Identification Traps

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

The concept of identification is quite developed in the psychological literature. But my appeal to him is dictated rather not by research interest, but by the inner energy that fills me at any meeting with the phenomenon of identification in my own life and the lives of my clients - real and symbolic.

Considering the origin of identification, an association arises with the process of mirror reflection - the deep meaning of this phenomenon. The identification process resembles a symbolic mirror, which changes the very essence of the subject, adding properties borrowed from this object. The process on the basis of which development takes place, at some point becomes a huge obstacle on the path of individuation. This is how the idea of identification traps is born.

Identification as a developmental process is at the origin of the birth of the Ego. But at a certain period, he begins to create restrictions for self-realization. These limitations can be defined as "identification traps" that can affect individuation in different ways.

Identification as a limitation on the path of individuation. Identification can facilitate development while the individual path has not yet been charted. But as soon as the best individual opportunity opens up, so identification reveals its pathological character by the fact that in the future it turns out to be just as retarding development, as before it unconsciously contributed to the rise and growth. Then it causes the dissociation of the personality, for the subject under its influence splits into two partial personalities, alien to one another.

In the dictionary of terms on gestalt therapy, identification is considered as healthy and false (pathological) through the mechanism of alienation of the true needs of the self (Troisky A. V., Pushkina T. P., 2002). Problems in awareness lead to a violation of the identification process - alienation, to the emergence of false identifications, when an organism identifies itself with something that does not correspond to its nature, its true needs. Alienation is a process in which the organism determines what is its self, what it is not, what it can potentially become. Identification / alienation are the main functions of the Self (self), which are essentially a process of establishing boundaries.

As examples of false identifications, one can cite the ideal image of the I, the obligation, irrational beliefs about oneself and the world around us, identification of oneself with political trends, doctrines, theories, and certain social groups. A sign of false identification can be considered that it interrupts the need cycle of the individual's experience and, as a result, organic self-regulation, and also blocks the development of the personality. Healthy identification promotes need satisfaction and development.

In classical psychoanalysis, identification (identification) refers to the earliest manifestation of an emotional connection with another person. Thanks to the process of identification with a beloved person, the child's own self is formed in the likeness of another, taken as a model of imitation.

The plot of science fiction films often becomes the moment when the character approaches the mirror, looks into his reflection and either makes a transition to another world, or can expand his possibilities of seeing the past and predicting the future, gains or loses some of his properties.

When I think about how I experience identification, how I learn about it, then I have an association with a certain mirror surface, with the help of which, as in fairy tales, you can go through, you can dissolve. Identification is like a mirror, in which you first see a reflection, then you compare and find yourself, and later you no longer distinguish where you are and where your reflection is.

The mirror of identification has a special property: when it encounters something similar inside you, it is identified as "your own I", and can no longer come off: the object of identification has dissolved in the mirror, and its boundaries turned out to be blurred. It is similar to a situation when you meet some idea, very precisely formulated in words, as if your inner thoughts suddenly became a reality, and then you can no longer remember the author and consider this thought to be yours. And then people say, "Ideas are in the air."

Reflection in the mirror is seen not only as an image of reality, but also as something else, transcendental in relation to the surrounding world. Everything in the world is entwined with visible and invisible ties; everything is a reflection of something, an effect or a cause.

A mirror is a stage on which a creative fantasy is played out in a symbolic form. So we read in Marion Woodman's book "Passion for Perfection": "both positive and negative symbols will appear in the mirror. They cannot be rationally combined; but something new appears in the reflection, belonging to both - and, at the same time, neither nor others."

In the folklore of many peoples, a mirror is a reflection of the soul, its essence, the life and memories of a person - his fate, past and future.

In philosophy, the symbol of the mirror is associated with thinking - the mirror is an instrument of self-knowledge, as well as a reflection of the universe.

From a mythological point of view, there is much more good to be said about a mirror than bad. From this position, the mirror personifies truthfulness (after all, it reflects what it really is - sincerity, purity, enlightenment, self-knowledge. Such ideas about the mirror originate in ancient times, when it was associated with the sun and the moon, which were believed then to be reflect the divine light, or even with the whole sky. The idea of a magical reflection of divine light left its mark in later mythology. Islamic mystic Jelaleddin Rumi (1207-1273) described the mirror as a symbol of the heart, which must be bright and pure in order to reflect, without distorting, the shining rays emanating from God.

