Concept
Adhesive identification
A primitive form of identification described by Esther Bick and Donald Meltzer, first in print in Meltzer's 1975 writings on autism. When an infant has not taken in a containing object that gives it a sense of a skin holding it together, it cannot project into an object or take one in, and instead holds itself together by sticking to the surface of the object. The result is mimicry of the object's outward features, its voice, gestures or manner, rather than an identification with its inner qualities. It belongs to a two-dimensional world without inner spaces, and is seen in autistic and post-autistic states and in shallow, imitative personalities.
Read more- Introduced by
- Donald Meltzer
- Key works
- 1
introduced by
- Donald Meltzer 1975 The term was Esther Bick's, but it first appeared in print in Meltzer's 1975 paper and in Explorations in Autism, where he set it out as a mode of identification distinct from projective identification.
developed by
- Esther Bick Bick coined the term from her observations of infants who cling to surfaces when no containing object holds them together. Her 1986 paper took the idea further.
diverges from
- Projective identification Projective identification needs an object with an inside to project into. Adhesive identification belongs to a two-dimensional world where there is no inner space, so the self sticks to the object's surface and imitates it instead of entering it.