PROJECTIVE IDENTIFICATION OR KLEIN'S SPLITTING PAPER (1946) 2/17/12
Mt. Sinai Hospital, Faculty Meeting, NYC, February 2011,
Contemporary Freudian Society, Rue de Fleurus Salon Meeting, April 2012
This paper focuses on the concepts of projective identification, and its normal and pathological functions in the development of the infant’s psyche that fosters the development of thinking and emotional growth. Considered by Klein as her “Splitting Paper,” in which excessive splitting is used as a defense for the expulsion of unwanted parts of the self into others, to rid oneself of the bad (and idealized good) parts of the self, this 1946 article is also considered by many as her “Paranoid-Schizoid Position” paper. This presentation will highlight the first of Klein’s two positions, and the role of projective identification in the process of psychic development and unconscious phantasy.
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