Understanding mental objects

the long version

The ways in which an individual relates to and perceives other people (his or her 'objects') has always been a preoccupation of psychoanalysis and in recent years a plethora of concepts has grown up in the literature. In this groundbreaking study, Meir Perlow traces the major theoretical developments regarding mental objects and sets out to clarify the changing meanings of different concepts from context to context. This long overdue clarification of a complex area, with its wide-ranging and imaginative grasp of the different theories about objects, will be an invaluable reference for all psychoanalysts and psychologists.