Margaret Mahler

Margaret Mahler (born May 10, 1897 in Sopron , Austria-Hungary , † October 2, 1985 in New York; born Schönberger ) was a Hungarian-American pediatrician and psychoanalyst . She pioneered infant and toddler research . On the basis of empirical research, she worked out a development model that became very influential, especially in psychoanalysis and object relationship theory .

biography

Mahler attended the secondary school for girls in Sopron and the grammar school in Budapest , first studied art history and then began studying medicine at the University of Budapest. She transferred to the medical school in Munich and graduated in Jena , where they 1922 received his doctorate . In Vienna it was formed in Clement of Pirquet to pediatrician further and opened a pediatric private practice. At the training institute of the Vienna Psychoanalytical Association , of which she became an extraordinary member in 1933, she completed a psychoanalytic training. With the “Ambulatorium Rauscherstraße”, she set up a psychoanalytically oriented children's clinic in Vienna.

In 1938 she emigrated to New York. In 1940 she became a member of the New York Psychoanalytic Association and directed the training of the Philadelphia Psychoanalytic Institute.

Development model

Margaret Mahler's developmental model is an influential theory of mental development in infancy and toddlerhood. This theory is presented in detail in her main work " The Psychic Birth of Man ".

A central theme of Mahler's work is the process of healthy individuation, the precondition for which she sees the solution from the early symbiotic relationship with the mother. Mahler was one of the first psychoanalysts to derive developmental psychological concepts from direct child observation. She asked how toddlers develop up to the age of 3 and how they react to short-term separation from their mother. To do this, she used kindergartens with walls that could be seen from the outside for children from 8 months to 3 years of age. Parents and specially trained teachers observed the children and filled out questionnaires about them. In addition, parents and children were tested at the beginning, middle and end of the study. In contrast to previous research in psychoanalysis, which reconstructed the child in the adult, the research and observation design focused on the first systematic direct child observation. This was later continued, especially in England, in the context of attachment theory and recent research on infants and toddlers . Mahler derives the following phases as a development model from her observations. The phases merge into one another and the earlier ones remain latent in the later ones, so that they can also be reactivated:

Autistic phase (birth up to 4–6 weeks)

The autistic phase marks the first few weeks after the birth of a child. During this time it is primarily a matter of restoring the homeostatic balance after the physical incision of childbirth , so that the body is heavily loaded with libido. In addition, there is a high barrier to stimuli to the outside world and the senses, especially the sense of sight, are not yet fully developed (color vision only from the 2nd month).

Symbiotic phase (2nd to 5th / 6th month)

The symbiotic phase begins around the second month of life. In this phase the child experiences himself and his mother as an inseparable unit. The libido occupation is now extended to the symbiotic environment. During this time, the child cannot yet affectively differentiate between inside and outside, self and non-self, and child and mother. Another feature of the phase is mirroring: the child incorporates the mother, first by smiling. Since the child does not perceive the mother as a separate personality, the mother's emotional empathy is very important for optimal drive satisfaction and for the appropriate development of a basic sense of security and basic trust . In addition, the mother represents a protective shield for her child from the environment. In addition, this relationship between mother and child is a basis for all subsequent relationships. The symbiotic phase is now largely considered to be out of date.

Detachment and individuation phase (differentiation phase 5th to 12th month)

Detachment and individuation are two separate, but ideally parallel socialization processes .

Detachment is about the differentiation of the body schema, distancing and delimitation skills. In individuation, intrapsychic autonomy, cognitive abilities and emotional object constancy should be achieved.

Differentiation of the body scheme

This phase includes about the time from the fourth to the eighth month of life. During this time, the child's motor skills have already developed to the point where, for example, they can push themselves away from the mother. In this way it can see more, expands its field of vision and already occupies the surroundings with libido . The empathetic physical contact of the mother with the child is particularly important. Through the contact, the child experiences his body as separate from the mother. It recognizes the physical, not yet the psychological, separation. Another typical feature of this development phase is “checking back”. Here the child touches the mother and the environment and compares objects, people with the mother.

