ABSTRACT

The idea of projective transidentification, in so far as it designates a transpersonal process, has so much in common with hypnosis that inclined to equate them. In the latter phenomenon the hypnotic subject splits off and projects a reality-testing aspect of ego into the hypnotist so as to suspend disbelief. Consequently, people may view projective transidentification as a state of mutual hypnosis between the analysand and analyst in which there is an active resonance between constructed images within each participant. Projective transidentification is resorted to when one of the partners fails and at the dawn of necessary non-contingent relationships between infant and mother. Projective transidentification includes projective identification, but also the operation of priming or prompting of the object by the subject and the active participation of the object's reverie–that is, capacity for symmetrical emotional correspondence.