Psychodynamic Theories of Relationships

Understanding Relationships in a Developmental Context

Psychodynamic theories are based on a developmental perspective; childhood relationships with caregivers are thought to play a central role in shaping later relationships. Although Freud originally understood the child's relational needs to be secondary to the mother's capacity to gratify drives, subsequent theorists have elaborated the role of attachment needs as an equally significant force in development. One of the most prominent psychoanalysts to contribute to this understanding of early relationships was John Bowlby, who described babies as innately predisposed to become attached to their caregivers. The child's motivation toward establishing an attachment bond with the caregiver is an evolutionarily advanced system of survival; attachment behavior functions to maintain proximity to the caregiver to ensure protection and to have his or her needs met. If the caregiver is able to provide protection and reliable care for the child, then that child will internalize a sense of felt security. Through repeated interactions with caregivers, the child develops what Bowlby called internal working models, also commonly referred to as object representations, which are mental representations of oneself in emotional relationships with important others.

However, not all children are able to internalize representations of secure relationships, which results from an interaction among many factors, including the child's temperament, early experiences that disrupt a feeling of safety for the child, and the stage of development in which the disruption occurs. Sidney Blatt, for example, has articulated the relationship between the internalization of early experiences and the point in development at which the experience was internalized. If a child is neglected prior to internalizing a representation of the parent as separate from him or herself, the child may develop a representation of self characterized by a need to be merged with another person in order to combat intolerable feelings of separation and satisfy a need to be cared for, loved, and protected. If, at a later stage in development, the child has internalized a representation of the parent, he or she will be able to experience separateness from the parent without feeling empty. However, if the child experiences the parent as having a hostile disappointment in the child's actions, the child may internalize a representation of self characterized by feelings of guilt, worthlessness, and exceedingly high expectations that leave the child filled with self-hatred for failing to do better.

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