title: Objects and attitudes.
abstract: The concept of an attitudinal object has long been present in psychoanalysis but almost entirely neglected. This omission is integral in the confusion and controversy about the object concept in general. It has left a theoretical gap which the so-called object relations theories have attempted to fill. This paper offers some preliminary suggestions for a psychoanalytic understanding of attitudes as a first level of inference in the study of relationships and their psychological basis.
mesh_terms: D001290:Attitude; D006801:Humans; D009769:Object Attachment; D010553:Personality Development; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory