ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a reframing of the concepts of projective identification and the paranoid–schizoid position. It challenges Melanie Klein's classical framing of these phenomena yet is largely, though not wholly, consonant with Bion's later model. Klein's original formulation was in terms of projective identification being the prototype of an aggressive object relationship, and was set firmly within the context and understanding of the paranoid–schizoid position. Bion's developments had distinguished normal from excessive projective identification, understanding the former as a mode of communication. Klein's original formulation was in terms of projective identification being the prototype of an aggressive object relationship, and was set firmly within the context and understanding of the paranoid-schizoid position. The chapter describes Klein's original formulations before setting them against the identity–affect model, then introducing later modifications and other critiques, notably those of Alvarez. In the classical Kleinian model, projective identification is directly related to the functioning of the paranoid–schizoid position.
