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But men may construe things after their fashion; clean from the purpose of the things themselves.
The concept of projective identification has generated a great deal of attention in psychoanalytic literature. The purpose of this paper is to summarize and evaluate the literature on the concept. To this end, theoretical and clinical material will be presented and discussed.
The theoretical review will cover both the positive and negative aspects of the concept. Clinical material will include case material of two well-known writers on projective identification. My own case material will illustrate the usefulness of the concept in work with depressives.
The concept describes the mysterious interplay of two psyches around projection and introjection, merger, and telepathy, and has quasimagical overtones. It describes an enactment in which split-off self and object parts and related affects are induced in the other. It operates as both a defense and a type of communication.
Elsewhere (Finell, 1984), I have drawn attention to the mysterious aspects of the concept of projective identification. It is similar to Deutsch's (1926) and Racker's (1957) concept of complementary identification wherein the analyst experiences an unconscious reaction which complements the patient's conscious experience. The discharge