Psychic Defense Mechnisms

introjection, projection, splitting, projective identification

psychic defense mechanisms < (4,)

introjection

internalizing behavior, feelings, and personality as part of one's self

introjection

infants fantasize taking into their body those perceptions and experiences that they have had with the external object

introjection

begins with an infant's first feeding

infant's first feeding

INTROJECTION:

when there is an attempt to incorporate the mother's breast into the infant's body

good objects

INTROJECTION:

introjected inside itself as a protection against anxiety

internal persecutors

INTROJECTION:

what bad objects become when they are introjected

internal persecutors

INTROJECTION:

capable of terrifying the infant and leaving frightening residues that may be expressed in dreams or in an interest in fairy tales

good objects

INTROJECTION:

taken in to feel safe & reduce anxeity

bad objects

INTROJECTION:

taken in as an attempt to control them

introjected objects

INTROJECTION:

not accurate representations of the real objects but are colored by children's fantasies

projection

what infants use to get rid of both good and bad objects

projection

fantasy that one's own feelings and impulses actually reside in another person and not within one's body

projection

infants alleviate the unbearable anxiety of being destroyed by dangerous internal forces

projection

allows people to believe that their own subjective opinions are true

positive

PROJECTION:

kinds of feelings are projected onto external object

negative

PROJECTION:

kinds of feelings where children imagine that it belongs to someone else

splitting

what infants do to manage the good and bad aspects of themselves and of external objects

splitting

by keeping apart incompatible impulses

splitting

the ego must itself be split

splitting

if not extreme and rigid = positive and useful mechanism for both infants & adults

splitting

enables people to see both positive and negative aspects of themselves, to evaluate their behavior as good or bad, and to differentiate between likable and unlikable acquaintances

splitting

if excessive & inflexible, leads to PATHOLOGICAL REPRESSION

pathological repression

SPLITTING:

children cannot introject bad experience into the good ego

healthy

SPLITTING:

balance wherein good & bad represents oneself

unhealthy

SPLITTING:

either good or bad only (paranoid-schizoid)

projective identification

splitting + projection + introjection

projective identification

split unacceptable part, project those parts onto other object, and introject those parts in a DISTORTED form

projective identification

infants feel that they have become like the object by introjecting the projected object into themselves

projective identification

identify with projected object

projective identification

exerts a powerful influence on adult interpersonal relations

projective identification

exists only in the world of real interpersonal relationship

projection

can exist wholly in phantasy

projective identification

identifying with projected object is like controlling the situation by CONTROLLING SELF