According to Klein, both the paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions were important developmental functions of the ego, and infants normally experienced them during the Oral and Oedipal stage.
Remember here, that Freud said that the oral stage came in the first year of life and the Oedipal stage came much later around the age of 3-6 years.
However, As mentioned before, Klein disagreed with him and felt that both occurred together around infancy so according to her, these changes happened in the first year of life.

First came the paranoid-schizoid position that occurred in the first quarter of the first year of life. This is where splitting becomes very important.
The infant develops a strong hunger drive and looks for the good breast for satiation. If the breast appears, it is the good breast.
However, if the breast doesn’t appear, then the now frustrated and angry infant goes into distress thus perceiving the breast as a bad breast.

Personal opinion:
I’ve heard many mothers complain to me about how their newborns reject breastfeeding sometimes, especially if the mother waits too long to offer a feed. This was the first time that I actually experienced and also heard of other mothers experiencing the phenomenon of the angry infant rejecting the “bad breast.”

Klein basically went ahead to further hypothesize that infants had a phantasy to destroy the bad breast thus acting out aggressive phantasies of their mind.
In this paranoid-schizoid position, there can only be good and bad, even in the infant’s own ego. This is how you perceive the world: as either good or bad.

The depressive position comes in the second quarter of the first year of life and continues to mature throughout life.
The perception of wholeness starts to begin and the person starts to develop a tolerance for separation from the mother and also see themselves as separate individuals.

The feelings of sympathy, empathy, and concern for others starts to develop.

People who do not successfully develop through the depressive position are never able to fully develop as individuals.

Their inner and outer worlds are never able to synchronize causing a lot of problematic behavior.

Similarly, people who never develop beyond the schizoid position are also unable to adapt to the outer world.


In this position, the infant is able to perceive the mother and hence also the self, as a whole object that is both good and bad.

Hence, the mother is someone who is human and makes mistakes. She is able to frustrate and also to gratify.

The infant develops the ability to see the mother as someone who has her own shortcomings and that doesn’t mean she is only bad.
#ort #objectrelations #Klein

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