PROJECTIVE IDENTIFICATION IN PSYCHOANALYT IC PROCESS

Projective identification in its benign form constitutes a mode of com munication, a possibility to overcome separation by establishing a goo d partial object. This form leads from acting out to emotional thinkin g. Excessive, pathological projective identification presents an attac k on the very apparatus of thinking, linking and perception. Instead o f the introjection of object impressions there results an impoverishme nt of the ego even to the point of psychotic personality organisation by means of increased projection of partial selves.