Identification and pathological identification: implications for the development of identity

KLEINIAN SCHOOL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS

Abstract

This paper summarises the central importance of the concept of identification in Melanie Klein’s work. For her, identifications are formed by the processes of introjection and projection, which are extensively studied in any psychoanalytic treatment. The nature of unconscious identifications that emerge in treatment may help us understand something of the formation of a personal identity, as opposed to an identity that is defined by external attributes. Two contrasting clinical situations are decribed, one where identifications are hard, concrete and fixed, leading to the formation of an "identificate", as opposed to a true internal object, and another where identifications are more flexible and there is a capacity for empathy, the development of true internal objects and the enrichment of the ego and sense of self.