British Object-Relations Theorists and Self Psychology: Some Critical Reflections

This survey of six major British object-relations theorists examines the ways in which their ideas anticipated self psychology. The work of Ian Suttie is first considered as a relatively undiscovered but significant member of this group. W.R.D. Fairbairn, Harry Guntrip, Michael Balint, and D.W. Winnicott introduced concepts that self psychology developed in its own idiom, none of which has been recognized by Kohut or his followers. A review of Melanie Klein’s work suggests interesting parallels with Kohut’s work but reveals essential incompatibilities in basic theoretical assumptions with regard to the nature of the relationship between the infant’s self and its early environment.