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Overall, building on Freud’s views, Klein (1927, 1932, 1937, 1952a, 1952b) proposed that the entire internal world is built on multiple internalizations, or internal objects, through processes that begin in the first days of life. In the Kleinian view, the internal object is: 1. A phantasy; 2. A body part, for example “the breast” or “penis”; 3. Suffused with internal experiences of pleasure and pain; 4. Experienced as an alive presence; 5. Defensively split into “all good” and “all bad” parts as protection against aggression. If the development proceeds optimally, these Part objects become integrated into whole objects. 6. While Internal objects can be good, Klein’s work focused (although not exclusively) on Internal ‘Bad’ objects; 7. All representations of object and self are constructed through ongoing processes of projection and introjection; consequently, these representations of object and self cannot be ever fully differentiated from each other; 8. The Internal Object is distinct from the External Object: The External Object is defined as a representation of the object that has not been taken inside of the body. Psychological development proceeds from the Paranoid-Schizoid position, which is dominated by the defensive processes of splitting and projective identification and characterized by part objects (and parts of the self), towards the Depressive position of tolerance of ambivalence and by the integration of various part objects into whole objects. Psychopathology reflects fixation to or revival of aspects of paranoid-schizoid or depressive positions. In Klein’s view (1929, 1946), all internalization processes (related to internal objects) are related to the management of anxiety over the flooding of one’s good objects by aggression. Although Klein did become more identified with the trend toward observing and addressing aggression (point 6 above) for many reasons, one of which was to extend Abraham’s view that had been somewhat neglected thus far, her theoretical view also addressed innate libidinal inclinations and focused upon contributing factors inhibiting the introjection of and sustaining the good internal object and aspects of self. Her theoretical concerns focused on the early and unresolved Oedipal conflicts, dominated by the mechanism of splitting: “[…] one of the unexpected phenomena I came across was a very early and savage super-ego…I found that young children introject their parents…in a phantastic way, and I was led to this conclusion by observing the terrifying character of some of their internal anxiety within the ego, but…they are split off in a manner different from that by which the super-ego is formed, and are relegated to the deeper layers of the unconscious…” (Klein 1958, p.241). Klein underlined the need for splitting early on to move from diffuse to paranoid- schizoid (persecutory) anxieties, those concerned with preservation of the self. She underlined how such early anxieties color the perception of the object, before these anxieties can be integrated into what she comes to call depressive anxieties: those that cluster around concern for the object. This focus allows a more detailed view of how the object is ‘known’ through love and hate in constant interaction. The aim of this understanding enables the ego, weakened by destructive impulses, to regain the goodness and therefore strength and hopefulness of the object.
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