Object Relational theory is a variation of psychoanalytic theory and was developed in the late 1920s and 1930s by Karl Abraham, Margaret Mahler, Melanie Klein, and other therapists. The belief of this approach is that humans have an innate drive to form and maintain relationships and it is our relationships with others around us that shape our personality. Some key terms for this theory are evolution, individuation-separation, true self, false self, good enough mother (parent), object, transitional object. The true self is the ability for the individual to be separate from the mother while still being accepted, it ¨feels creative, spontaneous, and real while the false self is built on a basis of compliance. Objects are what human form attachments to people or things and transitional object is something that a child uses for comfort and security as they move from one level of emotional development to another (toys, blanket, or art for example). One goal of Object Relational theory is for the therapeutic relationship with the therapist to be healing in itself; repairing past unhealthy relationships after the client can form a healthy attachment to the therapist and due to this healthy attachment made, the client starts to heal self and is able to have healthier relationships. The role of the therapist is to provide a holding space which is a therapeutic space that promotes new solutions with a sense of a self-being reborn, leave room for new relationships and expanded levels of awareness, maintain a conscious symbolic awareness of the client´s artwork and relationships, and facilitate separation and the building of self-concept and sense of empowerment that is not dependent upon external relationships.
