Object Relations Family and Individual Therapy Firenze, October 2005 David E. Scharff, M.D. Jill Savege Scharff, M.D.

Fairbairn –drive to be in a relationship (not instincts) –role of affect –object splitting and repression –ego splitting and repression –internal object relationships exciting rejecting central

Klein –life and death instinct based –projective/ and introjective identification –unconscious fantasy –paranoid-schizoid position –depressive position

Object Relations Family and Couple Therapy Derives from psychoanalytic principles of:  Listening  Responding to unconscious material  Developing insight  Interpreting  Working in the transference and countertransference toward understanding and growth.

The family is a system of sets of relationships  Which function in ways unique to that family during developmental phases of the individuals and family.  Which can be noted by the family therapist who attends to the family system as its members relate to each other and as a group relate to the therapist  Which repeat patterns of interaction embodying old ways of feeling and behaving rooted in earlier experience with each other and with families of origin.

Object Relations Family Therapy  Family as a small group –the group task –developmental stages –sub-group formations –scapegoating as projective identification

Object Relations Couple Therapy  Technique –listening to words, gesture, silence –following the couple’s direction –eliciting affect –working with countertransference –interpreting defenses against anxiety –insight leads to change

Goals of Object Relations Family and Couple Therapy Not symptom resolution, but:  Return to appropriate developmental phase of family life, with a capacity to master developmental stress  Improved ability to work as a group  Approved ability to differentiate and to meet the needs of individual group members

Technique of Assessment and Therapy

7 Major Tasks of Family Assessment  Provision of therapeutic space  Assessment of developmental phase and level  Demonstration of defensive functioning  Exploration of unconscious assumptions and underlying anxiety   

7 Major Tasks of Family Assessment  Use of transference and countertransference  Testing of response to interpretation and assessment format  Making of formulation, recommendation and treatment plan

Technique of Therapy  The management of the session and course of therapy  Transference and countertransference

Technique of Object Relations Family Therapy 1.Provision of the space within a frame 2.Management of the environment 3.Demonstration of the ways of working 4.Mental activities, reflecting and digesting 5.Giving feedback, support, advice, interpretation 6.Working through 7.Termination work   

Technique of Object Relations Family Therapy  Provision of space within a frame  Management of therapeutic environment  Flexible style; not a blank screen

Demonstrating Our Ways of Working  Enlarging the field of participation  Include members’ perspective  Encouraging interaction  Enlarging the field and depth of inquiry  Question feelings and value affective exchange  Object relations history   

Demonstrating Our Ways of Working, continued  Enlarging the family’s scope: Observation Depth of understanding  A living history of: Internal Objects Marriage Children’s memory  The family group as organizer

These activities include:  Enlarging individuals’ observing egos  Exploring marital discord, sibling conflict, and their link  Getting the history of the internal objects  Exploring “Core Affective Moments”

Bibliography Scharff, D. E. and Scharff, J. S. (1987). Object Relations Family Therapy. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson Scharff, D. E. and Scharff, J. S. (1991). Object Relations Couple Therapy. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson Scharff, J. S. and Scharff, D. E. (In Press). The Primer of Object Relations Therapy, New, Expanded Edition. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson Scharff, J. S. and Scharff, D. E. (1994). Object Relations Therapy of Physical and Sexual Trauma. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson. Scharff, J. S. and Scharff, D. E. (1998). Object Relations Individual Therapy. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.