The psychoanalytic view on Identification
Encyclopedia
Identification is a psychological process whereby the subject assimilates an aspect, property, or attribute of the other and is transformed, wholly or partially, after the model the other provides. It is by means of a series of identifications that the personality is constituted and specified. The roots of the concept can be found in Freud
's writings. The three most prominent concepts of identification as described by Freud are: primary identification, narcissistic
(secondary) identification and partial (secondary) identification.
While 'in the psychoanalytic literature there is agreement that the core meaning of identification is simple - to be like or to become like another', it has also been adjudged '"the most perplexing clinical/theoretical area" in psychoanalysis'.
" (1914) and "The Ego and the Id
" (1923) that Freud made his most detailed and intensive study of the concept.
Freud distinguished there three main kinds of identification. 'First, identification is the original form of emotional tie with an object; secondly, in a regressive way it becomes a substitute for a libidinal object-tie...and thirdly, it may arise with any new perception of a common quality which is shared with some other person'.
to something or someone prior to any relations with other persons or objects: 'an individual's first and most important identification, his identification with the father in his own personal prehistory...with the parents'. This means that when a baby is born he is not capable of making a distinction between himself and important others. The baby has an emotional attachment with his parents and experiences his parents as a part of himself. ‘The breast is part of me, I am the breast’.
During this process of identification children adopt unconsciously the characteristics of their parents and begin to associate themselves with and copy the behavior of their parents. Freud remarked that identification should be distinguished from imitation
, which is a voluntary and conscious act. Because of this process of emotional attachment a child will develop a (super)ego that has similarities to the moral values and guidelines by which the parents live their lives. By this process children become a great deal like their parents and this facilitates learning to live in the world and culture to which they are born.
'By and large, psychoanalysts grant the importance and centrality of primary identification, even though...the concept varies "according to each author and his ideas, its meaning in consequence being far from precise" (Etchegoyen 1985)'.
Lacan
, in his theory of The Imaginary, would develop the latter point into his view of 'the ego is constituted in its nucleus by a series of alienating identifications' - part of his opposition to any concept of an "autonomous" and conflict-free ego.
, that is, to the comprehension of the mechanism by which we are enabled to take up any attitude at all towards another mental life'. Otto Fenichel
would go on to emphasise how 'trial identifications for the purposes of empathy play a basic part in normal object relationships. They can be studied especially in analyzing the psychoanalyst's ways of working'. Object relations theory
would subsequently highlight the use of ' trial identification with the patient in the session ' as part of the growing technique of analysing from the countertransference
.
introduced 'two original defence mechanisms...both of which have become classics of ego psychology
', the one being altruistic surrender, the other identification with the aggressor. Anna Freud pointed out that identification with parental values was a normal part of the development of the superego; but that 'if the child introjects both rebuke and punishment and then regularly projects this same punishment on another, "then he is arrested at an intermediate stage in the development of the superego"'.
The concept was also taken up in Object relations theory
, which particularly explored 'how a patient sometimes places the analyst in the role of victim whilst the patient acts out an identification with the aggressor' in the analytic situation.
Lacan took strong exception to 'any analysis that one teaches as having to be terminated by identification with the analyst...There is a beyond to this identification...this crossing of the plane of identification'. Most Lacanians have subsequently echoed his distrust of 'the view of psychoanalysis that relies on identification with the analyst as a central curative factor'. How far the same criticism applies, however, to those who see as a positive therapeutic result 'the development of a self-analytic attitude...[built on] identification with and internalization of the analyst's analytic attitude' is not perhaps quite clear.
Marion Milner
has argued that "terminal identification" can be most acute in those analysands who go on to become therapists themselves: 'by the mere fact of becoming analysts we have succeeded in bypassing an experience which our patients have to go though. We have chosen to identify with our analyst's profession and to act out that identification'.
. Many types of identification have been described by other psychoanalysts, including counteridentification (Fliess,1953), pseudoidentification (Eidelberg, 1938), concordant and complementary identifications (Racker, 1957), and adhesive identification (Bick, 1968):'the work of Bick and others on adhesive identification, exploring the concept of the "psychic skin"
'.
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
's writings. The three most prominent concepts of identification as described by Freud are: primary identification, narcissistic
Narcissism
Narcissism is a term with a wide range of meanings, depending on whether it is used to describe a central concept of psychoanalytic theory, a mental illness, a social or cultural problem, or simply a personality trait...
(secondary) identification and partial (secondary) identification.