Like other symbolic boundaries (border, window, threshold, chimney, water surface, etc.), the mirror is considered dangerous and requires careful handling. The danger lies not only in contact through the mirror with “that light”, but also in the consequences of doubling itself (through reflection in the mirror), which threatens with “double-mindedness,” that is, a split between the human world and the other world.

It is believed that the mirror has magical properties and is a means of seeing the invisible or the entrance to the other world. Its surface holds and retains the ever-reflected images, the soul or life force of the people reflected in it.

Early Christians considered the mirror to be a symbol of the Virgin Mary, since God the Father was reflected in her through his exact likeness - Jesus Christ. The entire creation is viewed as a reflection of the divine essence, and meditation is considered as the possession of a mirror that reflects and allows one to cognize divine laws, as well as observe and study the luminaries and laws of the Cosmos. According to the idea of Vincent de Bove, author of the theological work The Great Mirror, or Speculum magus, the practice of meditation contributes to our becoming. Perfect creations are mirrors directed to the Light, and the mirror itself is a reflection of inner life. This is how the mirror first becomes the prototype of reflection.

The deep psychological interpretation of the mirror is associated with popular beliefs. According to the Swiss psychoanalyst Ernst Eppley (1892-1954), dreams in which a mirror is present are very serious, and he explains the ancient interpretation of the omen of death by the fact that “something is outside of us, and we are outside ourselves in the mirror; it gives rise to a primitive sense of soul abduction. He believed that people who look in the mirror for a long time experience a kind of enchantment that paralyzes the will.

Not everyone can stand a look at themselves. Some, like the mythical Narcissus, peering into their reflection, “get lost”. Others come to themselves creatively transformed when they look in the mirror, as if confirming their actual existence. The contradictoriness of the symbolic meaning of the mirror depends in this sense on the position of the individual and his maturity, the ability to "self-control".

In order to know the symbolic essence of things, according to analyst Marion Woodman, it is necessary that "the gaze of the Gorgon Medusa reflected from the shield of Perseus. Only an indirect glance, a reflected gaze, will help to see the essence of things."

In order for identification to occur, according to D. W. Winnicott (Mother's face as a mirror), a reflection process is necessary. Reflection is the basis of emotional development; the environment from which the infant has not yet learned to distinguish itself plays a leading role. The process of separating "I" and "not-I" is gradually carried out, and how it is carried out depends on the child and the environment.

What does a baby see when he looks at his mother's face? The main thing is that he sees himself. If the mother's face does not answer, the mirror becomes a thing that can be looked at, but in which it is impossible to look at oneself.

In the case of healthy family relationships, each child in the family benefits from the fact that he sees himself in relation to each member of the family or family, as a kind of wholeness.

Identification as a concept was introduced by Z. Freud, first - for the interpretation of the phenomena of pathological depression, later for the analysis of dreams and some of the processes by which a small child assimilates the behavior patterns of other significant adults, forms a "super-I", takes a female or male role, etc. …

Summarizing his views on the essence of identification in the work "Mass Psychology and Analysis of the Human I" Z. Freud, expressed the following provisions: "identification is the most initial form of emotional connection with an object"; in a regressive way, as if by the introjection of the object into the I, "it becomes a substitute for the libidinal object connection"; identification "can arise with each newly noticed community with a person who is not the object of primary sexual urges."

Identification - identification - in its generalized form, it is presented in modern literature as

• the ability to identify, to establish a coincidence - the process of identifying one person (subject) with another (object), is carried out on the basis of emotional attachment to another person (Leibin V., 2010);
• a psychological process in which a person is partially or completely dissimilated from himself: the unconscious projection of himself by the personality onto something other than it is itself: this is the unconscious identification of the subject with another subject, group, process or ideal and is an important part of the normal development of the personality (B Zelensky. 2008).

