Modelling the stages of the identity theory of object-concept development in infancy

A computational model is presented for the three stages of development of the object concept in infancy identified by Bower and Wishart in their research. The stages are described by sets of PROLOG clauses that interpret object structures representing the perceptual phenomena interpreted by the infants themselves. The infant's changes between developmental stages can be described by differences between the rules modelling each stage. Three experiments are presented and the behaviour of the PROLOG model is described for each stage of development. Motion, rest, and boundedness of objects constitute the theoretical underpinning of the running PROLOG model and are hypothesized as the invariant aspects of perception that explain the behaviour of the infant at each stage of development. A possible explanation for transitions between stages is offered and justified in part by the output of the model, which in turn is used to predict the behavioural outcome of an experiment.     

The therapeutic object relationship

This paper introduces the concept of the therapeutic object relationship in order to clarify our understanding of the nature of fully analytic work with the more regressive patient, which has unsystematically developed over the last 30 or 40 years. The need for such a clarifying concept seems to arise from several sources. Our analytic work with the more regressed patient appears to entail a relationship demand factor which cannot be usefully treated only as resistance to the development of the transference. These are patients with what may be described as object hunger emanating from faulted ego development and a disordered internal object world. This object hunger cannot be adequately met within the framework of the tacit, ordinary, good-enough environment of the concerned and nonjudgmental analyst. In addition, the literature on this subject still dichotomizes the relationship factor of treatment from the transference. The concept of the therapeutic object relationship appears to offer the possibility of a clinical and theoretical unification between transference and relationship. The major point of the paper may be described in terms of the manner in which we have progressed from Eissler's parameter paper of 1953 to the widened scope of analytic work made possible by object relations theory, developmental theory and observation of infant and child development. The face of analysis seems to have undergone profound modification from the early classical model to one in which developmental maturation, in addition to making unconscious conflict conscious, has become a matter for our concern. This change seems to require seeing the analyst as a special form of real object with whom the patient passes through a revised version of certain developmental pathways. The therapeutic object relationship is viewed as a potentially unifying concept which may make possible higher degrees of generalization about the variously unsystematized approaches to analyzing the more regressive, but nonpsychotic patient. Some history of definition of the analytic relationship in terms of transference or relationship is presented. In the course of the paper the therapeutic object relationship is gradually defined as one of: primal intimacy; increased permeability of boundaries between self and other; intensive empathic interaction; the evolution of self and object definition in a context of intimate relation with an object that is instrumental in this process; and the activation of transcendant forms of symbolic-creative intercommunication.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)     

Orientation,containment and the emergence of symbolic thinking

Orientation is viewed in this paper as an important dimension of containment for the development of thinking. Orientation refers to the particular positioning in space and time of mother and infant so they can find one another and then containment can take place. Bion's container–contained model for the development of thinking is based on the capacity of the mother's mind to function as a ‘home’ for the infant's primitive projections. Containment and orientation are explored in relation to an ancient Greek object called ‘σ?μβολον’ [symbolon], which I use here as a metaphor for the early negotiation between mother and infant to achieve a correct matching to each other's orientation. This is then mobilized and re‐enacted between analyst and patient in the psychoanalytic process. Orientation as part of the container–contained model enables us to view the development of thinking from a new perspective with greater integration of cognitive and emotional aspects. The clinical implication of the concept of orientation is explored in relation to the process of engagement/disengagement between analyst and patient and is illustrated by clinical material.     

Continuous information processing in conceptual identifications

Summary This investigation was aimed at the analysis of processes of the conceptual object identification. Three experiments were performed which utilized a response preparation paradigm developed by Miller (1982). The results confirm the psychological validity of a distinction between sensorily and categorially represented concepts proposed formerly by the authors. The process of identification of objects as belonging to sensory concepts was analysed in more detail. The experimental results suggest that it may be a sequential feature matching process which is characterized by continuous information processing. Early in the process the figurative features allowing an identification of an object as belonging to a more general sensory concept are processed. In following processing stages this first conceptual identification is more and more specified by an additional checking of more detailed figurative features. More importantly, the results indicate that the information about the general conceptual identity of an object is not only available early in the identification process but can also be used for the preparation of following processes or processing stages even before the object is fully identified. Possible influences of the early information on the control of the conceptual identification itself and on the selection and control of motor behavior are discussed.We wish to thank the following psychology students at the Humboldt University in Berlin for their help in performing the experiments: Kathrin Hänel, Erika Küchler and Christina Matthé. Furthermore, we wish to thank the two anaonymous reviewers and Johannes Engelkamp for their helpful comments on a first draft of our paper     

Thoughts about the internalised speaking object: psychoanalytic psychotherapy with children of delayed verbal development

This paper discusses the meaningful effects of intensive psychoanalytic psychotherapy on language development in children with verbal delay or disorder. Three clinical cases of children aged five to seven are presented; two of these display significant verbal delay and one exhibits unusually high verbal abilities. Following Meltzer, the author explores the concept of the ‘internalised speaking object’ – a good object speaking to the child, which has been internalised. This internal model is essential for the child’s development of language and speech. At times, these children experience this internal object as a persecutory object which must be warded off and avoided. Even more so, when the external object addresses the children verbally, language itself becomes a persecutor and they experience a fear of disintegration. During such times, the therapist must find new and creative ways for communication. The author describes his therapeutic efforts in dealing with these difficulties which stem both from the lack of a reciprocal verbal communication and from the therapist becoming a persecutory object to the child, and demonstrates the manner in which he facilitated gradual shifts in the patient, from an anxious and defensive position into a more relaxed one. These efforts set in motion a process of internalisation of a speaking object by the child and the development of internal language, that is, thinking along with expressive verbal language. The article furnishes some evidence to support the idea that verbal development relies significantly on establishing good, strong and healthy early object relations.     

