ABSTRACT

In spite of the fact that Freud and other authors have expressly affirmed that projection is also observed in normal conditions, there is a tendency to link this mechanism with pathology or with something undesirable for a normal individual. It is difficult, for instance, not to think that this is implied in Meltzer’s (1967) proposal to call projective identification by the name of intrusive identification. There is also a tendency among some people to use the notion of paranoid reaction or paranoid attitude in a promiscuous way. This may spring, at least in part, from an unnecessary use of the conception of the paranoid-schizoid position. This is a tendency which restricts openness of thought.