There are four types of identification: primary, secondary, projective and introjective (see Koff (1961) and Fuchs (1937)):

• primary identification is a state, presumably existing in infancy, when the individual still needs to distinguish his identity from the identity of objects, when the distinction between "I" and "you" is meaningless;
• secondary identification is the process of identifying with an object whose separate identity has already been discovered. In contrast to primary identification, secondary identification is defensive because it reduces hostility between self and the object and allows one to deny the experience of SEPARATION with it. However, secondary identification with parental figures is considered part of the normal developmental process.
• projective identification is the process by which a person imagines that he is inside some object external to himself. It is also protection, since it creates an ILLUSION of control over the object, which allows the subject to deny his helplessness in front of the object and receive substitute satisfaction from his actions.
• introjective identification is either a process of identification with an introject, or a process that makes it possible to present another within oneself and a part of oneself. Sometimes, when used, no distinction is made between secondary identification and introjection.

In modern psychoanalytic literature, various types and forms of identification are discussed (Meshcheryakov B., Zinchenko V. 2004.):

1. Situational assimilation (as a rule, unconscious) of oneself to a significant other (for example, a parent) as a model on the basis of an emotional connection with him. Through the identification mechanism from early childhood, many personality traits and behavioral stereotypes, gender identity and value orientations begin to form in a child. Situational identification often occurs during child role play.

2. Stable identification of oneself with a significant other, the desire to be like him. Distinguish between primary and secondary identification. Primary identification is the identification of the child (infant) first with the mother, then with the parent, whose gender the child recognizes as his own (gender identification). Secondary identification is identification at a later age with people who are not parents.

3. Identification as identifying oneself with the character of a work of art, due to which there is a penetration into the semantic content of the work, its aesthetic experience (empathy).

4. Identification as a mechanism of psychological defense, which consists in unconscious assimilation to an object that causes fear or anxiety (psychological defense, Oedipus complex).

5. Group identification - stable identification of oneself with someone (large or small) social group or community, acceptance of its goals and value systems (social identity, value orientations), awareness of oneself as a member of this group or community; self-identification).

6. In engineering and legal psychology - recognition, identification of any objects (including people), assigning them to a certain class or recognition based on known signs (perceptual identification, according to D. A. Leontiev.)

The study of the problem of identification was developed in the works of analysts. So, K. G. Jung (1875-1961) considered the identification of a person with a group, with a cult hero, and even with the souls of ancestors. In accordance with his ideas, mystical belonging to a group is nothing more than an unconscious identification, many cult ceremonies are based on identification with a god or a hero, regressive identification with animal ancestors has an exciting effect (V. Zelensky, 2008).

Identifying with someone (something) means dissolving another in oneself or dissolving in another. Identification with other people's values turns out to be very limiting. Identifying with a target becomes an inner tyrant. Sooner or later, you find yourself in the epicenter of the conflict: to go to your goal at any cost as a reflection of the search for integrity or to stop almost at the end, since the goal was originally “not self-contained,” or is this exactly what the self wants from me - to embrace the immensity?

Sleep: I'm on a bus with students. We're going to lectures. I took a comfortable seat and left an empty seat next to my friend and classmate Lena N. But I urgently need to get out and then get back on the bus. The bus is already cramped. These are senior students. I cannot squeeze through: they are very tight and do not let through. I barely manage to get out. It's almost impossible to go back. I squeeze through with my hands. Manages to fit in. This is no longer a bus, but a train. And he is not lucky where I wanted. I don't recognize the area.

Then I walk between houses on the street and look at my hands. They are not mine. They are flawed. I can't do anything with them. I do not feel them, they are incorporeal.

I give lectures to a large audience. I think it can be like a psychological theater. I remember that somewhere there were lectures by V., my teacher, the head of the thesis and, later, a colleague. I take an old book with texts on psychology. But this turns out to be all wrong.

In the process of individuation, there is no turning back. The self cannot be deceived. Any attempt to "go back" suddenly turns out that the train is going "in the wrong direction", the old lectures will no longer help, and the feeling of helplessness becomes the main criterion that the previous methods of achieving results no longer work - the "hands" cannot transform the situation.

