Margaret Mahler (1897-1985)

Professional Life
Margaret Mahler was born in Hungary on May 10, 1897. Mahler was educated in Budapest and studied at the Vaci Utcai Gimnazium. She became interested in psychology and began studying Sigmund Freud's work at the instruction of Sandor Ferenczi. She enrolled in the University of Budapest in 1916, but soon left to pursue a medical degree at the University of Munich. She was forced to leave Munich due to ethnic tension and finished her degree at the University of Jena. She graduated in 1922 and began training in psychiatry. After several years of working with children, Mahler finally earned the privilege of being allowed to practice as an analyst.

After the Nazi occupation, Mahler and her husband moved to England and then to New York. She began a private practice and worked with experts such as Dr. Benjamin Spock. Mahler taught child therapy and was a member of the New York Psychoanalytic Society and the Institute of Human Development. She also became heavily involved in research directed toward pediatric mental health.

Mahler spent most of her career working with psychologically impaired children. She co-founded the Masters Children’s Centre in New York with her colleague Manuel Furer. It was from here that Mahler created and taught the Tripartite Treatment Model, a therapeutic approach involving both the child and mother. This relationship was especially important to Mahler as she believed that the mother-child dynamic influenced the child’s psychological health immensely. The issue of separation became a prominent theme in Mahler’s research and she is recognized as a pioneer in the exploration of how early separation affected a child.

Mahler was among the first psychologists to specialize in the treatment of psychotic children. She revealed symbiotic child psychosis as by-product of dysfunctional representations. Her work in this area led to the book The Psychological Birth of the Human Infant: Symbiosis and Individuation.

Contribution to Psychology
Mahler’s most significant contribution to the field of psychology was her theory on separation and individuation. Mahler believed that children exist in a symbiotic phase until they reach about six months of age. During this time they are unaware of their surroundings and others, and only are cognizant of themselves as one with their mother. They do not see beyond that relationship. After about the age of six months, they enter the separation-individuation phase, during which the child begins to distinguish him or herself from his/her mother, thus developing his/her own individual identity and ego. It is during this phase that the child also begins to develop cognitive skills and master the ability to communicate with others.

As a child matures, their perception of their mother begins to evolve and they internalize the image they have of her. Children who hold a positive internal image of their mother continue to feel support throughout adulthood, while those who do not may struggle with insecurities relating from their childhood perceptions. Mahler referred to this phase as object constancy.