Abstract

Abstract:

The phenomena of splitting, projection, and introjection, as seen in the transference and countertransference of a psychoanalytic treatment, may involve a diffusion of personal identity. One or more parts of one person in the analysis—a particular emotion or cognition, sometimes even a mental capacity or function—may become relocated, at least for a while, in the other. Closely similar phenomena occur in everyday contexts. This paper describes these phenomena, with clinical illustrations, and indicates their significance for philosophical work, in particular on personal identity. It argues that personal identity is not as stable and well-bounded as is commonly assumed; and, in particular, that it has to be understood as a process rather than a fixed state, one which takes place at an interpersonal as well as intrapersonal level. It notes that although psychoanalysis has been the object of extensive philosophical study, the phenomena it reveals have been largely neglected by philosophers. The careful study of minds, made possible through the transference relationship in psychoanalysis, could be a laboratory for philosophical research.

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