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Object in Psychoanalytic Couple and Family Therapy

Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy

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Object in Psychoanalytic Couple and Family Therapy

Introduction

Psychoanalysis, as developed by Sigmund Freud, provides a model of the interaction between an individual’s internal experiences with external stimuli. In Psychoanalysis, an object is a person, place, or thing that satisfies a libidinal or aggressive drive. An object can be an external and/or internal stimuli that the individual processes in one or all of three ways: (1) projection, (2) introjection, or (3) splitting. Projection happens when a person takes internalized aspects of themselves and reflects these views or characteristics onto external stimuli. Introjection occurs when an individual internalizes attributes, behaviors, or characteristics of external stimuli. The process of splitting creates two objects from one, for which an individual can divide the contradictory aspects of the whole object into two. An object can be categorized as good or bad, partial or whole, and can be internalized within a...

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Correspondence to Marissa W. Davis .

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© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG

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Davis, M.W. (2018). Object in Psychoanalytic Couple and Family Therapy. In: Lebow, J., Chambers, A., Breunlin, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_16-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_16-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-15877-8

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Object in Psychoanalytic Couple and Family Therapy
    Published:
    05 July 2018

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_16-2

  2. Original

    Object in Psychoanalytic Couple and Family Therapy
    Published:
    07 February 2018

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_16-1