Today I have chosen to blog about Margaret Mahler a fairly familiar name to me especially when I hear of related talk to Sigmund Freud's research. Mahler was a Hungarian physician who later on became interested in psychiatry and she was a key figure on the topic of psychoanalysis. Mahler was mostly interested in normal child development and she spent much time with understanding children and how they arrive at the self. Through Mahler's studying she developed the Separation-Individuation theory of child development. Mahler worked as a psychoanalyst with young troubled children and in 1950 herself and Manuel Furer established the Masters Children's Centre in Manhattan. There Mahler developed the Tripartite Treatment Model, in which the mother was involved in the treatment of the child. Mahler helped bring about a more constructive exploration of serious troubles in childhood and emphasized the importance of the environment and it's influences on the child. Mahler especially was curious of the mother-infant duality and carefully recorded the influence of early separations of children from their mothers. This recording of separation-individuation was her most important aspect she offered to the development of psychoanalysis. Mahler helped to explain the normal and abnormal features of the developmental ego psychology. Mahler worked with psychotic children, while psychosis had not been involved in psychoanalytic treatment yet. Symbiotic child psychosis interested Mahler and her most important work is "The Psychological Birth of the Human Infant:Symbiosis and Individuation, written in 1975 with Fred Pine and Anni Bergman. Interestingly to me in Mahler's Separation-Individuation Theory of Child Development Mahler's theory of development takes place in phases and with several sub phases which consist of the following:
"Normal Autistic Phase - First few weeks of life. The infant is detached and self absorbed. Spends most of his/her time sleeping. Mahler later abandoned this phase, based on new findings from her infant research She believed it to be non-existent. The phase still appears in many books on her theories."
"Normal Symbiotic Phase - Lasts until about 5 months of age. The child is now aware of his/her mother but there is not a sense of individuality. The infant and the mother are one, and there is a barrier between them and the rest of the world."
"Separation-Individuation Phase - The arrival of this phase marks the end of the Normal Symbiotic Phase. Separation refers to the development of limits, the differentiation between the infant and the mother, whereas individuation refers to the development of the infant's ego, sense of identity, and cognitive abilities. Mahler explains how a child with the age of a few months breaks out of an “autistic shell” into the world with human connections. This process, labeled separation-individuation, is divided into subphases, each with its own onset, outcomes and risks. The following subphases proceed in this order but overlap considerably.
Hatching – first months. The infant ceases to be ignorant of the differentiation between him/her and the mother. "Rupture of the shell". Increased alertness and interest for the outside world. Using the mother as a point of orientation."
"Practicing – 9-about 16 months. Brought about by the infant's ability to crawl and then walk freely, the infant begins to explore actively and becomes more distant from the mother. The child experiences himself still as one with his mother."
"Rapproachement –15-24 months. In this subphase, the infant once again becomes close to the mother. The child realizes that his physical mobility demonstrates psychic separateness from his mother. The toddler may become tentative, wanting his mother to be in sight so that, through eye contact and action, he can explore his world. The risk is that the mother will misread this need and respond with impatience or unavailability. This can lead to an anxious fear of abandonment in the toddler. A basic ‘mood predisposition’ may be established at this point. Rapproachment is divided into a few sub phases:
Beginning - Motivated by a desire to share discoveries with the mother.
Crisis - Between staying with the mother, being emotionally close and being more independent and exploring.
Solution - Individual solutions are enabled by the development of language and the superego."
"Disruptions in the fundamental process of separation-individuation can result in a disturbance in the ability to maintain a reliable sense of individual identity in adulthood."
"And this is also Object Constancy the phase when the child understands that the mother has a separate identity and is truly a separate individual. This leads to the formation of Internalization, which the internal representation that the child has formed of the mother. This Internalization is what provides the child with an image that helps supply them with an unconscious level of guiding support and comfort from their mothers. Deficiencies in positive Internalization could possibly lead to a sense of insecurity and low self esteem issues in adulthood." So it is quite intersting to read more about and blog of another in depth researcher in psychology who studied the development of children and who has such a big impact on this topic like Jean Piaget or Eric Erikson.