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"Celani, David P"
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Fairbairn's Theory of Change
Fairbairn's unique structural theory with its three pairs of selves and objects has proven to be a highly usable and practical model of the human psyche, yet it has remained a minor player in the world of psychoanalysis. There are a number of factors that account for its lack of popularity, foremost among them the timing of the model's introduction to the analytic community. Fairbairn's four successive papers that described his metapsychology (1940, 1941, 1943, and 1944) were published just after Freud's death, when his theory was the dominant model of psychoanalysis. Additionally, Fairbairn's model was incomplete, used unfamiliar terminology, and, in its singularity, forced the analyst to abandon drive theory, the heart of Freud's metapsychology. This paper will examine and update Fairbairn's unique model of change—from the outset of pathology that begins with attachment to bad objects, to their metamorphosis into internal structures and finally to techniques of treatment that reduce their influence on the patients’ internal world. The treatment section carefully follows Fairbairn's metapsychology, and focuses first on the analyst becoming a good object in the eyes of the patient, then unearthing bad object memories in a safe and compassionate interpersonal environment, engaging the patient's substructures in a manner that does not intensify preexisting internal templates, and finally aiding the patient in resuming his or her stalled emotional development. This exegesis of Fairbairn original model, along with recent modifications that have been made to it, demonstrates the consistency, clear focus, and utility of this little-known metapsychology.
Journal Article
A Fairbairnian Structural Analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Fairbairn's structural theory is based on the developing child's need to dissociate actual events between himself or herself and his or her objects that are excessively rejecting in order to contine an uninterrupted, pristine attachment to them. This eventuates in three selves in relation to three objects: One pair is conscious (the central ego which relates to the ideal object), while the other two pairs (the antilibidinal ego, which relates to the rejecting object, and the libidinal ego, which relates to the exciting object) are mostly held in the unconscious. Fairbairn saw the fluid relationship between the two split-off pairs of unconscious part selves and the conscious central ego as the primary dynamic of the human personality. The author proposes a specific variation in Fairbairn's structural theory to account for the development of narcissism. Specifically, this disorder is viewed as the result of a developmental history in which the child finds himself or herself in an exceedingly hostile interpersonal environment that precludes the child from using an idealized version either of his or her parental objects as the “exciting object.” The child therefore substitutes a grandiose view of himself or herself as the exciting object. This defense deflects external influences and replaces relationships with external objects with a closed internal world that is comprised of an admiring part-self basking in reflected love from its relationship with an exciting part-object.
Journal Article
A Structural Analysis of the Obsessional Character: A Fairbairnian Perspective
This paper reviews the object relations model of W.R.D. Fairbairn and applies it to the understanding of the obsessional personality. Fairbairn's model sees attachment to good objects as the immutable component of normal development. Parental failures are seen as intolerable to the child and trigger the splitting defense that isolates (via repression) the frustrating aspects of the object along with the part of the child's ego that relates only to that part-object. This fundamental defense protects the child from the knowledge that he is dependent on indifferent objects and preserves his attachment. The split-off part-self and part-object structures are too disruptive to remain conscious, yet despite being repressed make themselves known through repetition compulsions and transference. The specific characteristics of families that produce obsessional children impact the child's developing ego structures in similar ways. This style of developmental history creates predictable self and object configurations in the inner world, which then translate via repetition compulsion into obsessional behavior in adulthood.
Journal Article
Applying Fairbairn’s Object Relations Theory to the Dynamics of the Battered Woman
Fairbairn's secular object relations model of the development of the human personality emphasizes the power of the environment to form inner ego structures and the ensuing tragic results for all human infants who are faced with an unnurturing environment. Every act that children take to insure their continuing attachment to a frustrating, yet tantalizing object undermines their developing ego structure. The consequence of severely compromised ego structures is repetition compulsion in adulthood, as illustrated by the battered-woman syndrome. Each of the engorged and unrealistic part-ego structures seeks out external objects to re-enact the original relationship that created them. The consequence of a severely rejecting childhood can be endless abuse or death.
Journal Article
Revising Fairbairn’s structural theory
This chapter presents the problems with Fairbairn's structural theory. It examines modifications to those parts of his model that contain assertions that do not match clinical observations and therefore impede the application of his theory to clinical practice. Ronald Fairbairn's ultimate discovery of the splitting defence and the structural theory began with his recognition that the child had to develop defences against bad internalised objects, objects which had to be internalised for the child to survive. The splitting defence itself is the absolute centrepiece of Fairbairn's metapsychology and it is the key to using his model in the clinical setting. Critique of Fairbairn's structural theory will focus on areas of his model that do not match clinical realities and therefore impede the use of his model as a clinical instrument. The clinically significant issue regarding Fairbairn's structural model is the relationship between the anti-libidinal ego and the rejecting object.
Book Chapter
