Object relations are interpersonal relationships that are part of a person’s most fundamental desire or libido because they strengthen the self . Objects can be thought of as actual persons that carry a maternal or caregiving role in a child’s life . Babies form a relationship to the world and subsequently to themselves by relating to an external object, i.e., the mother . In other words, relating to others is a behavior external to the individual that has an intrapsychic function. Object relations theory directs attention to disturbances in early parent-child interactions that negatively affect the child’s personality development and interpersonal functioning. Social relationships from a psychoanalytic account are far more than having someone to talk to; they are essential for developing self-regulatory mechanisms. Object relations are critical for developing an inner sense of self that can be distinguished from, yet that is related to, an outside reality . According to Winnicott children need to be reared in a “good enough” home with a mother or caretaker who adapts to the child’s needs and facilitates development. He notes that the mother’s preoccupation with the child’s needs is critical, so that the child experiences an omnipotent object that is strongly attuned to his needs until he is able to tolerate some frustrations without being traumatized by mother’s shortcomings . Recognizing the child’s needs and responding to the child’s internal processes by reflecting them back are essential caretaking roles that communicate emotional availability and interest . Adequate object relations in infancy are established by a variety of activities by the caretaker,cannabis grow table such as looking at the child, smiling, appropriate touching, and joining the child in his gaze or activity. Object relations theorists state that a child requires love, recognition, and attention from an object to develop a sense of self and reality of self.
If the caregiver fails to provide attunement to the child, he will experience this as a rejection regardless of the reasons for the lack of love . As a result the child internalizes the parent as a bad object who failed to meet his most basic needs. This leads to feelings of deprivation and inner emptiness . According to the British object relations school internal and external objects fulfill qualitatively different relationships; that is, the child who experienced frustrating external object relations is turning to internally generated fantasies of mergers and identification with the desired object . Hence, the libido for connection is turned inward toward objects of fantasy. It is this process that has great significance for the development of antisocial behaviors such as substance problems. Object relations theory adds to the biological model of addiction by claiming that impulses have to be met by a self-state. In the case of the schizoid personality type the self has become dissociated, so that drug addiction is a reflection of a dissociated self-state that once was yearning for love . Psychoanalytic self-psychology theorists have proposed that the parents’ or self-objects’ lack of mirroring and love can have long-lasting negative consequences for the development of the child, and it contributes to the development of schizoid personality disorder . The term self-object stems from Kohut’s self psychology theory that is related to object relations and emphasizes the “internal psychological experience of an object” . Mirroring is an important self-object function that serves to satisfy the child’s needs for recognition and praise . It helps the child develop a sense of reality of self that is worthy. Guntrip describes schizoid tendencies as a reaction to negative self-object relations.
Failures by the mother as the mirroring self-object put the child at risk for being traumatized due to experiencing a discontinuity of existence . Hence, from a psychoanalytic point of view the absence or inconsistency of parental adaptation to the child is a risk factor for the child’s self-fragmentation enhancing the vulnerability for maladaptive personality types. Fairbairn , one of the pioneers of the object relations school, studied schizoid personality intensely. He asserts that schizoid states stem from failed object relations that leave the child feeling unloved and rejected. The early rejection translates into a fear of closeness and true intimacy, and behaviors of withdrawal and chosen isolation . Individuals who experience schizoid states fear that their love will destroy the object because it is too consuming . They therefore prefer relying on internalized object relations and inner fantasies. They are able to role-play sociable interactions when necessary and can therefore easily be overlooked and underestimated in terms of their psychopathology and suffering. Similarly, self-psychology theory is helpful for understanding the emergence of personality and personality disturbances because it is concerned with “the self’s structural defects and shortcomings [in an interpersonal context]” . From that perspective a personality disorder results from insufficient self object responding to the child’s needs for “affirmation, merger, and idealization” . Affirmation is related to empathic attunement discussed earlier. Merger describes the experience of fusion of the self with a self object whereby the internal experience is temporarily fused with the external experience. Idealization, from Kohut’s perspective, refers to the three main areas of self, which are the “two polar areas” of the grandiose self, the “idealized parent imago” , and the “executive functions [that are] talents and skills” . The grandiose self is related to feelings of omnipotence and perfection, which can lead to narcissistic disturbances if they are not mirrored by the mother.
