Object Relations Theory & Practice

Object Relations Theory & Practice is a two-year advanced programme that represents the deepest theoretical and clinical training IPAS offers in the psychoanalytic tradition. It is intended for experienced clinicians who already have a working familiarity with psychodynamic ideas and who now wish to undertake a serious, sustained engagement with the British object relations school and its contemporary developments.

The object relations tradition is arguably the most clinically productive current within post-Freudian thought. Beginning with Fairbairn's radical reformulation that the human being is object-seeking rather than pleasure-seeking, it has given clinicians some of their most powerful tools: Klein's paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions, Winnicott's transitional space and the capacity to be alone, Bion's container-contained and alpha-function, Fonagy's mentalisation. These are not historical artefacts but working instruments that shape every session a psychodynamic clinician conducts.

The first year of the programme is theoretical. We read the primary texts — Fairbairn, Klein, Winnicott, Bion — in chronological sequence, with accompanying secondary literature that situates each author in the debates of his or her time. We also read across into contemporary infant research (Stern, Tronick) and the mentalisation literature (Fonagy, Bateman), because the theoretical framework has to be tested against empirical data about early development.

The second year is clinical. Participants present cases in small supervision groups led by senior Council-appointed supervisors, and each case is formulated explicitly in object-relational terms. We focus on the recognition and management of projective identification, the use of countertransference as a primary data source, the handling of primitive defences, and the working through of the depressive position in the consulting room. Particular attention is given to the treatment of borderline and narcissistic personality organisations, for which object relations theory provides uniquely sophisticated technique.

The programme is delivered in-person at residential weekends complemented by weekly online supervision. Participants are expected to be in personal analysis or psychotherapy during the programme (or to have been recently). The IPAS Certificate in Object Relations Theory & Practice is awarded to participants who complete both years, maintain attendance, engage actively in supervision, and submit an acceptable extended case study of approximately ten thousand words.