British Object Relations

Third Year Adult Psychoanalytic Training (APT)
2024-25, Fall Term — Fridays, 1:45-3:15pm
Matthew Brooks, LICSW, FIPA

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September 13, 2024 — The paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions

[46 pages]

Having established the Kleinian landscape of the mind, we turn to Klein’s view of development. She finds that infants are born able to relate to others, but lack capacity for ambivalence, with the result that primitive anxieties and defenses around internal and external forces propel the infant’s psyche and set the stage for development. This paper is a relatively succinct reworking of several earlier papers on the topic, and focuses on her concept of the positions, as well as her general ideas about internalization and object relations.

John Steiner, like many of Klein’s followers, distilled her views into grounded, experience-near language. His paper captures the tension between development and non-linearity that characterizes this field.

Klein, M. (1952). “Some Theoretical Conclusions Regarding the Emotional Life of the Infant” in Writings of Melanie Klein Vol. III, Envy and Gratitude and Other Works, 1946-1963, pp61-93.

Steiner, J. (1992). The Equilibrium Between the Paranoid-Schizoid and the Depressive Positions. New Library of Psychoanalysis, 14:46-58.