Een objectrelatietheorie vanuit het niets

An object relation theory from nothingness Where Anglo-Saxon-oriented psychoanalysis emphasises internalisation of external objects and their qualities in object relations theory, continental European psychoanalysis emphasises the absence of the object, especially when it comes to the first object, which is not there at all. This illusionary object is called object a by Lacan. Its significance is that during separation a void arises in the subject that gives rise to a desire that provides illusionary satisfaction through attachment to the other. The separation and disappearance of the object a creates the split subject, which is in fact a being saddled with a void, a nothingness. Hence the title of this article ‹An object relations theory from nothingness›, in which the lost object triggers the desire for wholeness, a desire that always continues to exist with the lost object during life.