ABSTRACT
Identification is not only an important developmental process, contributing significantly to the formation of identity and character, but it is also a mechanism of defence, one of the ways we have of maintaining psychic equilibrium. It plays an important role in the overwhelming experiences of survivors of trauma. Survivors of trauma may sometimes be preoccupied with rescue phantasies or be driven by a compulsive desire to rescue others. Successful working through of a traumatic experience depends on the survivor's capacity to mourn. The capacity to mourn the traumatic event and its consequences is determined by both external and internal factors. The chapter discusses the psychotherapy of an adult patient who was severely traumatized as a child, concentrating on the identificatory processes as they presented themselves in the sessions. It highlights how these processes maintained the patient's predicament and how their eventual recognition helped in allowing them to be relinquished.
