The concept of internal object relations (1983)
Suggests that the establishment of an internal object (IO) relationship requires a dual splitting of the ego into a pair of dynamically unconscious suborganizations of personality, one identified with the self and the other with the object in the original early object relationship. The nature of the infant's subjective experience of the early relationship determines how these aspects of ego relate to one another. Since both the self and the object component of the IO are aspects of the ego, each has the capacity to generate experience (e.g., to think, feel, and perceive) semi-autonomously and yet in relation to one another. Resistance is understood as the difficulty a patient has in relinquishing pathological attachments involved in unconscious IO relationships. The author categorizes the types of resistance as being based on (1) the need of the IO not to be changed by the self, (2) the dependency of the IO on the self, and (3) the envy and jealousy of the IO for the self-component of the IO relationship.