Salon Meeting of the NYFS , Committee: 27 Rue de Fleurus
Co Chairs: Debra Gill and Nancy Cromer Grayson
Date: Wednesday, April 25, 2012, Time: 8 to 9:30 pm, Location: Upper West Side
“PROJECTIVE IDENTIFICATION AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO NARCISSISTIC & SCHIZOID STATES”
Susan Finkelstein, LCSW
In 1946 Melanie Klein published her seminal paper “Notes on Some Schizoid Mechanisms” in which she first defined the concepts of Projective Identification and the Paranoid Schizoid Position. The discovery of these two concepts enriched the psychoanalytic understanding of severely narcissistic and schizoid patients, and how to interpret their paranoid defenses including projection and introjection within the transference-counter-transference situation of the analytic couple. This led to a new generation of analysts such as Herbert Rosenfeld, Wilfred Bion, Hanna Segal and Roger Money Kyrle who continued Klein’s technique of psychoanalyzing psychotic, schizoid, narcissistic and borderline patients. Thus, the “concept” of Projective Identification extended psychoanalysis to a much broader segment of the population previously considered unanalyzable by Freud. Freud believed that only psychoneurotic patients could be analyzed, as he thought that psychotic, narcissistic and schizoid patients were incapable of forming a transference or object relationship to the analyst.
Bion extended Klein’s technique of working with projective identification to include several other functions, such as “realistic projective identification” which was used as a means of communication in everyday life, thus deepening the understanding of primitive as well as healthy applications to this concept in psychic as well as in real object relationships, such as the mother-baby dyad.
OBJECTIVES:
This presentation, combining clinical vignettes with psychoanalytic theory attempts to explicate the application of Klein and Bion’s understanding of paranoia, primitive anxieties and states of mind in our work with schizoid, narcissistic, borderline and psychotic patients.
Suggested Reading:
Melanie Klein’s 1946 paper: Notes on Some Schizoid Mechanisms” and “Projective Identification: Some Clinical Aspects,” in Psychic Equilibrium and Psychic Change, by Betty Joseph, chapter 12.
Susan Finkelstein, LCSW is a Training & Supervising Analyst and Faculty Member of the New York Freudian Society. She is also the Program Developer and Director of the Understanding Primitive Mental States Program, a continuing education program of the New York Freudian Society.
Space is limited. Please email debra.gill@gmail.com to RSVP and receive the address of this meeting. Thank you.