PROJECTIVE IDENTIFICATION: A COUPLE’S WORST CHALLENGE
Psychoanalyst Melanie Klein coined the term projective identification in her work ‘ Notes on Some Schizoid Mechanisms’ in 1946. We can say that projective identification is a defense mechanism that allows us to unload on another person those issues that are too problematic for us to acknowledge. The term identification is used because the victim of the projection ends up believing that the projected issues are really hers. An example will explain better how this psychological mechanism works. I remember one patient of mine from when I was still in private practice, who had a very difficult relationship with his mother. The mother was severely narcissistic, so much so that growing up my patient too developed a narcissistic personality disorder. When the time was right, he chose to marry a woman with a dependent personality disorder; in addition, she suffered abandonment issues due to her insecure attachment to her mother in childhood. Since my patient was unable t...