Concept
Object constancy
The capacity to keep a stable, emotionally invested inner image of the mother, and later of others, which holds together her gratifying and frustrating sides and lasts through her absence, so that the child can be apart from her without being overwhelmed. Heinz Hartmann introduced the term; Mahler made the attainment of libidinal object constancy, together with a consolidated individuality, the open-ended fourth subphase of separation-individuation, beginning in the third year. It differs from Piaget's object permanence, which concerns knowing that things go on existing, in being a matter of feeling as well as of knowledge.
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developed by
- Margaret Mahler 1975 Mahler made emotional object constancy the open-ended goal of the fourth subphase: a stable inner image of the mother that holds up despite frustration and absence. She took over the term, which Hartmann had coined, rather than inventing it.