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Alienating identifications and the psychoanalytic process
1scariati@iprolink.ch
The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis
|October 14, 2009
Summary
Unconscious identifications can alienate individuals when parental mourning is incomplete. Psychoanalysis reveals these patterns, offering transformative interpretations for psychic integration and healing.
Area of Science:
- Psychoanalysis
- Psychology
- Transgenerational Psychology
Background:
- Intergenerational transmission of psychic life can lead to unconscious, alienating identifications.
- These identifications stem from parental incompletion of mourning processes for their own childhoods.
Observation:
- Alienating identifications are built around insufficiently symbolized experiences, revealed during psychoanalytic sessions.
- They present technical challenges, causing patients to enact complex behaviors that obscure transference.
- Psychoanalysts may incorrectly attribute these enactments to concepts like the death drive.
Findings:
- Insufficiently symbolized psychic elements hold transformative potential for reconstruction and interpretation.
- The author differentiates alienating identifications from transient identification fantasies.
- Identification fantasies symbolically record analytic session experiences, aiding the integration of poorly symbolized psychic material.
Implications:
- Understanding these dynamics allows for dis-alienating interpretations and psychic reconstruction.
- Distinguishing between identification types refines psychoanalytic technique.
- This work offers a framework for addressing transgenerational psychic transmission in clinical practice.
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