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In the phenomenon of identification we distinguish three stages of ego exertions: the autoplastic reproduction (imitation) of some features and attitudes of the objects; the ego-investment (“egotization”) of such an autoplastic product which thus becomes included (“internalized”) within the coherent ego-unit; the integration, within its structure, of its newly acquired traits. I have had the opportunity to study some vicissitudes of internalized objects in cases of paranoiac projection and in clinical pictures of manic-depressive afflictions which I prefer to call “manic-melancholic.” My findings on some normal vicissitudes of internalized objects have been published in my writings on the phenomenon of “ego passage.”2, 3, 4 In this paper I shall deal also with one aspect of this phenomenon which has not yet been sufficiently elaborated.
Two fundamental ego-psychology concepts developed by Paul Federn brought the phenomenon of identification nearer to our understanding: One is the concept of a coherent ego cathexis which is experienced in the coherent ego feeling. The other is the concept of separate mental and bodily ego feelings which are experienced after a certain degree of ego organization is reached in early infancy. The mental ego is felt to be inside the bodily ego.
The phenomenon of identification presupposes the ability to perceive and to think of an object. In Federn's egocosmic ego-stage,