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. 2018 Sep 19;9:1616. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01616

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Copyright © 2018 Tretter and Löffler-Stastka.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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(A) Undifferentiated matrix, (B) early bipolar matrix, (C) transitional matrix, and (D) differentiated adult matrix. Visualization of the core concept of object relations theory as a matrix: the configuration of the self in context of objects, with positively and negatively experienced properties (Kernberg, 1976). Remarks: The term “object representation” is translated here for reasons of general applicability into “environmental image” and also “self-representation” is translated to “self-image”.