Concept
Introjection
The process by which the subject, in phantasy, takes objects and their qualities from outside into itself, where they come to form part of the ego or settle as internal objects. Ferenczi coined the term in 1909 as the counterpart of projection: where the paranoiac expels what is unbearable onto the outside world, the neurotic draws as much of the outside world as possible into his own interests. Freud took the term up for mourning and melancholia and for the formation of the superego from the introjected parents. In Klein's work the interplay of introjection and projection, from the first months of life, builds up the inner world of good and bad objects.
- Broader concept
- Defense
- Introduced by
- Sándor Ferenczi
- Key works
- 3
- Related
- Projection
introduced by
- Sándor Ferenczi 1909 Ferenczi coined introjection in 1909 for the neurotic's drawing of the outer world into the ego, the counterpart of the paranoiac's projection: the psychoneurotic suffers from an enlargement of the ego, the paranoiac from its shrinking.
developed by
- Susan Isaacs 1943 Isaacs distinguishes the abstract mechanism of introjection from the phantasy of incorporating an object, and treats the phantasy as the way the mechanism is lived by the subject.
- Melanie Klein 1946 Klein makes introjection, together with projection, one of the ego's first means of dealing with anxiety: the introjected good breast becomes a core of the ego, while introjected persecutors feed fears from within. Normal development depends on an optimal balance between the two processes; excessive projection is answered by an introjection felt as a forceful entry from outside.
opposed by
- Projection Projection and introjection are paired as opposite movements between inside and outside: putting out of the self what belongs to it, and taking into the self what lies outside. Ferenczi coined introjection as the counterpart of projection, and Klein treats the two as working in constant interplay from the beginning of life. Lacan disputed that they are simple reciprocals, placing them in different registers.