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== Theory ==
While objectits relationsgroundwork theoryderives isfrom basedtheories onof development of the ego in [[psychodynamicsSigmund Freud|psychodynamic theoryFreudian]], object<!-- [[objectpsychodynamics]], is a disambiguation page. We should link to something more useful. -->object relations theory placesdoes lessnot place emphasis on the role of biological [[Drive theory|drives]] in the formation of adult personality in adulthood.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Sociology: Understanding a Diverse Society, Updated|last=Andersen|first=Margaret|last2=Taylor|first2=Howard|publisher=Thomson Wadsworth|year=2008|isbn=9780495007425|___location=Belmont, CA|pages=93}}</ref> TheThinkers theoryof the school instead suggestssuggest that the way people relate to others and situations in their adult lives is shaped by family experiences during infancy. For example,; an adult who experienced neglect or abuse in infancy would expectexpects similar behavior from others who, through [[transference]], remind them of the neglectful or abusive parent from their past. These imagespatterns of the behavior of people andbecome repeated images of the events, and eventually turn into ''objects'' in the unconscious that the "self" carries into adulthood, andto they arebe used byin the unconscious to predict people's behavior in their social relationships and interactions.
The first "object" in someonean individual is usually an internalized image of one'sthe mother. Internal objects are formed by the patterns in one's experience of being taken care of as a baby, which may or may not be accurate representations of the actual, external caretakers. Objects are usually internalized images of one's [[mother]], [[father]], or primary caregiver, although they could also consist of parts of a person such as an infant relating to the [[breast]] or things in one's inner world (one's internalized image of others).<ref>{{cite book |last = St. Clair
|first = Michael
|title = Object Relations and Self Psychology: An Introduction
|url = https://archive.org/details/objectrelationss00stcl/page/6
}}</ref>
Later experiences can reshape these early patterns, but objects often continue to exert a strong influence throughout life. Objects are initially comprehended in the [[infant]] mind by their functions and are termed ''part objects''.<ref name = Greenberg1983>Greenberg, J. & Mitchell, S. (1983). ''Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory''. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England.</ref> Objects are initially comprehended in the [[infant]] mind by their functions and are termed ''part objects''.<ref name = Greenberg1983/> The breast that feeds the hungry infant is the "good breast", while a hungry infant that finds no breast is in relation to the "bad breast".<ref name = Greenberg1983/> With a "good enough" facilitating environment, part object functions eventually transform into a comprehension of whole objects. This corresponds with the ability to tolerate ambiguity, to see that both the "good" and the "bad" breast are a part of the same mother figure.<ref name = Greenberg1983/>
==History==
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