The infantile dimension and projective identification

Abstract

This paper examines projective identification from Melanie Klein’s perspective, emphasizing the infantile dimension, the schizoparanoid and depressive positions, and primitive defense mechanisms. Klein initially conceived projective identification as an unconscious fantasy in which the baby inserts unwanted aspects into the mother’s body. Later, her followers, such as Bion and Rosenfeld, expanded the concept, viewing it also as a communicative mechanism and a technical tool. Bion related it to the container–contained model and the maternal alpha function, while Rosenfeld stressed the projection of both good and bad parts of the self into the object. Klein also used Julien Green’s novel If I Were You as a literary illustration of projective dynamics. A clinical vignette shows how the analyst is affected by projective identification and may use it interpretively. The paper concludes that this mechanism always transforms the recipient and raises crucial issues regarding countertransference and introjection.