THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SATANIC CULT INVOLVEMENT: AN ...

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to which the ego is identified with internalized bad objects, and (3) the nature and
strength ofthe defences which protect the ego from these objects" (1943, p. 65). As does
Klein, Fairbairn recognises that de-differentiation or identification of the self with its
internalised objects may often result, and that this is the origin of narcissism (Fairbairn,
1944, p. 83). The superiority or omnipotence of schizoid individuals, notes Fairbairn,
derives from a "narcissistic inflation of the ego arising out of secret possession of, and
considerable identification with, internalized libidinal objects (e.g. the maternal breast
and the paternal penis) (1940, p. 22). Fairbairn (1943) extends this thesis to argue that in
early childhood, all object relationships are based on identification and, consequently, the
experience of badness - or the acting out of this in delinquent behaviour - results from
identification with bad objects. This allows Fairbairn to dispense with the Freudian (and
Kleinian) idea ofthe death instinct as the origin of sadistic or masochistic behaviour:
Now a relationship with a bad object can hardly escape the alternative of
being either of a sadistic or masochistic nature. What Freud describes under
the category of 'death instincts' would thus appear to represent for the most
part masochistic relationships with internalized bad objects. A sadistic
relationship with a bad object which is internalized would also present the
appearance ofthe death instinct. (Fairbairn, 1943, p. 78-79).
It is important to note that, in contrast to Klein's object theory, it is initially only the
"bad" objects - parental figures who frustrate the child's primary need for emotional
relatedness and dependency - that are internalised to form the nucleus of endopsychic
structures. l External objects become internalised as compensatory substitutes for
painfully depriving or traumatic relationships with external objects, over which the child
has no control (Fairbairn, 1951). Internalisation is an adaptive mechanism whereby the
child, by introjecting objects experienced as bad, attempts to gain psychic control over
them through the transformative process of omnipotent fantasy. This defensive process
allows the child to preserve the illusion that the real external parents are good, while
struggling psychologically to control their bad internalised aspects.
I Whereas in Klein's view, fantasised relations with internal objects constitute the bedrock ofall experience,
For Fairbairn, such relations represent a secondary retreat from disturbances in relations with real people
(Mitchell, 1994).