Separation-individuation and cognition

Through direct observation of infants and mothers in an "experimental" nursery, Mahler and her associates have accumulated data which when analyzed point to distinct phases (stages) during the long process of the development of the concepts of self and object. These phases, autism, symbiosis, and separation-individuation (itself subdivided into four subphases, differentiation, practicing, rapprochement, and consolidation of individuation) correspond well with the stages described by Piaget as constituting the period of cognitive growth described as sensorimotor intelligence. The intercorrelation of the phasic development along these two separate lines (objectal-affective and cognitive), expectable as it may be, is of considerable interest as it underlines the intrinsic strength of the psychoanalytic concept of the object. Furthermore, this intercorrelation enhances and enlarges our understanding of the process of consolidation of self and object during the first years of life.     

Inferring Causal History froms Shape

The shape of an object often seems to tell us something about the object's history; that is, the processes of growth, pushing, stretching, resistance, indentation, and so on, that formed the object. A theory is offered here of how people are able to infer the causal history of natural objects such as clouds, tumors, embryos, leaves, geological formations, and the like. Two inference problems are examined: the first is the inference of causal history from a single shape. It is claimed that this inference consists of two simple and yet powerful rules, based upon the symmetry and curvature structure of the shapes. When these two rules are applied to a large collection of shapes, it is found that the resulting causal histories accord remarkably well with intuition. The second inference problem is the recovery of intervening causal history between two successive shapes that are known to be two stages in the development of the same object. This type of inference is manifested, for example, when a doctor compares two X-rays, taken a month apart, of the same tumor, and is able to conjecture the intervening growth. It is found that a grammar of only six operations is sufficient to generate the later shape from the earlier one via psychologically meaningful process-extrapolations. Finally, a basic heuristic by which human beings seem to infer complex temporal relations between different processes in the past is proposed, and investigated in detail.     

The Concept of the Internal Object: Some Defining Features

The paper begins with an attempt to distinguish the self from its internal objects in terms of the sense of otherness. It raises the issue of the level of contouring of the object and the link with early development. It discusses a type of semi-contoured object using Grotstein’s concept of the background object of primary identification. It concludes with a technical discussion concerning the repair of deficits or basic faults in internal objects.     

Oedipus complex and development of self

The emergence of oedipal object relations is a crucial stage in the development toward individuated adult mentation, distinguished from early stages of psychic life which are transindividual (as in Kohut's "selfobject transference"). The latter continue to function as deep layers of individual psychic life; but the development of oedipal/postoedipal object relations, and advanced psychic structure and functioning based on it, represents a norm in psychoanalytic psychology and therapy. The poet John Keats's ideas about the formation of the individual "soul" (identity as an individual) by the intervention of "circumstances" are cited to illustrate this aspect of the oedipus complex.     

Red beavers and building bridges between assessment and treatment

In this article, I present a case involving early object loss in which I both assessed the patient and treated her. Assessment revealed a particular object relational defensive structure-a false self. The concept false self was then used as a bridge to treatment. The case is discussed from several perspectives including the clinical inference process, the relationship between assessment and treatment, and the vicissitudes of early object loss.     

促进当事人的改变：基于治疗性最近发展区的视角

作为心理治疗的有效区域,治疗性最近发展区是指当事人当前适应问题经验的能力和通过治疗师的协助能够达成的潜在能力之间的距离。早期的同化模型理论更注重对心理治疗改变过程的描述,治疗性最近发展区理论则能够进一步解释治疗师在不同阶段的帮助策略。在研究上,治疗性最近发展区理论建立在非传统的方法论基础上,通过不断累积个案的质性研究,帮助治疗师理解和解释不同咨询效果的互动过程,并使理论得到持续发展;在临床上,治疗性最近发展区为理解心理治疗过程中倒退现象提供了新视角,并能够有效指导在治疗过程中采取挑战性还是支持性策略。未来研究可从临床上探索经验丰富的治疗师的实践智慧,也可选取较大跨度的治疗对话序列,对不同流派的特点,从不同参与者的视角出发进行研究,进而深化对心理治疗过程机制的理解。     

Mapping the contours of faith in the land of separation: spiritual geographies for children

According to Jean Piaget, children begin to develop a concept of an object, such as that it has sides that are not visible from the child's perspective or that it is likely to be where one saw it last, in early infancy. By the close of the prelinguistic phase at about 2 years old, the child has developed a mature object concept, one that comprehends the object as a continuing entity even when it is not visible. Many children's picture books demonstrate Piaget's concept of object permanence through narrative and image. This paper offers a close reading of three classics, Goodnight moon, Harold and the purple crayon and Where the wild things are, in an explanation of how children are able to develop faith in an invisible, omnipresent deity.     

