Concept
Intrusive identification
Meltzer's name for the omnipotent, unconscious phantasy of forcing one's way into an internal object, above all the internal mother, in order to possess her qualities and escape the pains of dependence and separateness. First described in his 1966 paper on anal masturbation, where it produces a pseudo-mature identity confused with the object, it was set apart in The Claustrum (1992) from the communicative projective identification described by Bion, in which feelings are put into an object to be understood. Its consequence is life inside the object, in the claustrum.
Development
1966
introduced by Donald Meltzer
The idea goes back to Meltzer's 1966 paper on anal masturbation and projective identification. In The Claustrum (1992) he named it intrusive identification, setting it apart from the communicative projective identification of Bion's container.
In The Claustrum: An Investigation of Claustrophobic Phenomena (1992)
Relations
- 1966 introduced by Donald Meltzer
The idea goes back to Meltzer's 1966 paper on anal masturbation and projective identification. In The Claustrum (1992) he named it intrusive identification, setting it apart from the communicative projective identification of Bion's container.
- gave rise to Claustrum
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.
- diverges from Container–contained
Meltzer reserves 'projective identification' for Bion's communicative projection into a receptive container. Intrusive identification is its omnipotent counterpart: it enters the object by force, takes over its inside and does not seek understanding.
Works
- 1992
The Claustrum: An Investigation of Claustrophobic Phenomena
Meltzer distinguishes intrusive identification, an omnipotent phantasy of forcing one's way into the internal mother to possess her qualities, from the communicative projective identification that Bion described. He maps the inner world that intrusion creates: the claustrum, divided into the compartments of the head-breast, the genital and the rectum, each with its own atmosphere, in which the intruder lives in claustrophobic dread of expulsion. He traces the claustrum's part in narcissism, perversion and addiction, psychosis and the onset of schizophrenia, adolescence and politics, and the technical problems of reaching patients who live inside it. The book closes with an essay by Meg Harris Williams on Macbeth. Its publisher presents it as a companion to The Apprehension of Beauty, and Rebeca Grinberg noted that it calls the identification intrusive, a matter of quality, rather than massive, a matter of quantity.
See also
Linked from
People
References
- The Claustrum: An Investigation of Claustrophobic Phenomena1992Evidence for a relation