Object relations and the developing ego in therapy

The term object relations refers to specific intrapsychic structures, to an aspect of ego organization. These intrapsychic structures, the mental representations of self and other (the object), become manifest in the interpersonal situation. Object-relations thinking has become central rather than peripheral to the understanding and treatment of patients. By integrating clinical observation with explanatory concepts concerning the nature and development of object relations. The author provides a logical framework within which to order, understand, and put to use the data of therapy. The text brings together attachment theory, cognitive theory dealing with mental structures, and object-relations theory while placing major emphasis on the evolution, within the maternal matrix, of a cohesive, reality-based, object-related self. Just as in this context the primary mothering person is viewed as the mediator of organization, so the therapist is viewed as the mediator of organization within the therapeutic matrix.

Dr. Althea Horner is an Honorary Member of the Southern California Psychoanalytic Institute and Society and a Scientific Associate of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis. She is listed in Who's Who in America and has been writing and articles and books for forty years. While Dr. Horner has retired from clinical practice, she continues to write in Pasadena, California.