ABSTRACT
The four models of psychodynamic psychology—drive, ego, object, and self—have overlapping features (Pine, 1988). For example, the phenomenon of splitting may be conceptualized as the experience of orality/anality in drive psychology, as an early ego defense mechanism, as an immature form of object relations, or as an immature self-object relationship. Although these four models have different theoretical reasons for why splitting occurs, they all recognize splitting as a clinical phenomenon.