For example, a child who stands up for the first time needs to see pride in his mother’s eyes, a smile, and encouragement in order to satisfy an experience of self and of his potential. The child also maintains a feeling of omnipotence by projecting it onto his caregivers, which is called the “idealized parental imago” . The child’s idealizing expectations of the parent will unavoidably be frustrated, which will transform the child’s internalization to accept strengths and weaknesses in himself and others. For example, mother may not look at him every time he takes a new step or makes a discovery. Experiencing such frustrations within an overall caring, consistent care giving relationship helps the child de-intensify his grandiose self to enable more mature self object relations . Finally, the child needs the executive functions to achieve the ambitions represented by the grandiose self and the idealized parent. Ultimately,hydroponic cannabis system this will lead to productivity and meaning creation. Fair bairn notes that schizoid characteristics are an outcome of unsatisfying emotional bonds with parents and particularly with mother . This includes possessive and indifferent mothers who leave their children emotionally deprived, which causes regression to more primitive states for basic love need satisfaction. This more basic state may lead to depersonalization and “de-emotionalization” of object relations. As a result children may develop low distress tolerance and dependence in adult life. The traumatic experience that underlies schizoid characteristics stems from an emotional frustration because the mother does not love the child for himself and because she does not accept and value his love for her . This coins the child’s interpersonal style to adopt a distanced stance toward others since they are unable to fulfill his love needs. Intrapsychically, the child shifts object relations inside of himself where he relates to internalized others by incorporating or taking as opposed to giving and sharing. According to Fair bairn individuals with schizoid traits fear to give themselves emotionally to others because it feels to them like losing parts of their personality. They do not receive the same intrinsically motivating emotions from giving, such as creating values and self-respect . Another resulting feature from the relational trauma is the experience of inferiority due to not feeling loved in their own right . This sense of low self-worth may lead to a fixation on mother and narcissism as a defense against it . The schizoid character, albeit rare in the general population, appears to be relevant for the offender population. That is because it relates to antisocial behaviors in several ways: First, it is known that the prison population has elevated rates of trauma and dysfunctional family relationships that may foster schizoid traits; second, the process of identification with a bad object, i.e., the perpetrator of abuse, can lead to criminal behavior. Because the libido relates to parental objects, forms of abuse create inner conflict that can leave the child feeling ashamed.
By means of identification with a parent who abuses, the child develops a sense of badness . For Fair bairn whether a child becomes delinquent or not depends on several factors; the extent of internalization of the bad object in the unconscious, the degree of dysfunction of the object, the extent of identification with the bad object, and the ego defenses available to protect against acting out the bad object. Fair bairn makes an interesting and important point that a child may be motivated to engage in antisocial behaviors in order to release the repressed badness, and to protect the ideal image of his parents that appear good opposite to his badness. As a result, some of the character traits of schizoid personality may be considered defenses against a repressed, internalized bad object. In sum, parenting is critical in the child’s personality development because by serving as self objects parents help the child develop the affective and self-affirming structures it relies on for development and later functioning. Mirroring and idealization serve the narcissistic development and experience of omnipotence, which precede self-esteem and adaptation . When considering the experience of abuse by the hands of the caregiver or self object, it becomes apparent how devastating relational trauma can be for a child’s development. Surprisingly, differences in personality factors are rarely addressed in treatment allocation and intervention. This is astonishing provided that personality characteristics have significant influence on interpersonal and intrapersonal functioning that are central for recovery and rehabilitation. It is helpful to think of personality in dimensions to represent developmental levels and typologies . The dimensions can have substantial overlap, and people tend to oscillate along the dimensions because their functioning is impacted by stressors.The typology dimension captures the specific kind of defenses used, and helps classify them along the developmental dimension. For example, personality types using denial would be classified at the lower end of maturity and at the higher, more severe end of the typology. It is important to note that this study refers to personality types rather than personality disorders as listed in the DSM-IV-TR because it takes the participants’ developmental stage into consideration. Adolescence is a developmental phase in which personality is still emerging and traits are flexible. It is important to note that personality is conceptualized as a fluid construct consisting of propensities that undergo developmental changes and that are directly affected by stressors in the environment, such as poverty and poor family relations . Therefore, it is helpful to think of personality type as propensity or tendency, rather than a permanent set of thought and feeling patterns. Personality disturbances comprise of patterns of cognition, affect, impulse control, and interpersonal relationships. Individuals who suffer from personality disorders have inner experiences and perceptions that are often not mirrored by the outside world and do not meet society’s expectations and norms . Personality disturbances can therefore result in high levels of distress for the individual. Personality disorders like many other disorders occur on a spectrum of high and low intensities that include overlaps with other, related disorders. For example, schizoid personality shares symptoms of a lack of interest in personal relationships and emotional detachment with autism spectrum disorders. Furthermore, it is critical to diagnostically differentiate schizoid symptoms from contextual factors that affect an individual’s emotional style and behaviors. Growing up in disadvantaged neighborhoods and experiencing ethnic discrimination can cause individuals to display detachment and emotional indifference as a form of self-protection that should not be classified as a personality disturbance. Many individuals with schizoid personalities are highly functioning, hold jobs, and lead productive lives . A schizoid personality style describes individuals who tend to be introverted and solitary . Individuals high on this trait tend to be shy, avoid competitive relationships, and are described as eccentric . Individuals with schizoid traits display autistic thinking that entails daydreaming without a loss of a sense of reality . When confronted with an unpleasant stimulus, such as a disagreement, individuals with schizoid traits rather withdraw than express hostility .