Comparison of Relationship Theory from Perspective of Freud and Klein in Ian McEwan's Works

Abstract

An essential concept of Freud's and Kline's theory of the object relationship is the concept of instinctual drives as the basic human motivation such as object and Oedipus complex. Instincts are innate, and the earliest intra-psychic state of a child is the state of primary narcissism, where the ego is the object of libidinal instinct and there are no external objects in which the child invests psychic energy. Klein believed that both good and bad objects are introjected by the infant, the internalization of good object being essential to the development of healthy ego function. In Freud's theory, there is no preordained tie to people. The drives precede the object and even "create" the object by the experience of satisfaction and frustration, and the drives basically determine the quality of relationships. Object relations theorists such as Melanie Klein and Sigmund Freud will be reviewed in this research.