Believed newborns begin life in a state of psychological fusion with others. Personality development is a process of breaking down this fusion, of becoming an individual who"s separate and distinct. So: child strives for individuation + separation but also wants the earlier sense of union. **this conflict is impt in adult behaviour as well.