The Middle Line Of The Psychoanalytic Object Relations Revolution

As the intensification of contradictions between Melanie Klein and Anna Freud,the British Psychoanalytical Society held a series of scientific conferences from January 1943 to May 1944,which aimed to discuss the new psychoanalytic ideas of Klein based on the practices of child-analysis.The two pioneers of child psychoanalysis and their respective followers had engaged in a heated debate on many psychoanalytic themes,such as unconscious phantasy,death instinct,regression and the techniques of child-analysis,which constituted the famous"Freud-Klein Controversies" in the history of psychoanalysis.The "Controversial Discussions"finally ended under the coordination of Sylvia Payne--the new chairman of the British Psychoanalytical Society at that time--and a "Gentlemen's Agreement" was signed among the debaters.As a result,the British Psychoanalytical Society was divided into three groups:"Group A" which was also called the "Kleinian group" led by Klein,"Group B" which was also called the"Vienna group" led by Anna,and the "Middle group" which was later called the "Indepedent group" and finally became the "British School of Independents" represented by Donald Winnicott and other psychoanalysts.The British School of Independents was composed of the psychoanalysts who refused to belong to the Kleinian group and the Vienna group,which is a group of psychoanalysts such as Winnicott,Fairbairn,Michael Balint and John Bowlby,represents one of the three distinct sub-schools of the British Psychoanalytical Society,follows the orientation of object relations and critically absorbs and develops psychoanalytic theories and clinical techniques.In addition to the major figures mentioned above,the members of the School of Independents include Harry Guntrip,Masud Khan,Paula Heimann,Marion Milner,Charles Rycroft,Pearl King,Harold Stewart.Christopher Bollas and so on.Superficially,the School of Independents is not a real "school",but it is an indispensable political power within the British Psychoanalytical Society,maintaining the balance of the Society and showing the characteristics of independence,openness,relationship and authenticity.The British Independents have some self-evident similarities and form a so-called;Independent tradition".For example,they share a basic attitude in common:they completely respect and properly evaluate the ideas they use,assigning them truth value regardless of where they come from.At the same time,they also show a skeptical attitude towards the existence of universal truth and established theoretical thoughts,and they emphasize the pluralism of theory and technology.In addition,they all recognize the importance of the early mother-infant relationship and emphasize the role of external reality in children's mental development.The independent psychoanalysts critically absorbed other psychoanalytic concepts and ways of thinking both on theory and practice,and they finally formed various object relation theories that different from Kleinian.They have made deep exploration and important development on the attitude of human nature and drive,object and object relations,self,and the development of personality and mind,as well as psychopathology and psychotherapy.First of all,the Independents attached importance to the good side of human nature,suggested that people are born innocent and have the potential for development and therefore they advocated a positive view of human nature.Meanwhile,they opposed Freudian and Kleinian views of death instinct and no longer regarded libido as the fundamental drive of behavior.Instead,they treated aggression as a positive force for development and argued that the primary motivation of individual development is object-seeking rather than drive gratification.They constructed their own unique object relation theories based on the main concepts and core clues of object and object relations,such as Winnicott's theory of child psychoanalysis,Fairbairn's pure object relation theory of inner structure,Balint's object relation theory of primary love and Bowlby's attachment theory.From their perspective,ego or self is the core of personality,and the development of personality means the formation of inner structure(i.e.,the mature of ego or self).An individual's mental development is closely related to the development of object relationship:in a sense,the process of mental development is that the infant gradually develop from the initial absolute dependence towards independence.The object relation theories of the independent psychoanalysts also contained many concepts and views of Self psychology.For example,Fairbairn and Guntrip viewed the ego and self as equivalent,Winnicott and Khan's theories of the development of personality and mind were centered on self,while Bollas put forward the term "self as object" and emphasized the relationship between self and self as object.In addition,the independent psychoanalysts also made a detailed and in-depth discussion on the three closely related themes(i.e.,symbolism,dream and creativity),which enriched the theoretical system of psychoanalysis.Secondly,the independent psychoanalysts advanced the origin of psychopathology to the psychological life of the first two years of life and traced the root causes of mental illness in the early environment,especially the relationship between mother and child.They believed that the failure or deprivation of the early environment can trigger a baby's traumatic experience,which can lead to various neurosis or psychosis over time.As a special form of psychopathology,sexual perversion is a result of early environmental failure.At the same time,it is also a defense that individuals used to avoid or control anxieties.Finally,the Independents made a unique and creative interpretation of the essence,goal and process of psychoanalytic psychotherapy,and they constantly revised,developed and enriched the treatment techniques of psychoanalysis based on rich clinical experiences.For instance,they paid attention to the positive role of transference and transference interpretation;they promoted the transformation of the connotation of counter-transference and regarded it as an important tool for psychoanalytic therapy;they emphasized the therapeutic relationship between the therapist and the patients;they developed the play therapy and applied it to the treatment of adult patients.In a word,the British independent psychoanalysts has made great contributions on both the theoretical and practical aspects of psychoanalysis.On the one hand,they have promoted the psychoanalysis from the drive model to the object relation model,and propelled the important development of the object relation theory.They also have revolutionized the views of psychopathology and promoted the theory of psychopathology from the conflict model to the developmental disorder model.On the other hand,they have revised and developed the psychoanalytic skills,and then they extended the therapeutic range of psychoanalysis from neurosis to severe psychosis.In addition,they made an important influence on Self psychology and Relational psychoanalysis,and they also deeply impacted on medicine,literature,aesthetics,social work and other fields.It is undeniable that there are some shortcomings and deficiencies which the object relation theories of the Independents themselves are unable to overcome,such as lacking of unified and systematic theoretical system,using too abstract concepts and obscure language and constructing insufficient scientific theories.However,we believe that nothing can be said to be perfect,and it is true for both the object relation theory of the Independents and this research.Therefore,we should further deeply and critically explore the object relation thoughts of the Independents and maintain a cautious attitude when applying them to deal with domestic patients.