Introduction

This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part argues that the problems of love and hate towards objects that were introjected determined the internal conditions for creative sublimation, or alternatively, the conditions for enslavement to internal objects that demanded merely a recreation of phantasy. It explains the concreteness of the phenomena that underlie psychosis. The part describes splitting of the ego in terms of separating the impulses, especially hate from love. Splitting of the ego is one among a constellation of schizoid defences that includes idealization, denial, projection, and introjection, which correspond to repression at a later stage in development. The phantasy is that part of the ego—usually the violent and self-threatening self—is split off and located externally in someone else. The part also describes the term "projective identification", for the first time.