Projective identification
Encyclopedia
Projective Identification is 'a term first used by Melanie Klein
(1946) to describe a process whereby parts of the ego are thought of as forced into another person who is then expected to become identified with whatever has been projected'.
The projector 'strives to find in the other, or to induce the other to become, the very embodiment of projection'.
Projective identification thus designates a psychological process in which a person engages in the ego defense mechanism of projection
in such a way that their behavior towards the object of projection invokes in that person precisely the thoughts, feelings or behaviors projected.
, 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, a process that may happen outside the awareness of both parties involved.
The recipient of the projection can suffer 'a temporary loss of insight, a sense of experiencing strong feelings...[of] being manipulated so as to be playing a part, no matter how difficult to recognise, in somebody else's phantasy'. One therapist, for example, describes how 'I felt the progressive extrusion of his internalised mother into me, not as a theoretical construct but in actual experience...The intonation of my voice altered, became higher with the distinctly Ur-mutter quality'.
In everyday life, it can happen that 'the recipient feels almost kidnapped or coerced into carrying out the unconscious phantasy of the projector' In extreme cases, the recipient can lose any sense of self - 'to become inhuman, a moving bag of skin, with important symbolic messages rattling about inside' - and may find themselves acting out in 'attempts at self-exorcism; the attempt to rid the self of projections or possession'.
Such projective identification can have very damaging effects on the person's sex life. Feelings of sexual inadequacy will be projected onto the partner and cause them to feel inadequate. This inadequacy will cause poor performance and subsequently result in the fulfillment of the initial projection. This is particularly common in cases of Borderline personality disorder
.
'Only through a struggle to be conscious and differentiated can the recipient resist the pull and symbolize the experience, essentially making the projection available to be recognized by the projector'. However, such resistance can produce 'a peculiar form of guilt
...guilt for not being or not becoming the embodiment of the complement demanded by the other'; while conversely for the projector, 'when an outer figure resists this powerful projective pressure, the individual bursts out in rage'.
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", with one partner carrying projected aspects of the other.
and countertransference
, projective identification can however function not only as a source of interpersonal confusion, but also as a potential key to therapeutic understanding.
Thus in object relations theory
, when projective identification is seen to be 'used as a form of affective communication ', 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'. 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' is considered an essential therapeutic resource.
Similarly 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'.
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'.
Rosenfeld
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'. Others would make 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'.
'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'.
Melanie Klein
Melanie Reizes Klein was an Austrian-born British psychoanalyst who devised novel therapeutic techniques for children that had an impact on child psychology and contemporary psychoanalysis...
(1946) to describe a process whereby parts of the ego are thought of as forced into another person who is then expected to become identified with whatever has been projected'.
The projector 'strives to find in the other, or to induce the other to become, the very embodiment of projection'.
Outline
A concept increasingly referred to in psychodynamic work, projective identification occurs 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'.Projective identification thus designates a psychological process in which a person engages in the ego defense mechanism of projection
Psychological projection
Psychological projection or projection bias is a psychological defense mechanism where a person subconsciously denies his or her own attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which are then ascribed to the outside world, usually to other people...
in such a way that their behavior towards the object of projection invokes in that person precisely the thoughts, feelings or behaviors projected.
Experience
Projective identification differs from simple projection in that projective identification can become a self-fulfilling prophecySelf-fulfilling prophecy
A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true, by the very terms of the prophecy itself, due to positive feedback between belief and behavior. Although examples of such prophecies can be found in literature as far back as ancient Greece and...
, 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, a process that may happen outside the awareness of both parties involved.
The recipient of the projection can suffer 'a temporary loss of insight, a sense of experiencing strong feelings...[of] being manipulated so as to be playing a part, no matter how difficult to recognise, in somebody else's phantasy'. One therapist, for example, describes how 'I felt the progressive extrusion of his internalised mother into me, not as a theoretical construct but in actual experience...The intonation of my voice altered, became higher with the distinctly Ur-mutter quality'.
In everyday life, it can happen that 'the recipient feels almost kidnapped or coerced into carrying out the unconscious phantasy of the projector' In extreme cases, the recipient can lose any sense of self - 'to become inhuman, a moving bag of skin, with important symbolic messages rattling about inside' - and may find themselves acting out in 'attempts at self-exorcism; the attempt to rid the self of projections or possession'.
