Working through our list of the sub-parts which make up the analytic part of this model, we move on, as promised, to the two psychological 'positions' known as the depressive and the paranoid-schizoid positions. Library shelves groan with books on this subject, so please do bear with me when I describe it simply (but not simplistically) and only in a way that is necessary to help us to think about and be able use, this model.
Melanie Klein and others have posited that, in the first 0 - 6 months of life, in trying to make sense of its experience, the new-born baby experiences the presence of and interaction with, two quite separate care-givers, i.e. mothers.
Mother one: Feeds the baby when 'it' is hungry, warms/cleans the baby when they are wet/dirty, holds them when they are distressed and overall, probably prevents any of these unpleasant states arising anyway.
Mother two: Neglects the baby when any of these unpleasant sensations are being painfully felt but instead, leaves the baby to be hungry, wet, afraid etc and again, overall, probably causes and relishes the imposition of these feelings anyway: These distressing states are, in fact, now felt as an attack on the baby from outside and this is the Paranoid part, a malevolent attack from outside. Schizoid refers to the defence mechanism of splitting into good-bad, right-wrong etc. In essence, the 'benign' absence of the good, is experienced as the 'malign' active presence of the bad.
However, over the succeeding months & years there is a gradual understanding/experience that the good mother is one and the same as the bad mother - the mother/care giver who cares for me is the same mother/care giver who neglects me.
This position is known as the depressive position and is associated with more mature (though upsetting) feelings such as guilt, reparation, grief etc. In other words, the infant/person begins to see that they, too, are part of this relationship and learn to take ownership of their part in things and not just thank or blame the other.
NB: Here, depressive does not relate exactly to 'depression' but more to a distressing sate of pain, alarm and distress at the now much more complicated state of their 'relationship' with the other/the world etc. Life was simple but now it it is much more complicated and upsetting.
Why Positions and not Stages? Some psychological explanations of human development talk more about 'stages' of development, with the implication - fairly or not - that a stage is entered, worked through, left behind and we move on to the next step up the ladder.
So, this model refers to 'positions' because the assumption is, that while the infant/person moves forward developmentally, they are liable, in the future, no matter how old or wise to revert to earlier positions. In particular, at times of stress, heightened emotional states fear/anxiety etc., anyone and any group is vulnerable to reverting to the paranoid-schizoid position - a position characterised by projection (outwards - from self to other)) and by splitting in to us/them, good/dad etc etc.
In our next post we will think about how this understanding of human development helps us to understand how people behave in groups and more particularly, how people in institutions or indeed institutions themselves, 'behave', again particularly when under stress.
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