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Identification – obstacle to individuation, or: on how to become ‘me’
Author(s) -
Cavalli Alessandra
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of analytical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.285
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1468-5922
pISSN - 0021-8774
DOI - 10.1111/1468-5922.12303
Subject(s) - individuation , identification (biology) , abandonment (legal) , projective identification , psychology , obstacle , psychoanalysis , object (grammar) , process (computing) , social psychology , cognitive psychology , computer science , artificial intelligence , psychoanalytic theory , law , political science , botany , biology , operating system
This paper will explore the use of identification with aspects of a lost object as a defensive strategy to cope with traumatic loss, and will show how in the depth of the analytic work this identification can be accessed and made conscious. Descriptions of work with a three‐year‐old boy illustrate how the sudden loss of his mother's breasts had made weaning un‐accessible to him, and how, in the absence of a good experience of separation, the process of mourning had not been able to take place. Instead, identification with aspects of the lost breast was used as a defence against pain, and this state of affairs was proving a hindrance to individuation. In the discussion of the case material, the use of identification as a defence will be highlighted, and a differentiation made between abandonment and separation as this illuminates the link between mourning and individuation.