Identification does not always refer to persons, but sometimes to objects (for example, identification with some spiritual movement or business enterprise) and psychological functions, the latter case is even particularly important. In this case, identification leads to the formation of a secondary character and, moreover, in such a way that the individual is identified to such an extent with his best developed function that he is largely or even completely alienated from the initial bias of his character, as a result of which his real individuality falls into the sphere of the unconscious …

This outcome is almost regular in all people with differentiated function. It constitutes a necessary stage on the path of individuation. Identification pursues such a goal: to assimilate the way of thinking or actions of another person in order to achieve some benefit or remove some obstacle or solve some problem (PT, par. 711-713)

Identification with a complex (experienced as an obsession) is a constant source of neurosis, which can also be caused by identification with an idea or belief. "The ego retains its integrity only if it does not identify with one of the opposites and if it understands how to maintain a balance between them. This is possible only when it is simultaneously aware of both opposites. Even if we are talking about some great Truth, identification with it would still mean a catastrophe, since it would retard all further spiritual development "(CW 8, par. 425).

One-sidedness usually arises from identification with a separate conscious attitude. The result is a loss of contact with the compensating forces of the unconscious. "In any such case, the unconscious usually responds with strong emotions, irritability, loss of control, arrogance, feelings of inferiority, moodiness, depression, bouts of anger, etc., associated with a loss of self-criticism and wrong judgments, mistakes and sensual deceptions accompanying this loss." (CW 13, par. 454).

Identification traps include:

a) identification as a static internal picture;

b) obsessive identification with the area of competence;

c) perception of people as twin couples and types;

d) painful need to merge with the object of identification; e) identification as a way to make up for the loss;

f) inability to identify.

Identification as a static internal picture

The inner image remains static, reality is changeable and indefinite, and this image does not fit the dynamic reality. And then the subject is met with disappointment. The world collapses, starts to move, the inner picture remains static, which is very painful.

A client at the age of 29, married, mother of a two-year-old boy and a partner in her husband's business, told with bitterness that all her life she dreamed that in her family "everything will be different" - she will make up spiritual unity with her husband, who will to understand and appreciate it. But in the end it turned out that her husband, just like her father in relations with his mother, ignored her needs, demanded complete submission, devalued efforts in business, in everyday life and in raising a child. When she was offered some kind of interpretation of the next tense situation with her husband, she was sincerely surprised why "this is not in her inner picture."

Identification with a zone of competence as your own prison

At the beginning of your life's journey, your own “I” is experienced as identical to what you do, what you dissolve in, what you feel competent in. But time goes on, the development of personality goes on, but the system (where the zone of competence was born) does not let go of its tenacious paws. There is a feeling that the system wants to get you "forever" and "completely". Identification with an idea and activity that is the equivalent of one's own "I" or a significant part of it turns into an inner jailer. The well-known "old" tenaciously holds, the zone of competence becomes its own prison. It is impossible to come to a new space "bad", "new", "unable to do anything", "incompetent" - it is important to come with your own achievements. But then learning new things is impossible.

But, at the same time, in search of oneself, a fear is born to manifest “like others”, to be “like someone,” a panic horror is born from the threat of dissolving in the Other. Any attempt to manifest individually is blocked - "suddenly they will not appreciate, rejected, condemned." And as a result, any ability to manifest is blocked. To overcome the internal resistance of any attempt to "manifest", to declare oneself to the world, a colossal amount of internal energy is required. This is how Marion Woodman writes about it: "While you achieve competence by reinventing the wheel, many are already where you are striving. And your path is more costly. And you are always either ahead of time or late. You are always" not there "" … As if meeting with yourself turns out to be impossible …

An excessive need to merge with the object of identification may ultimately be an obstacle to the development of long-term deep emotional ties with people. This topic has long been relevant in the stories of a woman of about forty, successful in the profession and family relationships, who nevertheless painfully felt her desire to merge with people who were significant to her and their reciprocal alienation.

“Sometimes it seems to me that I know more about the internal motives of people than about their actions. And now the world of relationships seems to me turned upside down: the accessibility of perception is focused more on internal processes than on external ones. This also applies to myself and perceptions of other people. It scares them and makes them keep their distance from me. Nobody wants to be read like a book, or to be naked. It feels like I myself communicate, naked to the limit, and I expect the same from people, but they they are not ready for this. I’m in the zone of pathological honesty. And people often ask the question: where do you get all these conclusions? They perceive such a relationship as an encroachment on personal space."

Unconscious identification with the disturbing space

According to the research of Natalia Kharlamenkova, daughters whose mothers have experienced a stressful event (PTSD) and have this symptomatology copy their mothers in personality traits. That is, if you build personal profiles, then they practically overlap.

