Projective identification
Psychological defense mechanism / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Projective identification is a term introduced by Melanie Klein and then widely adopted in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Projective identification may be used as a type of defense, a means of communicating, a primitive form of relationship, or a route to psychological change;[1] used for ridding the self of unwanted parts or for controlling the other's body and mind.[2]
According to the American Psychological Association, the expression can have two meanings:
- In psychoanalysis, projective identification is a defense mechanism in which the individual projects qualities that are unacceptable to the self onto another person, and that person introjects the projected qualities and believes him/herself to be characterized by them appropriately and justifiably.
- In the object relations theory of Melanie Klein, projective identification is a defense mechanism in which a person fantasizes that part of their ego is split off and projected into the object in order to harm or to protect the disavowed part.[3] In a close relationship, as between parent and child, lovers, or therapist and patient, parts of the self may, in unconscious fantasy, be forced into the other person.[4]
While based on Freud's concept of psychological projection,[5] projective identification represents a step beyond. In R.D. Laing's words, "The one person does not use the other merely as a hook to hang projections on. He/she strives to find in the other, or to induce the other to become, the very embodiment of projection".[6] Feelings which cannot be consciously accessed are defensively projected into another person in order to evoke the thoughts or feelings projected.[7]