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Referencing Fairbairn (1954), Klein (1952), Jacobson (1964) and Mahler (Mahler, Pine and Bergman, 1975), Kernberg postulates the internalization of significant relations between self and others as fundamental building blocks in the form of dyadic units of self and object representations, linked by the affect in which they are experienced, constituting the basic infrastructures of the mind. The consolidation and gradual integration of these dyadic units into more complex, supraordinate structures lead to the development of the tripartite structure of ego, superego, and id. The basic internalized self /object representational dyads are conceived as embedded in peak affective states, both positive and negative, determining, respectively, “all good” and “all bad,” “idealized” and “persecuting” mental structures. Psychoanalytic object relations theory within the structural theory implies two basic levels of development. At a first level, under the dominance of peak affect states, a dual psychic structure is built up. On the one hand, is a psychic structure constituted by idealized self-representations relating to an idealized other (infant and mother) under the dominance of strong positive, affiliative affective states; on the other, an opposite dyadic set of relationships develops under the dominance of strongly negative, aversive, painful affects, constituted by a frustrating or aggressive representation of the other related to a frustrated, enraged or suffering self- representation (Kernberg, 2004). This concept of the internalization of all good, and completely separately, all bad internalized object relations leads to an intra-psychic structure characterized by primitive dissociative or “splitting” mechanisms In contrast to these early developments under conditions of peak affect states, early development under conditions of relatively low affect states would evolve under the control of available cognitive functions, the instinctive (“seeking” system) impulses to learning about reality, and lead to early understanding of animate and inanimate reality. Under these early circumstances, there would not exist as yet an integrated sense of self nor the capacity for an integrated view of significant others At a second level of development, gradually emerging over the first three years of life, the progressive development of realistic cognitive comprehension of the surrounding world, and, particularly, the predominance of good over bad experiences facilitates the gradual integration of emotionally opposite conditions, the tolerance of the simultaneous awareness of both good and bad experiences. This development of tolerance of ambivalence, of combined positive and negative emotional relations with the same external objects, gradually leads to an integrated sense of self and significant others; or, put another way, to normal ego identity. Ego identity corresponds to an integrated sense of self and the capacity for an integrated view of significant others. This second level of development corresponds to the “depressive position” within Kleinian theoretical formulations. It signals the development of normal psychological functioning or pathology at a neurotic level of organization. In contrast, the development of character pathology at a borderline level of personality organization, corresponding to Klein’s “paranoid-schizoid position,” represents the consequence of the lack of achievement of the integration of normal identity. Borderline personality organization, a severe level of
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