Identification and its vicissitudes, as observed in the neuroses

This paper is an attempt to catalogue the different modes of identification which become manifest in the interaction between analyst and analysand. To this end the author employs a frame of reference suggested by the Kleinian concept of projective identification, focusing particularly on the integration of the projective and introjective moments of the identification with the communications circuit linking the self and the internal and external objects. Clinical material from two cases illustrates the vicissitudes of the processes of internalization and externalization as well as their different identificatory outcomes. The predominant quality of the identification in neuroses is differentiated from the characteristics observed in psychotic states. Finally the quality of identification is assessed in the context of symbolic function quality. A parallel is drawn between the progressive and regressive movements in identification processes, and the evolution or involution of symbol structure.