Object Relations Theory

Overview
Object relations is a psychodynamic approach to understanding human behavior, development, relationships, psychopathology and psychotherapy. Many clinicians shy away from object relations because they believe it to be overly complex. Indeed, it is complex in its details and some of its theorists like Otto Kernberg explore these details in great depth.

However, there is also a straightforward perspective of object relations that is easily comprehended and helpful in understanding human relationships. In fact, after clinicians understand object relations from this perspective, they find that it intuitively reflects certain truths about all human relationships, from the early relationships of infancy, to friendships, to marriage, to the therapeutic relationship. Even students who are new to object relations quickly realize this.

It is a straightforward perspective that is presented here in the hope that it will generate a willingness to go on and explore the model in its complexity. A good place to start is with the key concepts that create a framework of the theory.