While 'in the psychoanalytic literature there is agreement that the core meaning of identification is simple - to be like or to become like another', it has also been adjudged '"the most perplexing clinical/theoretical area" in psychoanalysis'.
Freud
Freud first raised the matter of identification in 1897, in connection with the illness or the death of one's parents, and the response 'to punish oneself in a hysterical fashion...with the same states [of illness] that they have had. The identification which occurs here is, as we can see, nothing other than a mode of thinking'. The question was taken up again psychoanalytically 'in Ferenczi's article, "Introjection and Transference", dating from 1909', but it was in the decade between "On NarcissismOn Narcissism
On Narcissism was a 1914 essay by Sigmund Freud, widely considered an introduction to Freud's theories of narcissism.In this paper, Freud sums up his earlier discussions on the subject of narcissism and considers its place in sexual development...
" (1914) and "The Ego and the Id
The Ego and the Id
"The Ego and the Id" is a prominent paper by the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. It is an analytical study of the human psyche outlining his theories of the psychodynamics of the id, ego, and super-ego, which is of fundamental importance in the development of psychoanalytic...
" (1923) that Freud made his most detailed and intensive study of the concept.
Freud distinguished there three main kinds of identification. 'First, identification is the original form of emotional tie with an object; secondly, in a regressive way it becomes a substitute for a libidinal object-tie...and thirdly, it may arise with any new perception of a common quality which is shared with some other person'.
Primary identification
Primary identification is the original and primitive form of emotional attachmentAttachment theory
Attachment theory describes the dynamics of long-term relationships between humans. Its most important tenet is that an infant needs to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for social and emotional development to occur normally. Attachment theory is an interdisciplinary study...
to something or someone prior to any relations with other persons or objects: 'an individual's first and most important identification, his identification with the father in his own personal prehistory...with the parents'. This means that when a baby is born he is not capable of making a distinction between himself and important others. The baby has an emotional attachment with his parents and experiences his parents as a part of himself. ‘The breast is part of me, I am the breast’.
During this process of identification children adopt unconsciously the characteristics of their parents and begin to associate themselves with and copy the behavior of their parents. Freud remarked that identification should be distinguished from imitation
Imitation
Imitation is an advanced behavior whereby an individual observes and replicates another's. The word can be applied in many contexts, ranging from animal training to international politics.-Anthropology and social sciences:...
, which is a voluntary and conscious act. Because of this process of emotional attachment a child will develop a (super)ego that has similarities to the moral values and guidelines by which the parents live their lives. By this process children become a great deal like their parents and this facilitates learning to live in the world and culture to which they are born.
'By and large, psychoanalysts grant the importance and centrality of primary identification, even though...the concept varies "according to each author and his ideas, its meaning in consequence being far from precise" (Etchegoyen 1985)'.
Narcissistic (secondary) identification
Narcissistic identification is the form of identification following abandonment or loss of an object. This experience of loss starts at a very young age. An example: wearing the clothes or jewellery of a deceased loved one. In "Mourning and Melancholia" Freud, having 'shown that identification is a preliminary stage of object-choice', argued that the experience of loss set in motion a regressive process that 'served to establish an identification of the ego with the abandoned object'. In "The Ego and the Id", he went on to maintain that 'this kind of substitution has a great share in determining the form taken by the ego and that it makes an essential contribution towards building up what is called its "character"'.Lacan
Lacan
Lacan is surname of:* Jacques Lacan , French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist** The Seminars of Jacques Lacan** From Bakunin to Lacan: Anti-Authoritarianism and the Dislocation of Power, a book on political philosophy by Saul Newman** Lacan at the Scene* Judith Miller, née Lacan...
, in his theory of The Imaginary, would develop the latter point into his view of 'the ego is constituted in its nucleus by a series of alienating identifications' - part of his opposition to any concept of an "autonomous" and conflict-free ego.
Partial (secondary) identification
Partial identification is based on the perception of a special quality of another person. This quality or ideal is often represented in a 'leader figure' who is identified with. For example: the young boy identifies with the strong muscles of an older neighbour boy. Next to identification with the leader, people identify with others because they feel they have something in common. For example: a group of people who like the same music. This mechanism plays an important role in the formation of groups. It contributes to the development of character and the ego is formed by identification with a group (group norms). Partial identification promotes the social life of persons who will be able to identify with one another through this common bond to one another, instead of considering someone as a rival.Partial identification and empathy
Freud went on to indicate the way 'a path leads from identification by way of imitation to empathyEmpathy
Empathy is the capacity to recognize and, to some extent, share feelings that are being experienced by another sapient or semi-sapient being. Someone may need to have a certain amount of empathy before they are able to feel compassion. The English word was coined in 1909 by E.B...
