Projective identification, countertransference, and the struggle for understanding over acting out.

Abstract

Projective identification is examined as an intrapsychic and interpersonal phenomenon that draws the analyst into various forms of acting out. The therapist struggles to use understanding and interpretation as the method of working through the mutual desire to act out the patient's core fantasies and feelings. Clinical material is used to illustrate the ways in which projective identification affects the analytic relationship. The focus is on methods of using interpretation to shift from mutual acting out to mutual understanding.