ABSTRACT
Internal objects are precipitates in the ego of the experience of an object. They represent relationships with external objects, modified by drives and fantasies, which can either be transformed by their development or remain primitively fixed and impossible to work through, causing conflict and suffering. Internal objects have no definable borders, are with the ego but also distinguished from it. To see the internal object as a superegoic component would mean that the object cannot be introjected entirely, but is instead kept suspended, available both for introjection and projection. The change from the insatiable, chaotic destructiveness of war to the need for order and control over things indicates that the expulsive need begins to give way to the anal capacity to retain. This also suggests that there are internal movements towards integration of the ego and its objects, which is expressed by the subject’s greater confidence in having internal space, and being able to occupy definite space in the world.
