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This section provides for the indexing of the child's capacity to relate to objects (people, animals and inanimate objects), the manner in which he does so and an account of the quality and content of his relationship to specific objects. The four main headings are:
Capacity for Object Relationships
Characteristics
Relationships to Specific Objects— e.g. Mother, Father, Self, Siblings, Teachers, Peers, Animals, etc.
Summary
Sources of information are not limited in this section to the analytic material.
The current version of the Object Relationships Manual is perhaps, of all the Manuals, the one most in need of revision. In our Index discussions over the years we have become increasingly dissatisfied with the descriptive quality of this Manual, with its emphasis on the relationship to real objects and with its over-simplified formulation of a relationship in which one person cathects another. This is not to imply that the frame of reference used in this Manual is incorrect, but rather that it is now found to be inadequate both for our clinical and our theoretical understanding. We now recognize that internalization of relationships begins from early in life and that an object relationship involves, after a certain level of development has been reached, a representation of the self interacting with an object representation; thus, the emphasis is on the mutual interrelationship between the self and the object and not only on the energic bond between them; instinctual as well as non-instinctual wishes and feelings also have to be given due recognition.
In considering the individual's capacity and potential for object relationships of a particular sort, the levels of relationship have to be considered in great detail. We have to decide, for example, whether the individual relates to an