Question

What is the importance of Margaret Mahlers theory to study personality?

Answer 1

Mahler theory focused on the development of relationship between infant and their mother. She worked extensively with disturbed children , observing their interaction with their respective caregivers. She proposed that children who suffer from psychological disorientation has failed to identify their mother as the beacon of orientation, therefore not been able to establish a symbiotic relationship with them. This symbiotic relationship would have further lead to the development of separate self and formation of objection representation in later stages of life. She explains the birth of psychological self in a infant, which takes through primarily three phases. The first phase is the Normal Autistic Phase , which initiates during the first few weeks post the birth of an infant. This phase mostly constitutes parents denvoraging a healthy physiological and psychological development of the child, by providing constant care, affection,food and other needs of the infant. The second phase is the Normal Sybiotic Phase(2-weeks-5 months) . The child grows a sense if awareness about the presence of his mother. There us a sense of unity with the mother. However, still there is no sense of self or individuality in the child. Positive affection such as caressing, smiling, taking care of the food needs etc develops a sense of trust within the child towards the mother.This stage is crucial in formation of sense of security and trust in later stages of adulthood life. The third phase is Separation-Individuation.This phase marks a cessation of nsymbiotic phase, woth the child developing a distinction beyween self and the mothwr (separation) and later forming a sense of self i.e. individuation. Mahler was of a perspective that successful completion of all the stages results in healthy formation of a sense of self and individual identify in a child, leading to a personality formation. Fixation or failing to differentiate to identify the mother as a beacon of orientation often leads to neurosis and conduct disorder in children. However, she focussed that it is normal for self concept(individuation) to develop more than separation from the mother within a child, which is normal for a healthy development of the personality in a child.

P.S-If you like the answer, please rate it and give it a thumbs up. Thank you.