[1] In object relations theory, the paranoid-schizoid position is a state of mind of children, from birth to four or six months of age.
Melanie Klein[2] has described the earliest stages of infantile psychic life in terms of a successful completion of development through certain positions.
The projection of badness into the object is the basis of racism, homophobia, or any other irrational hatred of another group seen as (but essentially not being) different from the self, e.g. estate agents, liberals, conservatives, cyclists, car drivers, Northerners, Southerners, traffic wardens, etc.
This enables a more realistic view of the self and object as possessing both good and bad attributes, leading to the greater integration and maturity of the depressive position.
[4] Klein saw the depressive position as an important developmental milestone that continues to mature throughout the life span.
The splitting and part object relations that characterize the earlier phase are succeeded by the capacity to perceive that the other who frustrates is also the one who gratifies.
Schizoid defenses are still in evidence, but feelings of guilt, grief, and the desire for reparation gain dominance in the developing mind.
In the depressive position, the infant is able to experience others as whole, which radically alters object relationships from the earlier phase.
This awareness allows guilt to arise in response to the infant's previous aggressive phantasies when bad was split from good.
The mother's temporary absences allow for continuous restoration of her "as an image of representation" in the infant mind.
[7]: 73 In working through depressive anxiety, projections are withdrawn, allowing the other more autonomy, reality, and a separate existence.
Unconscious guilt for destructive phantasies arises in response to the continuing love and attention provided by caretakers.
[9]: 65 From this developmental milestone come a capacity for sympathy, responsibility to and concern for others, and an ability to identify with the subjective experience of people one cares about.
Klein argued that people who never succeed in working through the depressive position in their childhood will, as a result, continue to struggle with this problem in adult life.
For example: the cause that a person may maintain suffering from intense guilt feelings over the death of a loved one may be found in the unworked- through depressive position.
[10] Ogden and James Grotstein have continued to explore early infantile states of mind, and incorporating the work of Donald Meltzer, Ester Bick and others, postulate a position preceding the paranoid-schizoid.
This aspect of both Ogden and Grotstein's work remains controversial for many within classical object relations theory.