Object Relations Theory, whose foundation was profoundly expanded by Melanie Klein, represents one of the greatest revolutions in post-Freudian psychoanalytic thought. While Freud focused much of his work on drive dynamics and psychosexual development (oral, anal, and phallic phases), Klein delved into the infant's internal world, investigating how the primitive ego relates to "objects", which can be real people, parts of people, or fantasized representations of these figures. For Klein, the individual is not born merely with impulses seeking discharge, but with an innate readiness to relate. From the first day of life, the infant interacts with the mother's breast, and this interaction shapes the entire structure of the personality.

THE CONCEPT OF THE OBJECT AND THE INTERNAL WORLD

To understand Melanie Klein's theory, we must first clear up some misconceptions regarding the term "object." In psychoanalysis, the object does not correspond to something material or inert, but to the aim of the drives, that toward which psychic energy is directed. Klein, however, radically expands this notion by stating that the object is not just something the subject turns toward, but a living presence within the mind. From the earliest days of life, the infant relates not only to the actual mother, the body that feeds and holds them, but to the internal representation they form of her. This internal image, the internal object, acquires consistency and autonomy, profoundly affecting how the subject experiences the world.

The formation of these internal objects is guided by Unconscious Phantasy (Klein preserves the "ph" spelling to distinguish it from conscious daydreaming). Kleinian phantasy is not voluntary imagination, but the primary language of instincts, the way the infant's psyche translates bodily sensations into internal scenes. When feeling hunger, pain, or frustration, the infant creates phantasies of attack, attributing the source of their displeasure to a "bad object." When fed, warm, and held, they phantasize a "good object," a source of care and protection. Thus, from the beginning of life, the internal world is organized around affective experiences that take on symbolic form.

This Internal World, in the Kleinian perspective, is not an abstract space but a universe populated by objects that interact, transform, and influence psychic functioning. Mental health depends on the quality of these internal relations: an internal world inhabited by good, integrated, and reliable objects favors a more cohesive and resilient ego; conversely, an internal world dominated by persecutory, fragmented, or threatening objects tends to weaken the ego, predisposing the subject to states of intense anxiety and, in extreme cases, psychotic configurations. Emotional balance, therefore, is not just a matter of external reality, but of how that reality is metabolized and represented internally.

THE SCHIZO-PARANOID POSITION AND THE SPLITTING OF THE EGO

Klein introduced the concept of "position" to replace the old "phase" model, proposing a more dynamic and continuous understanding of psychic development. While a phase is something one passes through and leaves behind, a position describes a mode of emotional and relational functioning that remains available throughout life. It is a specific organization of anxieties, phantasies, and defenses that can be reactivated whenever the subject faces situations of tension or internal threat.

The first of these is the Schizo-Paranoid Position, predominant in the first months of life. The term "schizo" refers to the mechanism of splitting (the radical division between good and bad aspects of the object), while "paranoid" points to the central anxiety of this moment: the fear of being attacked, invaded, or annihilated by an object perceived as malevolent.

In this early stage, the infant cannot comprehend that the mother who feeds them is the same person who, at other times, is late or absent. To deal with this impossibility of integrating opposite experiences, the ego resorts to splitting: the object is divided into two extreme poles. There emerges the "Good Breast," a source of nutrition and relief, and the "Bad Breast," felt as frustrating and persecutory.

The predominant defense mechanisms here are intense and primitive:

• Projection: The infant expels their own aggression and death drive outward, attributing them to the external object to avoid being destroyed by them.

• Introjection: An attempt to incorporate the good object, keeping it inside as an internal source of security.

• Projective Identification: One of Klein’s most sophisticated concepts, describing the process by which the subject deposits parts of themselves into the object to control, manipulate, or attack it from within.

THE DEPRESSIVE POSITION AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMBIVALENCE

The transition to the Depressive Position, typically emerging around the second half of the first year, represents a decisive milestone in emotional maturity. Here, the ego becomes more cohesive and capable of perceiving the mother not as a collection of good and bad parts, but as a whole person, separate from themselves, with ambivalent characteristics.

The term "depressive" does not refer to clinical depression, but to object anxiety. The infant begins to realize that by attacking the "bad object" in their primitive phantasies, they were actually attacking the same object they love and depend upon, the "good mother." This realization brings about a rudimentary but powerful sense of guilt, accompanied by the fear that their internal aggression may have damaged or destroyed the loved object.

This discovery shifts the focus from self-preservation to genuine concern for the other. This is where more elaborate feelings emerge:

• Mourning for the loss of the idealized "perfect" mother.

• Guilt for recognizing that one's own hate can hurt those they love.

• Reparation: The impulse to restore, protect, and care for the object perceived as vulnerable.

The capacity for reparation is considered the pinnacle of emotional development in Kleinian theory. It is the basis for creativity, aesthetics, and empathy. In the attempt to restore the internal object, imagination and the impulse to build rather than destroy are born.

ENVY AND GRATITUDE: THE PRIMORDIAL FORCES

In the mature phase of her work, Klein presented the concept of Primary Envy. Unlike jealousy, which is a triangular relationship (fearing the loss of someone to a rival), envy is a two-part relationship between the subject and the object. It is the inability to tolerate the "good" that the other possesses.

For Klein, envy is an expression of the death drive. The infant perceives the breast as an inexhaustible source of life; when frustration arises, the infant may feel the object is withholding this "good" for itself. Unable to bear this dependence, they phantasize about attacking or "spoiling" the breast to deny its superiority. Gratitude, conversely, is the psychic achievement of being able to introject the good object without needing to attack it, serving as a vital counterweight to the destructiveness of envy.

THE PLAY TECHNIQUE AND CHILD ANALYSIS

Klein’s greatest clinical contribution was the Play Technique. She broke with the contemporary belief that children could not be analyzed because they lacked verbal free association. Klein recognized that for a child, play is the most authentic form of psychic communication.

Every gesture, how a child moves a doll, organizes a scene, or destroys a toy, constitutes a symbolic language as rich as adult speech. In the Kleinian view, the analyst does not just see "playtime," but a deep emotional narrative. Unlike Anna Freud, who advocated for a more pedagogical and "softened" approach, Klein maintained that the interpretation of the unconscious should occur from the start, as children establish transference immediately. In the child's imagination, the analyst becomes the good or bad breast, the protector or the persecutor.

CONCLUSION

Melanie Klein's work shifted the center of the human experience to the field of emotional interactivity and the constant presence of internal objects. She teaches us that absolute loneliness is an illusion; even when alone, we live with an internal repertoire of voices and memories that structure our existence. Her perspective reveals that becoming "human", the ability to love, repair, and integrate, is not a given, but a permanent, lifelong task.