ABSTRACT
This chapter shows the origin of object relation theorizing as an organic growth from ego psychology. The concept of the ego was necessary to account for the control of the drives and to navigate the relationship between drives and the environment. But, the question arose: what determines the strength or weakness of the ego? For many analysts, the answer is the degree of satisfaction in the early object relationships. In this way, object relations theories came primarily from the need to control the weakened ego. The work of Anna Freud, Heinz Hartmann, David Rapaport, and other ego psychologists are adduced to show that ego psychology led inexorably to the development of object relations theory. The work of Margaret Mahler and Edith Jacobson will be discussed as bridge theorists who understood the mutual dependency of ego psychology and object relations theory.