Wounded couple
'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'. The partners may have been initially chosen 'because of their willingness to carry idealized or devalued parts of the self': unfortunately 'what is projected into and rediscovered in the partner is then treated in the same way as it was treated in the self. What you cannot stand in yourself, you locate and attack (or nurture) in the other'.Such projective identification can have very damaging effects on the person's sex life. Feelings of sexual inadequacy will be projected onto the partner and cause them to feel inadequate. This inadequacy will cause poor performance and subsequently result in the fulfillment of the initial projection. This is particularly common in cases of Borderline personality disorder
Borderline personality disorder
Borderline personality disorder is a personality disorder described as a prolonged disturbance of personality function in a person , characterized by depth and variability of moods.The disorder typically involves unusual levels of instability in mood; black and white thinking, or splitting; the...
.
'Only through a struggle to be conscious and differentiated can the recipient resist the pull and symbolize the experience, essentially making the projection available to be recognized by the projector'. However, such resistance can produce 'a peculiar form of guilt
Guilt
Guilt is the state of being responsible for the commission of an offense. It is also a cognitive or an emotional experience that occurs when a person realizes or believes—accurately or not—that he or she has violated a moral standard, and bears significant responsibility for that...
...guilt for not being or not becoming the embodiment of the complement demanded by the other'; while conversely for the projector, 'when an outer figure resists this powerful projective pressure, the individual bursts out in rage'.
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. In such instances, 'they unknowingly project bits of their parents in their negative, punishing, powerful aspect on to the police...the family policeman in their heads'.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
Empathy
Empathy is the capacity to recognize and, to some extent, share feelings that are being experienced by another sapient or semi-sapient being. Someone may need to have a certain amount of empathy before they are able to feel compassion. The English word was coined in 1909 by E.B...
and intuition
Intuition (knowledge)
Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without inference or the use of reason. "The word 'intuition' comes from the Latin word 'intueri', which is often roughly translated as meaning 'to look inside'’ or 'to contemplate'." Intuition provides us with beliefs that we cannot necessarily justify...
.
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
Introjection
Introjection is a psychoanalytical term with a variety of meanings.Generally, it is regarded as the process where the subject replicates in itself behaviors, attributes or other fragments of the surrounding world, especially of other subjects...
(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", with one partner carrying projected aspects of the other.
In psychotherapy
As with transferenceTransference
Transference is a phenomenon in psychoanalysis characterized by unconscious redirection of feelings from one person to another. One definition of transference is "the inappropriate repetition in the present of a relationship that was important in a person's childhood." Another definition is "the...
and countertransference
Countertransference
Countertransferenceis defined as redirection of a psychotherapist's feelings toward a client—or, more generally, as a therapist's emotional entanglement with a client.-Early formulations:...
, projective identification can however function not only as a source of interpersonal confusion, but also as a potential key to therapeutic understanding.
Thus in object relations theory
Object relations theory
Object relations theory is a psychodynamic theory within psychoanalytic psychology. The theory describes the process of developing a mind as one grows in relation to others in the environment....
, when projective identification is seen to be 'used as a form of affective communication ', 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'. 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' is considered an essential therapeutic resource.
Similarly in transactional analysis
Transactional analysis
Transactional analysis, commonly known as TA to its adherents, is an integrative approach to the theory of psychology and psychotherapy. It is described as integrative because it has elements of psychoanalytic, humanist and cognitive approaches...
, 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'.
Theoretical complications
Something of the richness of Klein's initial formulation may be seen in the variety of ways the concept has subsequently been developed. 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'.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'.
Rosenfeld
Herbert Rosenfeld
Herbert Alexander Rosenfeld was a British psychoanalyst, who was born in Germany in 1910 and died in London in 1986.'British analysts have been deeply influenced by the work and teachings of Rosenfeld who increasingly focused upon the analyst's contribution to what was happening in the analysis -...
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'. Others would make 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'.
Anglo-American conflict
A theoretical breach divides those who think in terms of projective identification as only affecting external objects, and 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'.'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'.
See also
Further reading
- R. D. Hinshelwood, A Dictionary of Kleinian Thought (London 1989).
- E. B. Spillius, Melanie Klein Today, 2 vols. (London 1988).