An Investigation of a Mutual Projective System in a Couple Using Modified Repertory Grid Techniques

Abstract

The terms projection and projective identification have been the object of controversy and different authors assign them different meanings (Crisp 1986). In this paper we shall refer to projective identification as a primitive unconscious fantasy which involves the expulsion of split off parts of the self and of internal objects into an external object (Klein 1946(Klein , 1955. This process leads to a fusion of the projected parts of the self with the external object, hence the identification of the former with the latter. As a consequence of projective processes the ego becomes impoverished and more fragile and fear of retaliation from the object is established, leading to the constant need to gain control over it. One most important feature of projective identification is the experience induced in the recipient of the projection of feeling intruded upon; he is being pressurised to feel and behave in a way congruent with the feelings that have been projected into him: the recipient feels possessed by, controlled and identified with the projected material ( Ogden 1979). The projector never loses touch with the ridden parts of the self and maintains an empathic rapport with the external object. Projective identification not only serves the function as a defence mechanism of the primitive self (Segal 1982), but can also be considered as an attempt to communicate unbearable states of mind, through forcibly allowing the external object to experience them following their expulsion into the object. If these thoughts and feelings can be contained and`psychologically processed' ( Bion 1962) by the recipient, they can subsequently be reintrojected in a more tolerable form and become more meaningful.In the mother-baby interaction or within a therapeutic relationship this reinternalisation of metabolised projected parts of the self can be responsible for the process of psychological growth. Simple projection can be described as the defence mechanism of externalisation which is involved in the first phase of projective identification. It is questionable that projection can occur without a certain degree of projective identification taking place and what is called simple projection is, in fact, a mild form of projective identification (Bott-Spillius 1983).Usually there is a complementarity of projections in couples. For instance, a dependent wife might get rid of her feared aggressive and hostile part into her husband, whilst he would project his despised needy and weak self into his wife. Conversely, each of them will be a receptacle of what has been expelled into them by the other. When overwhelming and powerful projections become uncontained they are the source of considerable distress and disturbance for the members of the dyad, who become entangled in an endless battle to expel unwanted feelings into the other, while at the