Practice phase (11th to 18th month)

The exercise phase overlaps with the differentiation of the body schema and covers approximately the time from the fourth to the sixteenth month of life. During this time, the child's motor skills are even more developed. It can increasingly move away from its mother independently by crawling and running, and can independently handle separation, distance and closeness. The environment is increasingly occupied by libido.

The child now begins to be very interested in the environment and explores it intensively. The practice phase is often the happiest phase of toddlerhood. The child has a strong feeling of omnipotence , is happy about the world and its growing abilities. In doing so, it develops a strong frustration tolerance towards loss or pain. In addition, the ego functions are developing rapidly. It is very important that the mother is always available to refuel with emotions, as the feeling of security is not yet pronounced, but also encourages the child to explore his environment.

The children's research interest during this time depends heavily on the extent to which the mother conveys security and trust. If the mother leaves the child during this time, there may be a drop in mood.

The child's interest is also increasingly turning to the inanimate world. Often a transitional object is constituted that represents a substitute for the symbiosis with the mother. This can be, for example, a soft blanket or a cuddly toy that the child carries around with him all the time.

Most people are curious about strangers , but there can also be traces of fear of others . The father plays at this stage an important role as a comrade in games in which the child may, in contrast to his usual dependency and weakness, big and strong.

Approach phase (18th to 24th month)

The rapprochement phase consists of the rapprochement crisis and its individual solutions. It covers approximately the period from 14 to 26 months of age and overlaps with the practice phase.

At this point in time, the child's cognitive abilities are so developed that it also perceives itself psychologically as being separate from its mother. As motor skills develop, the child is increasingly able to move further away from the mother. So it seems to be constantly occupied with the question of where the mother is at the moment.

The child now occupies the mother as a person with libido and wants to share his world and his knowledge with her. It often presents all sorts of finds and demands that the mother be interested in them. In addition, the child develops separation anxiety due to the ability to distance themselves from the mother and due to the cognitive knowledge of psychological separation . In return, however, there is also the fear of being caught again in the symbiosis with the mother.

In addition, during this time the child realizes the intransigence of hard matter, from which even the parents cannot protect it. It is also increasingly confronted with demands from parents, especially in the context of hygiene education. The feeling of omnipotence now gives way to frustration, and the child often falls into a rage of disappointment. This in turn increases the fear of separation.

The child finds itself in a conflict between its incipient autonomy and the ongoing dependency. It is therefore very important that the mother is always available as a home base and has a lot of patience with the child, which it now needs more after the relatively independent exercise phase. On the other hand, they should also understand the child's growing need for autonomy.

In relation to the mother, the child often develops a split. The mother experiences it as two people, one good and one bad. Such a split is normal in this developmental phase, but it should be overcome so that a holistic, positive image of the mother finally prevails.

In general, idealized parental images predominate during this phase. The father plays a very important role. By identifying with this, the child experiences the parents' relationship and does not feel excluded. The father, as a person separated from the mother, shows the child that the separation is not a bad thing. In this way he can protect it from being regressed into symbiosis.

As a collaborator with Margaret Mahler, Ernst Abelin developed the concept of early triangulation (1971). In this phase the child (for the first time) perceives the special relationships between mother, father and himself. Another important aspect is that the children recognize their gender identity during this development phase, with all the consequences such as castration anxiety , penis envy, etc.

Mahler assumed that disorders in detachment and individuation, especially in the rapprochement phase, play a decisive role in the development of borderline disorders . This approach was taken up by Christa Rhode-Dachser and differentiated on the basis of clinical cases.

Consolidation of individuality and the beginning of an emotional object constancy (24th to 36th month)

During this development phase it is about the development of an intrapsychic autonomy as well as emotional object constancy. The prerequisite is the successful detachment in the rapprochement phase.

Object constancy is the mode of experiencing important caregivers of the child. First of all, the emotional constancy of the object in relation to the mother is decisive. It is important that the split between good and bad mother has been abandoned in favor of a predominantly positive holistic mother image. The child can also remember this positive image when the mother is not there and can handle the separation based on the memory. When individuality is about the gradual development of reality testing . The child learns to accept that other objects are not narcissistic self-objects, but independent, separate real objects. The aim is to develop a realistic image of the self and parents as well as the formation of constant self and object representations.

