Projective identification

Projective Identification (or PI) is a term first introduced by Melanie Klein of the object relations school of psychoanalytic thought in 1946. It is a concept 'more and more referred to in psychodynamic work', especially in circumstances 'where A experiences feelings that belong to B but that B is unable to access; and instead "projects" them into (not just onto) A'^[1].

Projective identification thus designates a psychological process in which a person engages in the ego defense mechanism projection in such a way that their behavior towards the object of projection invokes in that person precisely the thoughts, feelings or behaviors projected.

Projective identification differs from simple projection in that projective identification is a self-fulfilling prophecy, whereby a person, believing something false about another, relates to that other person in such a way that the other person alters their behavior to make the belief true. The second person is influenced by the projection and begins to behave as though he or she is in fact actually characterized by the projected thoughts or beliefs. This is a process that generally happens outside the awareness of both parties involved, though this has been debated.

Projective Identification in Action

An example of projective identification is that of the paranoid schizophrenic who develops the delusion that he is being persecuted by the police; fearing the police, he begins to act furtively and anxiously around police officers, thereby raising the suspicions of police officers, who then begin to look for some grounds on which to arrest him.

What is projected most often is an intolerable, painful, or dangerous idea or belief about the self that the projecting person cannot accept (i.e. "I have behaved wrongly" or "I have a sexual feeling towards ...." ). Or it may be a valued or esteemed idea that again is difficult for the projecting person to acknowledge. Projective identification is believed to be a very early or primitive psychological process and is understood to be one of the more primitive defense mechanisms. Yet it is also thought to be the basis of more mature psychological processes like empathy and intuition.

In her book Psychoanalytic Diagnosis, Nancy McWilliams points out that projective identification combines elements of projection (attributing one's own feelings, thoughts, and motives to others) and introjection (incorporating the feelings, motives, and thoughts of others). Projective identification, in a way, validates one's projection by making the projection real.

This is the benefit of the defense. By inducing the projected experience in another, one is more able to avoid the reality that the projected content is part of one's own experience. For example, a psychotherapy client who has unacceptable erotic feelings toward a therapist might behave in a highly seductive manner. Once the therapist began to feel attracted, any behaviors on the therapist's part that betrayed the attraction could help the client focus attention on the therapist's feelings and behavior. This could prevent the client from attending to his or her own erotic impulses, thereby keeping them out of awareness.

A similar defensive function may be seen in everyday communication, as in circumstances where 'through projective identification there was a division of emotional labour in...relationships'^[2], with one partner carrying projected aspects of the other. The result can be that 'projective identification is frequently the major suffering of a wounded couple. Each member enacts the most ideal, dreaded, and primitive aspects of the other in a way that drives both partners crazy'^[3].

Projective Identification in Psychotherapy

As with transference and countertransference however, projective identification can function not only as a source of interpersonal confusion, but also as a potential key to therapeutic understanding - a fact which has become increasingly widely recognised over the years in psychodynamic work.

Thus for example in transactional analysis, where projective identification may be seen to 'have the force of hypnotic inductions when a person's Adult is decommissioned', drawing the recipient into the projector's script drama, the same process equally 'provides very useful information if the therapist's Adult is unimpaired'^[4].

Similarly in object relations theory, when projective identification is seen to be 'used as a form of affective communication '^[5], it has become accepted that 'Projective identification may unconsciously aim to get rid of unmanageable feelings but it also serves to get help with feelings'^[6]. As a result, the therapist's capacity for the 'toleration and containment of the projected identifications of unwanted aspects of the patient's self, particularly the negative aspects, for very considerable periods of time'^[7] is considered to be a valuable and essential therapeutic resource.

Further Developments and Complications

Something of the richness of Klein's initial formulation may be seen in the variety of ways the concept has subsequently been developed - not always perhaps in wholly commensurate ways (though in 'On identification (1955),' Klein implies another possible type of projective identification, viz. when the aim is to actualize fantasies vicariously by 'inhabiting' the body of another (usually superior) object).

The Kleinian W. R. Bion early made an important distinction between normal projective identification and 'pathological projective identification....The projected part is splintered and disintegrated into minute fragments, and it is these minute fragments that are projected into the object'^[8].

Another distinction has been made between ' acquisitive projective identification...when someone believes they are Napoleon' on the one hand, and on the other ' attributive projective identification...making [someone] take in and in some sense "become" the projection'^[9].

Rosenfeld again identifies three kinds of projective identification. He 'distinguished between projective identification used for communication and projective identification used for ridding the self of unwanted parts. He adds a third use of this... aim[ed] at controlling the analyst's body and mind'^[10]. Ogden makes a fourfold differentiation: 'Projective identification is...at once a type of defence, a mode of communication, a primitive form of object relations, and a pathway for psychological change'^[11].

Most of the above formulations would seem overlapping or complementary, rather than contradictory. However, a wider and perhaps irreconcilable breach would seem to exist between those who think both in terms of projective identification into an external object and in terms of ' projective identification into parts of one's own mind'^[12] and those who do not. 'The key issue here is whether or not a real, external Other, who has been affected by the projection, is essential to the concept. British Kleinians say no; some American interpreters say yes'^[13].

References

1. ↑ Michael Jacobs, Psychodynamic Counselling in Action (London 2006), p. 109
2. ↑ Adam Phillips, On Flirtation (London 1994), p. 5
3. ↑ Poly Young-Eisendrath and Terence Dawson eds., The Cambridge Companion to Jung (Cambridge 1997) p. 237
4. ↑ Petruska Clarkson, On Psychotherapy (London 1993), p. 180 and p. 184
5. ↑ Patrick Casement, On Learning from the Patient (London 1990), p. 81
6. ↑ Patrick Casement, Further learning from the patient: The analytic space and process (London 1997), p. 99
7. ↑ Harold Stewart, Psychic Experience and Problems of Technique (London 1992), p. 134
8. ↑ Hanna Segal,Introduction to the work of Melanie Klein (London 1964), p. 42-3
9. ↑ John Rowan and Michael Jacobs, The Therapist's Use of Self (Buckingham 2002) p. 42
10. ↑ Casement, Learning p. 100n
11. ↑ Quoted in Jan Grant and Jim Crawley, Transference and Projection(Buckingham 2002), p. 31
12. ↑ R. M. Young, Benign and virulent projective identification
13. ↑ R. M. Young

Further reading

R. D. Hinshelwood, A Dictionary of Kleinian Thought (London 1989).

E. B. Spillius, Melanie Klein Today, 2 vols. (London 1988).

External links

• Projective Identification (changingminds.org)