School of thought

A psychodynamic theory that focuses on the relationships between internal representations of self and others.

Founders: Melanie Klein, Donald Winnicott, William Ronald Dodds Fairbairn

Object Relations Theory

Key principles

  • Internal object relationships
  • Early infant-caregiver relationships
  • Splitting and projection
  • Development of the self
  • Attachment patterns

Theories in this school

Bion's Object Relations Theory · Fairbairn's endopsychic structural theory · Glover's Object Relations Theory · Harry Guntrip's object relations · Otto Kernberg on Object Relations · Kleinian Theory · Self Psychology · Winnicott's object relations

Psychologists connected (authors and contributors)

Wilfred Ruprecht Bion · William Ronald Dodds Fairbairn · Edward Glover · Henry James Samuel Guntrip · Otto Kernberg · Melanie Klein · Heinz Kohut · Donald Winnicott