The famous psychoanalyst Carl Jung said that in the case when we observe such a coincidence of answers to a particular test, in a particular conversation, sometimes an illusion may arise that this is a good picture, because people are close. But in fact, he says, there is a big deep problem here, because they are different personalities and, although they may be somewhat similar to each other, they cannot be symbiotic. It turns out that these are not two separate personalities, but one person, and the daughter lives the life of a mother.

The second phenomenon we discovered is social roles. We see a picture of the confusion of roles, when the daughter takes on the role of mother, and the mother, on the contrary, becomes a daughter. This picture of the confusion of roles leads to the fact that the daughter may not yet be ready to fulfill this role and is experiencing great difficulties, fulfilling the mother's role at the wrong time. And the mother cannot cope with her post-traumatic stress, because she has regressed to childhood.

A daughter may have an abandonment complex, not even due to the fact that the mother actually once left her daughter alone, but due to emotional emptiness, due to the fact that she could not emotionally be with her daughter. In addition, the mother-daughter relationship can affect the daughter's relationship with people of the opposite sex, in which she too can take on a masculine role due to the fact that her experience with her mother made her an early adult.

Identification with honesty

Identification with honesty manifests itself in a persistent inability to lie to a significant, idealized adult. In childhood, there is a harsh exposure of lies and a sharp, categorical rejection of it. But this does not mean that the lie ceases to exist. And if everything is in motion? If in order to understand yourself, what is true and what is false, where are you, and where you are no longer - it takes time? Then what is a lie? If you sincerely believe in a lie, is it a lie?

Maybe this is the realm of fantasy, which is being replaced by reality. You begin to believe in this fantasy unconditionally. Can't remember anymore, but what happened in the beginning? And then you strive to get to the bottom of the truth. This is how the moral exhibitionism of the shadow is born - when you catch yourself on the excessive protrusion of weaknesses and shortcomings.

Identification and moral exhibitionism of the shadow. Perhaps increasing suffering or reaffirming power through the demonstration that "I suffer the most." Once I remember a quote from the French writer Mérimée: "Everyone claims to have suffered the most." As if the phrase of people: "What horror, how do you live with this?" fills with inner energy, becomes a mirror, thanks to which you can recognize your own suffering and rise in this. But what does it do? Perhaps the experience of uniqueness is renewed over and over again.

Demonstration of their weakness occurs only in the presence of those who seem to be stronger. With equal "strong" - you begin to demonstrate your weakness and "extort" protection, support, support. Competition turns on, if you can't win, then you need to defiantly lose. And it will be one hundred percent gain - as you will attract the eyes of others with your shadow. You will no longer have to wait for punishment, you will already publicly punish yourself. And it hurts less. Only one fact remains in oblivion: people are afraid of contracting "bad luck", and they distance themselves from you.

Identification and envy. Who is not familiar with the state when it seems that someone's own idea suddenly, as if by magic, becomes the embodiment of reality. As if this someone overheard the thoughts and was able to embody, but you did not. As if his unconscious could offer him what you only allow yourself to dream about. At one of these moments, I have a dream: “I am at sea. Shore. I'm washing some kind of child - a little boy. He is covered in feces, the more I try to wash him, the more everything just gets smeared."

Is it killing someone else's success? Perhaps it is envy of social intelligence, which is difficult to find in oneself. If it is not given to initially feel people, then they have to be investigated. And then thinking is ahead of feeling. Most likely, this happens to a child when in early childhood he does not expend effort, does not carry out internal work in order to be accepted and loved, when he is simply unconditionally loved, but in the assessment of actions they rely on logic and cause-and-effect relationships. How does this affect the rest of your life?

Modern obsessive parental care, according to Adolf Guggenbühl-Craig, which persists until adulthood, contributes to the development of sensitive, affectionate people who are inclined to be disappointed in the "evil" world when they notice that not everyone around them is cute, like dad and mom. The disadvantage of the modern parenting system, most likely, is the stimulation of narcissistic effeminacy, and its advantage is the encouragement of the abilities for love and compassion (Adolf Guggenbuhl-Craig "Marriage is dead - long live marriage!").

