**🔼 Up:** [[✦ Object Relations]] **\#️⃣ Tags:** #Psychology #Relational > **🌱 Planted:** Thu 13 February 2025 --- We mostly know ourselves through images which form through our interactions with others. These images, which form our ego structures, are not fixed or direct representations of who we are, rather they're something that builds up over time, helping us to form a stable, cohesive and unified sense of ourselves, which is known as our "self-concept". [[✦ Object Relations]] describes how our self-concept is formed through our interactions and relationships. Each interaction is stored in our Psyche as an impression which is made up of: 1. An object-representation, which is our internalised mental image of the other person in the interaction. 2. Our self-representation, which is our internalised mental image of ourselves in relation to the object-representation within the interaction. This is how we see ourselves in context of a relationship with someone else. 3. The affect, which is our emotional charge of the interaction that links the self-representation and the object-representation. More simply, it's the emotional tone or feeling associated with the interaction between ourselves and whoever else is involved. As we have more and more interactions with others as we develop, our self-concept is constantly being updated and is therefore fluid and dynamic rather than something that's fixed. This means that our self-concept is not something we're born with, rather it's something that unfolds through our [[✦ Object Relations]] with others. When we were children, these were the interactions with our parents or caregivers. Later, these expanded as we grew up to include all the other people like our extended family, friends, teachers, colleagues and intimate partners. --- **➡️ Next:** [[]] --- **🈁 See Also:** - Since [[The mind can never know reality as it truly is]], and the self-concept is made up of mental representations, [[We can only know who and what we are through direct experience]]. - When our [[We all have normal developmental needs|normal developmental needs]] are met in early development, our sense of self becomes stable and cohesive. [^1]: [[The Void by A. H. Almaas]]