TOPIC

PRESENTATION THEORY:
OBJECT RELATIONS COUPLES
AND FAMILY THERAPY
BY
NEELY OKONGO
 INTRODUCTION
• The field of family therapy has largely evolved in distinction to
psychoanalysis, depending on cognitive-behavioural, systemic and
structural techniques to effect symptom change. The object relations
approach has an important contribution to that field in bringing family
therapists insight on the defensive, communicative and structure-
building functions of unconscious processes, resistance and working
in the transference. It gives psychoanalysts a way of thinking about the
development of the person and interaction of personalities in a
language that is near to family experience and communicates complex
ideas about the unconscious to couple and family therapists who think
that affect is a manipulation and that insight is unnecessary for change.
Cont..
• In this presentation, I will be looking at objects relations couples and
family therapy. However, I shall start by defining the object relations
theory, then describe the theory’s foundations, how the approach is a
tool in couples therapy, strengths and weakness of the theory, and then
conclusion.
 DEFINITION OF OBJECT REALTIONS
THEORY
• Object Relations Theory is a theory of relationships between people,
particularly within a family and especially between the mother and her
child. A basic concept is that human being are driven to form
relationships with others and that failure to form successful early
relationships leads to later personality problems.
• It is also concerned with the relation between the subject and their
internalized objects, as well as with external objects. Thus we have a
relationship with the internal mother as well as an external one.
 THE FOUNDATION OF THE
OBJECT RELATIONS THEORY
• The idea of object relations was invented and developed in
a paper by Karl Abraham (1927), however Melanie Klein is largely credited with
developing the modern theory, particularly with the mother as the principal object.

• Klein saw relations with the breast as significant. As the child feeds, it feels
gratified and satiated when the breast produces sufficient milk, in which case it is
loved and cherished.

•  When the child is prematurely withdrawn or the breast does not provide sufficient
food, the child is frustrated and the breast is hated and the recipient of hostile
thoughts. The mother thus receives love or destructive attack depending on this.
Conti….
• The baby experiences extremes of feeling. When he is angry, it is total
anger and rejects and thrusts away the mother. When he is happy, he
loves and adores her. He projects his bad feeling and associates her
with it.
•  W.R.D Fairbairn and Mahler S Margareth and others are the main
profounder of this theory
 HOW IS THE APROACH A TOOL IN
COUPLES THERAPY
• The object relation approach is important as preventative programs
are, the vast majority of family therapists work with couples who are
experiencing difficulties in their marriage or relationship and are
seeking help. The good news is that there is clear evidence that couple
therapy works (Johnson, 2003; Johnson & Lebow, 2000; Levant,
2003; Tambling & Johnson, 2011). Moreover, Gottman found through
his research that psychoeducational approaches can be combined with
marriage therapy to make a marriage stronger(Jenncius & Duba,
2003).
Cont.
• The development of marital intimacy requires a reorganization of the
representational world, originally formed in childhood, which has
continued to be shaped by the individual's experiences. The individual
attaches special meaning and value to the spouse, often projecting onto
the spouse properties of the existing self- and object-representational
world. Therefore, the dynamics of spouse relationships cannot
(Marriage & Family Counsel Page 5 Alan MacKenzie) be understood
without attending to the ways spouses have learned to perceive,
interpret, and attach meaning to their interactions in early family
experiences as well as in the current relationship.
ions seem to serve as
STRENGTHS OF THE THEORY
• Theory offers the therapist a client into the “inner  world” of mental
representations, how one represents, perceives and understands their world and
their relationship in it.
• The theory also enables a counsellor to explore the client’s
behaviour and motivations (deepest unmet needs/longings). Such past
representations seem to serve as emotional filters.
• he theory help the counsellor in counselling and developing the marital intimacy
which has continued to be shaped by the individual 'sexperiences. The individual

elations theory is a
attaches special meaning and value to the spouse of properties of the existing self-
and object-representational world. Therefore, the dynamics of spouse
relationships cannot be understood without attending to the ways spouses have
learned to perceive, interpret, and attaching meaning
Conti…
• It also has application for technique in the standard psychoanalytic
situation. It focuses on the object relations approach to the nature of
conflicts to be interpreted in the transference;
• It help counselors to understand the varying relationships between
transference, genetic history, and early development, which
revealed by an object relations and technique used under conditions of
regression in the communicative process in the transference; and the
relations of empathy
THE WEAKNESS OF THE THEORY
• This theory cannot be applied in extended family. Example you may
find a child makes earl relationship with other whole object and not part
that serve its function as they proposed.
• The theory ignored social system which is among of thing that creates
pathology. It much dealt with relationship between individuals
especially mother-infant relationship. To the normal context, human
personality can be influenced by the social system. Example the more
people separates from their parents, the more family violence and when
the family fails to shape personal behaviour the society have ability to
shape it because community is able to mirror the appropriate  behaviour.
CONCLUSION
• Object Relations theory can and does help clients to gain insights into
their use of splitting and projective identification in two important
ways. First, clients develop an understanding of the role that projective
identification has played in the maintenance of both the couple dance
and their intrapsychic functioning. Second, clients come to understand
the origins of their defenses and how they were adaptive at an earlier
point in time but now are interfering with adapting to the current inter-
psychic context and satisfying their needs for intimacy.
Cont.
• The counsellor’s task through all of this is to renew the developmental
journey of each spouse by first uncovering the individual issues which
undergird the collusive dance and then resolving these, so that
collusive defense (s) are no longer necessary, and the partners are free
to change their position in the dance. The counsellor must understand,
modify, and interpret the client's projections in such a way that allows
the client to identify with them in a new light.
REFERENCE
• Scharff DE and Scharff JS, eds (2003) Special Issue: Psychoanalytic Couple
and Family Therapy. Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies 5: 253–378.
• Adler, G. & M.W. Rhine. (1992). “The Self-object function of projective
identification”. In N. Gregory Hamilton (Ed.), From Inner sources.
Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson Press.
• Brown, J.H. & C.S. Brown. (2002). Marital Therapy: Concepts and skills for
effective practice. Brooks/Cole.
• Feldman, L.B. (1979). “Marital conflict and marital intimacy: An integrative
psychodynamicbehavioral-systemic model”. Family Process, 18:69-79.