Today you can often observe how the world turns out to be the other side for pampered narcissists, and it turns out that not all the people around you also unconditionally love, believe and accept you, as it was in childhood. The intense pain of rejection makes us look for an answer to the question: what is happening, why is there no recognition? And you have to learn from scratch to peer at people, study their reactions to themselves, look for certain forms of behavior that can lead to success in relationships, cultivate in oneself “interest in people”, pull oneself out of the shell of admiration for one's own inner world. Sometimes, over time, it may begin to seem that you know more about the inner world of people than they do, but why does this not help in relationships?

Reverse identification, the joy of work and creativity. What kind of mechanism is triggered when a child cannot identify with his parents in some very “good” and “positive” habits, for example, in hard work? Suppose your parents are physically hard work. The son / daughter sees hard labor, and does not see the ability to enjoy and enjoy life, does not see for himself ways of compensation or ways to replenish resources (parents simply do not have them) that could be adopted through identification. Hard-working parents are simply impossible to identify with. Labor is perceived as eternal hard labor. There is no desire to get into it of its own free will. And labor is disgusting. If this is added to the real absence of parents (they left to work), then the chances that the child will work are very small.

When parents return, they want to double their sense of guilt for their own literal absence, but it only turns out worse. The child did not put his energies into the benefits received, does not know how to dispose of them, they are not part of his "normal state of experiencing his own self." This is how a consumer is born …

Identification with a symptom (psychosomatics)

Psychosomatic symptoms presented during the initial treatment: as unconscious suffering: does not say anything about his suffering, somatic complaints are clarified in the course of work; are ego-syntonic to part with them is like losing yourself; psychological suffering is presented indistinctly, a vague understanding of the connection between a psychological state and a symptom; the link between psychological suffering and symptom is denied "it can't be." I recall cases from practice when various kinds of psychosomatic complaints were presented: allergy to ragweed, drug allergy, to honey, etc. in a successful woman with a good status of a financier in a large company as a symbol of "allergy to life" in general and to the mismatch of life with her own ideas, to strictly adhere to their own perfectionism; chronic lingering bronchitis, sinusitis in a woman who has gone through an abrupt change of profession and status and the departure of her husband, as a protest to continue violence against herself at an unloved job; gambling addiction (team computer games), alcohol, herpes infections, immune deficiency encephalopathy in a 15-year-old boy as a form of protest against growing up.

Psychosomatic symptoms as a complaint (conscious suffering) - the client comes with already existing favorite complaints - knows how it manifests itself, connects it with his psychological state. In this case, I recall the work with a young man 19-20 years old with panic attacks in the form of fear of suffocation, shortness of breath, dizziness, fear and an unconscious desire to hang himself (the inability to look at vereuki and cutting objects due to spontaneously arising fantasies of how to organize suicide).

Psychosomatic symptoms can arise on the path of individuation, when the connection between the body and the psyche is restored, the body becomes sensitive to psychological changes; the symptom is initially perceived as something separate and denied "this cannot be"; the connections between the symptom and the psychological experience gradually become clear.

Identification as a way to make up (prevent, anticipate, survive) the loss.

Sometimes identification acts as a way of coping with feelings in connection with possible separation or loss and corresponds to the following rule: “be as it is, so as not to lose it” (Antsupov A. Ya., Shipilov A. I., 2009). An example of such an unconscious identification is the way of maintaining an emotional connection with a "fading object" - a sick mother, or another significant person. The loss feels like an "impossible reality". To save a significant object from destruction, as well as to save oneself from the experience of loss, is possible only if one identifies with it, which means "getting sick with the same." This is a peculiar way of the psyche to accept and process the fact of loss. But at some point, this deep emotional connection becomes very dangerous. Unconscious identification with a seriously ill loved one can become the cause of one's own illness.

Identification in working with a client: in countertransference experiences in the zone of experience of the identification insight, experiences of additional countertransference are included: "client as" my mom, my dad, my husband, and my son (additional countertransference). The client comes "as if" from the point where the therapist stopped in his personal analysis and development. If there is an encounter with the analyst's positive countertransference and his envy, it can destroy the work. The client leaves, feeling the analyst's envy for something very valuable in himself, as if his resources are limited. If the experience of envy and admiration is relatively "in moderation" and correlates with the past already experienced by the analyst himself, then this becomes a wave on the crest of which the work takes place.

