The author explores some of the theoretical and clinical problems that the therapist is faced with when dealing with pathological projective identifications. Focusing on the patient's receptive capacity, it is argued that the successful containment of projective identifications, whilst an important part of the therapeutic process, does not adequately account for the patient's capacity to be receptive to realizations pertaining to split off parts of the self. To understand this further, the author makes a conceptual distinction between two inseparable components of the mechanism of projective identification: the affective component and self/object component. It is suggested that the affective component gives rise to problems of receptivity characterized by resistance, whereas the self/object component leads to more difficult problems of incapacity and deficit. The implications this has for therapeutic technique are discussed with particular emphasis placed on the nature, and analysis, of interactive experience as a means of altering the patient's receptivity to previously ‘unthinkable’ parts of the self.