Classification and reception

Mahler's theory is anchored in the classical psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud and Anna Freud . Mahler's intention was to match the Freudian account of the development of the ego and the superego with an empirical differentiation of theory based on child observation. At the same time, her work is seen as a transition to the theory of self and object relationships .

Her work Symbiosis and Individuation: Psychoses in Early Childhood. belongs to the standard works of psychoanalysis. The work The Psychic Birth of Man was published in German in 2008 in its 19th edition.

Fonts

• The psychic birth of man . Symbiosis and Individuation, Frankfurt a. M. 1996, ISBN 3-596-26731-5 . First published in New York 1975, German first edition 1978.
• Symbiosis and Individuation: Psychoses in Early Childhood. (Standard works of psychoanalysis) Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta 1998.
• My life, my work . Edited by Paul E. Stepansky. Kösel, Munich 1989. ISBN 3-466-30298-6 .

See also

• Infant and young child research

literature

• Martin Dornes: Margaret Mahler's theory revisited . In: Psyche. Journal for Psychoanalysis , 11/1996.
• Ulrich Kropiunigg: Margret S. Mahler , in: Oskar Frischenschlager (Ed.): Vienna, where else! The emergence of psychoanalysis and its schools . Vienna: Böhlau, 1994, ISBN 3-205-98135-9 , pp. 129-133
• Mahler, Margaret , in: Élisabeth Roudinesco ; Michel Plon: Dictionary of Psychoanalysis: Names, Countries, Works, Terms . Translation. Vienna: Springer, 2004, ISBN 3-211-83748-5 , pp. 641f.

Web links

• Literature by and about Margaret Mahler in the catalog of the German National Library
• Biographical database and lexicon of Austrian women
• detailed biography with picture
• Margaret Mahler at Psychoanalytikerinnen.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Margaret S. Mahler, Fred Pine, Anni Bergmnn: The psychic birth of people Frankfurt am Main: Fischer 1980
2. ↑ Margaret S. Mahler, Fred Pine, Anni Bergmnn: The psychic birth of people Frankfurt am Main: Fischer 1980. pp. 30–51
3. ↑ John Bowlby, On the Nature of the Mother-Child Bond. In: Psyche. 13, 1959, pp. 415-456
4. ^ Daniel Stern: The Infant's Life Experience . 5th German-language edition. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1999.
5. ↑ Margaret S. Mahler, Fred Pine, Anni Bergmnn: The psychic birth of people Frankfurt am Main: Fischer 1980. S. 59-71
6. ↑ Karl Haag: When mothers love too much. Stuttgart 2006, p. 35: “In recent infant research, the concept of the symbiotic phase is criticized and described as no longer tenable. B. by Daniel Stern ... "
7. ↑ Margaret S. Mahler, Fred Pine, Anni Bergmnn: The psychic birth of people Frankfurt am Main: Fischer 1980. P. 72–86
8. ↑ Margaret S. Mahler, Fred Pine, Anni Bergmnn: The psychic birth of people Frankfurt am Main: Fischer 1980. S. 87-100
9. ↑ Margaret S. Mahler, Fred Pine, Anni Bergmnn: The psychic birth of people Frankfurt am Main: Fischer 1980. P. 101-141
10. ↑ Hans Hopf : The psychoanalysis of the boy. Stuttgart 2014, p. 88 ff.
11. ↑ Margaret Mahler: The importance of the detachment and individuation process for the assessment of borderline phenomena. Psyche 29, 1975
12. ↑ Christa Rhode-Dachser: The borderline syndrome. Bern, Stuttgart, Vienna: Huber Verlag, 1983, p. 156ff
13. ↑ Margaret S. Mahler, Fred Pine, Anni Bergmnn: The psychic birth of people Frankfurt am Main: Fischer 1980. S. 142–155
14. ^ Howard A. Bacal, Kenneth M. Newman: Object Relation Theories - Bridges to Self Psychology. Stuttgart / Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog 1990
15. ↑ Margaret Mahler, Manuel Furer: Symbiosis and Individuation: Psychoses in early childhood. (Standard works of psychoanalysis) Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta 1998
16. ↑ Margaret Mahler, Fred Pine, Anni Bergmann. The psychic birth of man: Symbiosis and individuation Frankfurt am Main: Fischer 2008. 19th edition