Working with Fairbairn’s Metaphors of the Human Mind
in Mental Health Treatment Setting

SEMINAR DESCRIPTION:

Different psychoanalytic models express their philosophies of humankind and its development in metaphors. This interactive seminar will introduce the attendees to Fairbairn’s metaphor of the human psyche. Fairbairn’s model belongs to a group of relational models that see the child’s early experiences with his mother/caregiver as critical to his development and wellbeing. Fairbairn saw structuralization of the psyche as a consequence of real interactions with external objects that are either growth enhancing, or frustrating of the child’s normal and legitimate needs.

Fairbairn’s Integration of “Trauma and Dissociation” and “Developmental Arrest” Models

Fairbairn’s model integrates both a “Trauma and Dissociation” and a “Developmental Arrest” models. In fact, the first leads to the second. Fairbairn focused on the child’s absolute dependency on his/her objects for their sense of life, comfort, and safety. When the parent fails the child in these critical areas, the sense of abandonment is so great that the child’s attachment to his/her object is endangered. To protect him/herself from an abandonment crisis, the child dissociates the event, which is then pushed into his unconscious.

In dysfunctional families, the number of caretaking failures multiply day after day. Over time, similar dissociated events with the same parents coalesce in the child’s unconscious and develop into an ego structure, which is defined as a view of the self in relationship with the part of the object; in this case – with a rejecting part of the parent. This metaphorical structure is hidden from the normal, conscious, central ego. This is the beginning of structuralization in Fairbairn’s model.

The second pair (of a self and an object) of ego structures that develop in the child’s unconscious mind is the hope-filled “Libidinal Ego,” which only sees the kind/nurturing part of the parent, called the “Exciting Object.” This part of the parent appears, at least occasionally, in even the most unloving families, and is remembered and exaggerated by the child, which gives them unrealistic hope that love is around the corner.

Both of these pairs of self and object are unknown to each other, and under certain circumstances, one or the other pair can emerge from the unconscious and take over the executive functions of the conscious ego. For instance, when the libidinal ego is conscious, the parent seems filled with love and potential support.

The presence of each of these structures keeps the child attached to a faulty parent as the child becomes focused on the faulty parent, waiting for the support and encouragement to engage with other children of the same age. Without this support, the child is caught in limbo and is passed developmentally by the other children who are encouraged and supported by their parents to engage with other children and adults. This unresolved dependency inhibits or even stops the process of differentiation from the parent and leaves the child dependent on his/her libidinal ego fantasy that he/she will be loved in the future.

Secondly, the vast number of intolerable-to-accept memories stored in the child’s antilibidinal ego does not allow for integration of the good and bad memories of the parent into a single view. The overwhelming number of negative, hostile or indifferent memories, if they became conscious, would completely overwhelm the fewer and weaker positive memories, and the child would realize that he/she has been abandoned, and this would destroy the fantasy that he/she lives in a loving environment. Lack of integration of the positive and negative images of the parent leads to seeing others in extreme ways, as if they are “all good” or “all bad,” often at different moments in time, which leads to a chaotic and unpredictable adulthood and damaged and unstable interpersonal relationships.

Three Forms of Resistance to Treatment

Fairbairn described three forms of resistance to treatment displayed by patients, and all three come directly from his model, and they are easily seen in the consulting room. The first is the patient’s extreme avoidance of confronting just how badly he/she was treated in childhood. If the clinician overemphasizes the destructiveness of the parental failures that the patient casually describes in the first months of treatment, the patient will angrily defend their parents, or worse, may flee treatment.

Secondly, the intense emotional bond between the dissociated unconscious structures and the absolute refusal of the vindictive, humiliated, and enraged, yet still dependent, antilibidinal ego, of giving up trying to convince the rejecting part-object of his/her value as a human being – is the first component.

The second component is the emotional attachment between the equally obdurate libidinal ego, which will refuse to give up hope of getting love from the alluring “exciting” object. Finally, the third source of resistance is from the patient’s intense resentment toward the therapist for not conforming to his/her expectations that come from his inner templates and expectations that originated in his relationship to his parents. The patient, through powerful transferences, will insist that the therapist is equivalent to objects from his past. So, the attendees will learn how to interact and confront the patient’s false expectations that are projected onto the therapist from the patient’s internal expectations, but without increasing the patient’s resistance.

Application of Fairbairn’s Object Relations Model in Clinical Settings

This seminar provides mental health professionals with practical insights into applying Fairbairn’s object relations model in clinical settings. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of how early relational patterns become internalized structures that continue to influence adult functioning and therapeutic relationships. By recognizing the complex interplay between different ego states and their associated objects, clinicians will develop enhanced skills for addressing resistance, working with dissociated experiences, and interrupting repetition compulsion. Rather than offering simplistic solutions, this framework provides a nuanced lens for conceptualizing and responding to the multifaceted nature of psychological distress as it emerges within the therapeutic relationship. Attendees will leave with conceptual tools to identify split-off self states and practical strategies for therapeutic intervention that honor the defensive functions these structures serve while facilitating greater integration and relational capacity.

Who This Seminar Is For?

This seminar is designed for mental health professionals, including psychologists, psychoanalysts, clinical social workers, mental health counselors, and others. While specialized knowledge of object relations theory is beneficial, the seminar will provide sufficient context for clinicians with general psychodynamic training.

LEARNING POINTS:

By the end of this educational activity, its participants will be able to:

• Discuss how different psychoanalytic models express their philosophies of humankind in metaphors.
• Analyze the dynamics of Fairbairn’s model with its multiple ego states which move in and out of awareness.
• Utilize this awareness to see patient shifts in ego states as evidence of multiple, split-off, selves, each of which contains a view of reality unknown to the other ego structures, as well as to the central ego.
• Examine the patient’s history with a focus on traumatic early events that have been minimized, ignored, excused or dissociated and which would have destroyed the dependency bond to the parent if the event was understood.
• Analyze Fairbairn’s model of defensiveness that emerges from patients in the clinical setting and learn how to defeat these repeated patterns of denial.
• Discuss and analyze how repetition compulsion emerges directly for the self and object components that have been dissociated and held in the unconscious.

ABOUT DR. DAVID CELANI :

REGISTRATION AND FEES:

Early Bird registration (before May 15th, 2025)
$45 regular/ $35 grad students & candidates/ $15 undergrad students

Regular registration (from May 15th, 2025 – to June 28th, 2025 – before 6pm EDT/NYC time)
$60 regular/ $45 grad students & candidates/ $20 undergrad students

Registration ‘at the door’ (after 6pm EDT/NYC time on June 28th, 2025)
$70 regular/ $55 grad students & candidates/ $25 undergrad students

Please Note: IF CEs ARE REQUESTED — please use the “regular” registration (not a “student”) option. There is also an additional fee of $25 for CE certificate processing (can be paid on the day of the conference or in advance).

SPECIAL SCHOLARSHIPS are available for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as for retired or disabled practitioners, or need-based.