Klein terms splitting (Vitz & Mango, 1997), or the psychological separation or differentiation of the self from other that, ironically, lends meaning and substance to formation of the self. To the degree the self persists in identifying with and not differentiating from the "other" as the basis for the sense of self as competent and satisfactory, it is engaged in projective identifications, which "distort and undermine the patient's current relationships" (Cashdan, 1988, p. 52) and thereby generate anxiety about makeup of the self, the integrity of identity, and, inevitably, the relationship that the individual has with others. On the other hand, splitting can itself be pathological, to the degree it prevents integration or engagement of the self in or with the social environment. The overriding point is that the self is evaluated by the individual in terms of the other rather than in terms of the projected self. Whether projection pathology or healthy splitting succeeds depends on how the recipient of such projection responds (Cashdan, 1988, p. 77)--and how the self responds to that response.
Object relations theory in its simplest formulation has relevance to religious theory and/or experience because spirituality is such a fundamental matrix for rationalization of the connection between self and other in some context of God. How the individual connects with (or does not) God informs individual experience of God, the physical world, and/or the common experience of human-ness. This is not to say that object relations theory has a corner on explaining the tension between self and other; however, object-relations theory finds significance in the anxiety arising from a sense of loss of connection between the self and the objects of psychological relationship, or, conversely, in the uncontained intensity of pathological projective identification.
Spiritual experience in the Christian formulation is significant insofar as it finds con...