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Object

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==Dictionary==
 
The term is employed in [[psychoanalysis]] in the sene in which one speaks of the [[object]] of someone's (Desire) (affection or attentions).
No distinction is made between persons and inanimate things: individuals, parts of the [[body]] and the [[satisfaction]] of [[need]]s can all be [[object]]s.
 
It is the theory of [[object]]s that provides the intellectual basis for the [[object-relations]] [[school]] of [[psychoanalysis]].
 
The notion of an [[object]] originates in [[Freud]]'s discussion of the [[drive]]s, where '[[object]]' is defined as that which allows a [[drive]] to achieve its aim.
The sexual [[object]] of a [[drive]] may, for instance, be a person; its aim, or the act towards which the [[drive]] tends, may be sexual intercourse with that person.
The [[object of the drive]] is [[contingency|contingent]] and is not defined by any [[nature|natural]] or predetermined purpose; sexual object-choice is determined by the individual's life-history, and primarily by experiences in [[childhood]].
 
It is clear from [[Freud]]'s account that the [[object of the drive]] is not necessarily a whole person and that it may be a part of the [[body]] or [[part-object]], suhc as the [[penis]] or the [[breast]].
Although [[Karl Abraham]] speaks of "partial incorporation of the object" and of "partial object-love," it is [[Klein]] who really develops the theory of [[part-object]]s.
[[Part-object]]s are essential features of the [[fantasy]] world constructed by the [[child]], and are endowed with '[[good]]' and '[[bad]]' qualities thanks to the mechanism of [[projection]].
Projecting the [[ambivalence]] it feels towards its [[mother]], the [[child]] typically fantasizes the existence of a good [[breast]] which offers comfort and nourishment, and a bad [[breast]] which denies or withdraws the [[instinct]]ual [[satisfaction]] it seeks.
 
 
 
 
 
==Definition==
The concept of the object in psychoanalysis proves to be an enigmatic one, because of its mobile and polysemic aspect and constantly changing character; there always remains an unknown zone that nurtures the object-cathexis and is therefore necessary for its continuation. The object in psychoanalysis is constituted of fluctuating impulses of unconscious, preconscious, and conscious cathexes, that are exchanged on a reciprocal basis. The object is neither a thing or a person, nor the fantasmatic content or a bodily zone of that person, although it relates to these throughout the analytic work. The concept of the object is a tool of understanding for the analyst and a notion that would become meaningless if it were studied as an independently existing entity. It is the unconscious element that lends some continuity to the cathexis of the various kinds of representations that are evoked by the patients' words, provided that the analyst constructs this continuity through the bi-vocal melody to which he is listening. The term object can be used only from the moment when analytic work is possible, however early this may be (Diatkine, 1989).
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