Internal world and external reality : object relations theory applied

The text presents expositions and critiques of the theories of Melanie Klein, W.R.D. Fairbairn and Edith Jacobson, and correlates the authors own work with that of Margaret Mahler. The theory of object relations can be applied to both psychoanalytic technique and psychoanalytic psychotherapy - and to narcissism, both normal and pathological, in middle age. An entire section of this book is devoted to group phenomena, expanding on the classical psychoanalytic theory of group psychology and demonstrating the effects of regressive processes to be found in various kinds of groups. Essentially the work places special emphasis on the temptations and dangers to individual members of groups and to their leaders, temptations and dangers resulting from the activation of regressive processes. The final section of the book brings together concepts of object relations and group processes to examine the complicated interactions within a couple and between couples and groups. In this context, the author offers an original psychoanalytic formulation of love and its psychopathology.