Concept
Claustrum
Meltzer's term, in The Claustrum (1992), for the inner world entered by intrusive identification: the inside of the internal mother experienced as a place where part of the self lives. It has three compartments with their own atmospheres: the head-breast, a place of privileged knowledge that becomes one of smug omniscience; the genital, a place of erotic excitement that turns into a world of sexual obsession; and the rectum, a world of tyranny, sadism and survival at any price. Life in the claustrum brings claustrophobic dread and the fear of expulsion, cuts the person off from real development and intimacy, and underlies many narcissistic, perverse and psychotic states.
- Introduced by
- Donald Meltzer
- Key works
- 1
- Related
- Intrusive identification
introduced by
- Donald Meltzer 1992 In The Claustrum Meltzer maps the inside of the internal mother entered by intrusive identification: head-breast, genital and rectal compartments, each with its own claustrophobic world.
derives from
- Intrusive identification The claustrum is the inner space that intrusive identification creates: the part of the self that has forced its way into the internal mother lives there, trapped in the claustrophobic world of the compartment it entered.