Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association: 2, 1954, No. 2

Ralph R. Greenson. 'The Struggle Against Identification.'

This paper begins by differentiating between the concepts of incorporation, introjection, and identification. While incorporation is an oral instinctual activity which has as its aim the taking in by the mouth of a piece of the external world, introjection is the psychic phenomenon parallel to incorporation and is modelled after it. Identification is more complex than the other two. Introjection is the principal mechanism leading to identification. Introjection is an instinctual aim towards an object, while identification is a process which results after introjection has taken place. Identification influences more than the ego of the subject, it involves the entire self. The term 'self' is used here as distinct from the term 'ego'. There appear to be many different kinds of identification—e.g. total and partial. Four patients are described who introjected and identified with a hated parental figure. They tried to remain unaware of this identification. They attempted to deny any resemblance to the hated parent in behaviour or thought. Simultaneously there was a need to find new objects. This was very apparent in the transference situation. The patients were conscious of a hatred towards the parent of the same sex while the parent of the opposite sex was idealized. Throughout their lives the patients repeated behaviour more appropriate to the hated parent. Experience in no way altered this pattern. These patients were prone to disturbances of mood which were essentially due to a reactivation of old identifications. The men did not merely become angry; they were their angry fathers. They were also given to bouts of 'acting out' when they unconsciously repeated the behaviour of the consciously hated parent.

The author reviews the developmental history of the superego and points out that before the superego proper is established introjections and identifications have occurred. He refers to the pr