Freud's work is the bread and butter of this paper and clinical vignettes provide some filling in the middle. First we examine Freud's discussions of splitting, using clinical vignettes. It turns out he discussed all three of the major kinds of splitting: dissociated or split-off psychic groupings, splitting of objects and affects, and splitting of the ego, though not always in contemporary terminology. We then focus on the kind of splitting which most interested Freud late in his life, splitting of the ego, and explore a clinical example. Finally, we examine the history of the development of the idea of the splitting of the ego in Freud's work. Though he only laid down the term 'splitting of the ego' in 1937, he discussed the phenomenon itself repeatedly throughout his life, beginning as early as 1909. By the end of his life he may have been edging toward viewing it as the foundation of all defence.

Splitting is often linked particularly to borderline and severe narcissistic conditions. Freud