Mental health articles

object relations theory definition Object relations theory refers to a group of analytical accounts beginning with the work of Klein and Riviero (1937), which moved away from Freud’s emphasis on drives and psychological defences towards an increasing interest in relationships. Later writers, such as Fairbairn (1952), came to see ‘object seeking’, the need to form social relationships, as a motivation equal to, or of greater importance than, drive discharge or tension reduction. Recent theories of infant development (Stern, 1985) and attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969, 1973) also focus on the infant’s earliest interactions with the social world and the mother, and describe relationships as becoming internalised structures or models within the brain and the psyche. The infant builds up models or representations of the self and the carer (the ‘other’) in relationship, along with associated feeling states. This model (known as the inner working model in attachment theory) acts as a template for the child’s expectations, behaviour and perception of future relationships.