Identification - obstacle to individuation, or: on how to become 'me'.
This paper will explore the use of identification with aspects of a lost object as a defensive strategy to cope with traumatic loss, and will show how in the depth of the analytic work this identification can be accessed and made conscious. Descriptions of work with a three-year-old boy illustrate how the sudden loss of his mother's breasts had made weaning un-accessible to him, and how, in the absence of a good experience of separation, the process of mourning had not been able to take place. Instead, identification with aspects of the lost breast was used as a defence against pain, and this state of affairs was proving a hindrance to individuation. In the discussion of the case material, the use of identification as a defence will be highlighted, and a differentiation made between abandonment and separation as this illuminates the link between mourning and individuation.
London.
Alessandra
A
Cavalli
D000328:Adult; D001942:Breast Feeding / Q000523:psychology*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007207:Individuation; D008297:Male; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy / Q000379:methods*
Identifikation; Individuation; Separation; Trauern; duelo; identificación; identification; identificazione; individuación; individuation; individuazione; lutto; mourning; perdita traumatica; perte traumatique; pérdida traumática; separación; separation; separazione; séparation; traumatic loss; traumatischer Verlust; travail de deuil; горевание; идентификация; индивидуация; сепарация; травматическая утрата; 分离; 创伤性的丧失; 服丧; 自性化; 认同