ABSTRACT
The motives for the use of projective identification processes are primarily represented by fears of psychic separation and feelings of envy. The consequences of pathological projective identification occur mainly as changes in a sense of identity (depersonalization, confusion, pseudo-maturity) and claustrophobia (being locked up and persecuted inside the penetrated object) or depressive (being let down) anxieties. The phenomenology of projective identification embraces all the figures of symbiosis. The need for control, dependence, delusions of clairvoyance, caricature of objects, are characteristic effects of pathological projective identification. Both the parasitic relationship and the delusional relationship are typical object relationships of projective identification. Only the renunciation of pathological projective identification, which consists in assuming one’s own identity, is compatible with mental health.