Theories of language acquisition

Prior to the advent of generative grammar, theoretical approaches to language development relied heavily upon the concepts ofdifferential reinforcement andimitation. Current studies of linguistic acquisition are largely dominated by the hypothesis that the child constructs his language on the basis of a primitive grammar which gradually evolves into a more complex grammar. This approach presupposes that the investigator does not impose his own grammatical rules on the utterances of the child; that the sound system of the child and the rules he employs to form sentences are to be described in their own terms, independently of the model provided by the adult linguistic community; and that there is a series of steps or stages through which the child passes on his way toward mastery of the adult grammar in his linguistic environment. This paper attempts to trace the development of human vocalization through prelinguistic stages to the development of what can be clearly recognized as language behavior, and then progresses to transitional phases in which the language of the child begins to approximate that of the adult model. In the view of the authors, the most challenging problems which confront theories of linguistic acquisition arise in seeking to account for structure of sound sequences, in the rules that enable the speaker to go from meaning to sound and which enable the listener to go from sound to meaning. The principal area of concern for the investigator, according to the authors, is the discovery of those rules at various stages of the learning process. The paper concludes with a return to the question of what constitutes an adequate theory of language ontogenesis. It is suggested that such a theory will have to be keyed to theories of cognitive development and will have to include and go beyond a theory which accounts for adult language competence and performance, since these represent only the terminal stage of linguistic ontogenesis.     

Transformation rules in concept learning

Two major classes of models have been proposed to explain concept learning: strength models and distance models (Hayes-Roth & Hayes-Roth, 1977). The present study demonstrates that subjects abstract transformation rules as defined by the Franks and Bransford 11971) distance model. Transformation rules characterize how the patterns of a concept differ from each other. Transformation rules are inconsistent with strength models, which assume that subjects abstract component features and not relational information characterizing the differences among patterns. Whether a strength model or a distance model is more appropriate in other instances of concept learning is probably a function of task demands, stimulus characteristics, and subject characteristics.     

The development of children's rule use on the balance scale task

Cognitive development can be characterized by a sequence of increasingly complex rules or strategies for solving problems. Our work focuses on the development of children's proportional reasoning, assessed by the balance scale task using Siegler's (1976, 1981) rule assessment methodology. We studied whether children use rules, whether children of different ages use qualitatively different rules, and whether rules are used consistently. Nonverbal balance scale problems were administered to 805 participants between 5 and 19 years of age. Latent class analyses indicate that children use rules, that children of different ages use different rules, and that both consistent and inconsistent use of rules occurs. A model for the development of reasoning about the balance scale task is proposed. The model is a restricted form of the overlapping waves model (Siegler, 1996) and predicts both discontinuous and gradual transitions between rules.     

The Development of the Pragma-dialectical Approach to Argumentation

This paper describes the development of pragma-dialectics as a theory of argumentative discourse. First the development of the pragma-dialectical model of a critical discussion is explained, with the rules that are to be complied with in order to avoid fallacies from occurring. Then the integration is discussed of rhetorical insight in the dialectical framework. In this endeavour, the concept of strategic manoeuvring is explained that allows for a more refined and more profoundly justified analysis of argumentative discourse and a better identification of fallacies. The paper ends with a brief overview of current research projects.     

Metapsychology or metapsychologies? Some comments on Paul Denis's paper ‘The drive revisited: mastery and satisfaction’

In this commentary on Paul Denis's paper ‘The drive revisited: mastery and satisfaction’, the author defends the idea of a plurality of metapsychologies that must be contrasted with and distinguished from each other while avoiding incompatible translations between models. In this connection he presents various theoretical approaches to aggression and the death drive, and demonstrates the differences between the drive model and the model underlying the theory of internalized object relations. The author holds that the concept of the internal object differs from Freud's notion of the representation (Vorstellung). He also considers that the imago as defined by Paul Denis in fact corresponds to the concept of the internal object. Lastly, he addresses the complex issue of listening to archaic forms of psychic functioning and their non‐discursive presentation within the analytic process, which affects the transference‐countertransference link.     

Effects of irrelevant object structure on early attention deployment

Event-related potential (ERP) studies have suggested that Gestalt principles or grouping factors in a visual scene modulate attention deployment in early visual processing. The present study examined the effects of an extrinsic grouping factor, region commonality, on early ERP spatial attention. Effects of sex were also explored, since the processing of task-irrelvant objects may differ between the sexes. Twenty-four participants were required to discriminate one side of rapidly-presented bilateral letters, and attention effects were indexed by hemispheric lateralization accroding to attended visual fields. In results, an early P1 attention effect (70–110 ms) increased when the letters were surrounded by an object, compared to the control stimulus without a complete object, and this result was more prominent in women than in men. The present study demonstrates that visual object and sex differences play a novel role at very early cortical stages of processing in attention deployment to a task-irrelevant visual structure.