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Abstract: Sidney J. Blatt's unique contribution to the study of internal representations of parental figures is delineated, and empirical research dealing with interpersonal and intrapersonal aspects of maternal representations in middle childhood is reviewed. Children's representations of mother and father, as well as of an unknown parent, provide evidence of the interconnected effects of actual interpersonal experiences and intrapersonal factors. In addition, new findings related to cultural differences affecting children's maternal representations suggest a broader and more complex perspective for the definition of interpersonal experiences. Taken together, these studies suggest an understanding of an individual's internal world of representations as dialectical transactions between his or her circumstances and rules of organization of interpersonal knowledge, on one hand, and the actual interpersonal experiences and cultural beliefs, on the other. The importance of the study of continuity and change for the understanding of the effects of interpersonal and intrapersonal factors in children's construction of parental representations is underscored.
The traditional interest of psychoanalysis in individuality and meaning is leading to the production of an accumulating body of empirical research. This research includes studies of unconscious processes, process and outcome studies of psychoanalytic treatments, investigation within developmental psychopathology, and the interface between psychoanalysis and biology, among other issues (see, e.g., 13). Sidney J. Blatt' s contribution to this body of research is paradigmatic in its commitment to empirical evidence in the exploration of basic psychoanalytic concepts; among these concepts is the study of mental representations of parents and significant others. The present article reviews one aspect of the empirical research of children's mental representations that has evolved within the framework of Blatt's approach: the interplay of interpersonal and intrapersonal processes in the development of parental representations.
Blatt and colleagues' empirical approach to the study of mental representations developed within the context of object relations theories (4). Within psychoanalytic theory, object relations approaches assume that children internalize basic aspects of early caretaking interactions by developing stable ways of representing these experiences (5-10). These internalized experiences of self with other serve as a basis for the construction of complex representational structures - object representations - including conscious and unconscious schémas of self and other that work as templates through which experiences that affect behavior, feelings, and cognition are...