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Modern Structural Theory
October 25, 2019 @ 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Adult Psychoanalytic Training (APT)
2019-20, 1st Trimester — Fridays, 3:30-5:00pm
Donald Schimmel, PhD
View Whole Syllabus
October 25, 2019 — Object Relations in America
[15 pages]
American Object Relations reflect the influence of both Sullivan and Fairbairn, and represent the shift wherein object relations replace Freud’s drives as the major motivational system. Included in this evolution in theory is a shift from the emphasis on intrapsychic aspects of the transference to a heavy emphasis on the mutual influence of transference and countertransference and the reality aspects of the relationship derived from the analyst’s personality.
Ogden, T.H. (1983). The Concept of Internal Object Relations. Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 64:227-241.
Ogden is an American (San Francisco) psychoanalyst who represents an updated approach based on earlier work by Fairbairn and Melanie Klein.
Otto Kernberg (whom we will read later in the trimester) is also an important figure in the American Object Relations tradition.
Optional Reading
Ogden, T.H. (2010). Why read Fairbairn? IJP, 91(1):101-118.
Ronald Fairbairn is one of the members of the British Middle School, along with Donald Winnicott, Michael Balint (Hungarian-born), and others. All three of these authors are credited with moving Object Relations Theory from a traditional drive or one-person-psychology to a relational or two-person-psychology.