ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the vertical split from a different vantage point—how innate talents and aptitudes may be unincorporated into the psyche—thus depriving the patient of essential sources of vitalization. It presents a case study of a girl named Jane. Jane, a patient of Dr. Garfield’s, was a successful fifty-year-old, married, Lutheran accountant who worked in a large downtown Chicago firm. she was talented both physically and intellectually. It was a pleasure for Dr. Garfield to hear about what she could do. Jane’s behaviors, along the lines of a classic Freudian view might condense elements of aggression combined with elements of distress. H. Kohut articulated the “vertical split” of disavowal by contrasting it with the “horizontal split” of repression. He articulated the “vertical split” of disavowal by contrasting it with the “horizontal split” of repression. The history of splitting as a psychoanalytic concept is vast.
