You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Graber distinguished 'two types of identification'1 one based on the idea of incorporating an object, the other on the idea of being incorporated by an object. The second type does not change the ego by making it more like the object, but it changes the ego in the sense that, by feeling united with the object, it regains a part of its lost omnipotence which it had projected onto external objects. It is this narcissistic gain of reparticipation in the lost omnipotence for which all orally fixated and dependent personalities are striving. They want to be saved by regaining the 'oceanic feeling' of participating in something which is much greater than their own small ego. The conflicts arising about the ways in which one strives for this goal form the basis of the psychopathology of depressions, addictions and impulsive acts. Practically, however, the two fantasies of being incorporated and of incorporating are frequently interwoven and there is no doubt that depressive people, addicts and impulsive neurotics are orally fixated and have fantasies of devouring their objects.
After this long introduction we can take up our task of reviewing Sperling's paper. Without discussing the above problems analytically, Sperling attempts to clear them terminologically. He describes the narcissistic gain of 'participation' as an extension of ego-feeling onto things which objectively are not ego. The mechanism by which this extension of ego-feeling is achieved he calls, following Bleuler, 'appersonation'. He does not discuss the question as to whether the idea of being incorporated lies behind the mechanism of appersonation. He is interested rather in working out the difference between 'appearsonation' and 'identification', that is, the type of identification by introjection by which the ego becomes similar to the object. 'To listen to a singer and then study singing, is identification; but if a man invites a singer to sing for his guests in order to give vent to his own ex