, that is, to the comprehension of the mechanism by which we are enabled to take up any attitude at all towards another mental life'. Otto Fenichel
Otto Fenichel
Otto Fenichel was a psychoanalyst of the so-called "second generation".Otto Fenichel started studying medicine in 1915 in Vienna. Already as a very young man, when still in school, he was attracted by the circle of psychoanalysts around Freud...
would go on to emphasise how 'trial identifications for the purposes of empathy play a basic part in normal object relationships. They can be studied especially in analyzing the psychoanalyst's ways of working'. Object relations theory
Object relations theory
Object relations theory is a psychodynamic theory within psychoanalytic psychology. The theory describes the process of developing a mind as one grows in relation to others in the environment....
would subsequently highlight the use of ' trial identification with the patient in the session ' as part of the growing technique of analysing from the countertransference
Countertransference
Countertransferenceis defined as redirection of a psychotherapist's feelings toward a client—or, more generally, as a therapist's emotional entanglement with a client.-Early formulations:...
.
Anna Freud and identification with the aggressor
In her classic book The Ego and the Mechanism of Defence, Anna FreudAnna Freud
Anna Freud was the sixth and last child of Sigmund and Martha Freud. Born in Vienna, she followed the path of her father and contributed to the newly born field of psychoanalysis...
introduced 'two original defence mechanisms...both of which have become classics of ego psychology
Ego psychology
Ego psychology is a school of psychoanalysis rooted in Sigmund Freud's structural id-ego-superego model of the mind.An individual interacts with the external world as well as responds to internal forces. Many psychoanalysts use a theoretical construct called the ego to explain how that is done...
', the one being altruistic surrender, the other identification with the aggressor. Anna Freud pointed out that identification with parental values was a normal part of the development of the superego; but that 'if the child introjects both rebuke and punishment and then regularly projects this same punishment on another, "then he is arrested at an intermediate stage in the development of the superego"'.
The concept was also taken up in Object relations theory
Object relations theory
Object relations theory is a psychodynamic theory within psychoanalytic psychology. The theory describes the process of developing a mind as one grows in relation to others in the environment....
, which particularly explored 'how a patient sometimes places the analyst in the role of victim whilst the patient acts out an identification with the aggressor' in the analytic situation.
Identification with the analyst
Mainstream analytic thought is broadly agreed that interpretation took effect 'by utilizing positive transference and transitory identifications with the analyst'. More controversial, however, was the concept of 'the terminal identification' at the close of analysis, where 'that with which the patient identifies is their strong ego...[or] identification with the analyst's superego'.Lacan took strong exception to 'any analysis that one teaches as having to be terminated by identification with the analyst...There is a beyond to this identification...this crossing of the plane of identification'. Most Lacanians have subsequently echoed his distrust of 'the view of psychoanalysis that relies on identification with the analyst as a central curative factor'. How far the same criticism applies, however, to those who see as a positive therapeutic result 'the development of a self-analytic attitude...[built on] identification with and internalization of the analyst's analytic attitude' is not perhaps quite clear.
Marion Milner
Marion Milner
Marion Milner , sometimes known as Marion Blackett-Milner, was a British author and psychoanalyst. Outside psychotherapeutic circles, she is better known by her pseudonym, Joanna Field, as a pioneer of introspective journaling.-Biography:...
has argued that "terminal identification" can be most acute in those analysands who go on to become therapists themselves: 'by the mere fact of becoming analysts we have succeeded in bypassing an experience which our patients have to go though. We have chosen to identify with our analyst's profession and to act out that identification'.
In psychoanalytic thinking today
Much has been written on identification since Freud. Identification has been seen both as a normal developmental mechanism and as a mechanism of defenceDefence mechanism
In Freudian psychoanalytic theory, defence mechanisms are unconscious psychological strategies brought into play by various entities to cope with reality and to maintain self-image. Healthy persons normally use different defences throughout life...
. Many types of identification have been described by other psychoanalysts, including counteridentification (Fliess,1953), pseudoidentification (Eidelberg, 1938), concordant and complementary identifications (Racker, 1957), and adhesive identification (Bick, 1968):'the work of Bick and others on adhesive identification, exploring the concept of the "psychic skin"
Didier Anzieu
-Life:Anzieu studied philosophy and was a pupil of Daniel Lagache, before undertaking his first psychoanalysis with Jacques Lacan. Then, after discovering that Lacan had also treated his mother , he began a second analysis with Georges Favez...
'.