Here is how DV Winnicot writes about it: “Psychotherapy is not about giving clever and subtle interpretations, but about gradually returning to the patient what he brings. Psychotherapy is a complex derivative of a human face reflecting what here to be seen. If I do this task well enough, the patient will find what is true, and become able to exist and feel real. Feeling real is more than just existing, it means finding a way to exist on his own in this capacity to connect oneself with objects and, in order to have oneself, in order to have somewhere to run away when you defend yourself (Mother's face is like a mirror. DV Winnicott).

The analyst provides his ego and ego-self contact as an analogy for the client to lean on and build himself up. When, on the wave of identification, the analyst notes the similarity of a case from someone else's practice and his own life or clinical experience, then no matter how he “hears” and “does not perceive,” he can only experience. Unconscious identification erases the boundaries of space and time and, possibly, participates in the formation of such a phenomenon as synchrony.

Identification in the perception of people as twin pairs and types.

In my own practice and in the stories of my clients, I often had to meet the phenomenon of unconscious clumping of images of individual completely unfamiliar people into a certain type. The psyche seems to be sorting all people into groups. Among them are "twin couples" who do not know about the existence of each other, but are alike as two peas in a pod - outwardly, in demeanor and character of actions.

Here is the story of one client: "Once my grandmother was worried about how I was sticking with my friends, completely dissolving in them: bringing home their manner of speaking, their habits and personality traits. And she did not like it." As if the process of identification with a significant person (grandmother), which manifested itself in my client in childhood, and which was supported in every possible way, suddenly became unacceptable if she "mirrored" her friends and seemed to lose her individuality. The granddaughter (a client in childhood) seemed to receive a double message from her grandmother: "dissolving in someone is a way of survival," and "dissolving in someone is unacceptable." In the further fate of this client, this was manifested by the fact that all her life she was thrown from dissolution in a significant Friend to alienation from him.

Synchronization and identification

Jung opposes synchronicity to the fundamental physical principle of causality and describes synchronicity as a creative principle constantly operating in nature that orders events in a "non-physical" (non-causal) way, only on the basis of their meaning. He hypothesizes that we are really not talking about a simple accident, and that a universal creative principle operates in nature, ordering events, regardless of their remoteness in time and space.

Jung singles out two problems in the phenomenon of synchronicity: 1) an image in the unconscious for some reason penetrates into consciousness in the form of a dream, thought, premonition or symbol; 2) the objective physical situation for some reason coincides with this image.

As a result of the analysis, Jung comes to the conclusion that there are self-existent objective meanings in nature, which are not a product of the psyche, but are present simultaneously both inside the psyche and in the external world. In particular, any object is endowed with psychoid properties. This explains the possibility of strange semantic coincidences.

The concept of self-existent meaning is close to the concept of Tao in Chinese philosophy, the idea of the World Soul, as well as to psychophysical parallelism and the initially established harmony of all things according to Leibniz. "All events in a person's life are in two fundamentally different types of connection: the first type is an objective causal connection of a natural process; the second type is a subjective connection that exists only for the individual who senses it and which, therefore, is as subjective as and his dreams … These two types of connection exist simultaneously, and the same event, although it is a link in two completely different chains, nevertheless obeys both types, so that the fate of one individual invariably corresponds to the fate of the other, and each individual is the hero of his own play, simultaneously playing in the play of another author. This is beyond our understanding and can be recognized as possible only on the basis of the conviction of the existence of a pre-established amazing harmony."

Any significant change in attitude means psychic renewal, which is usually accompanied by symbols of new birth that arise in the patient's dreams and fantasies. (C. G. Jung. Synchrony. 2010).

One such phenomenon is the intersection of the dream space of the analyst and the client. I have a dream that is etched into my memory. More than half a year has passed, but I still remember the details.

"Desert. Everything is covered in gray-blue dust. A peshera made of the same stone is either rubble or some kind of boulders. This is a hut. Deep antiquity. On the threshold sits an old woman from a tribe of Indians in rags. Her clothes are frayed to rags., bare feet, gray unwashed hair, some kind of braids, a kerchief. Thin lips are tightly compressed. Long thin nose. She is motionless. Nearby are some utensils - clay bowls. Gray-blue dust. All without a hint of water. Suddenly I understand that this is not even a woman, but a man. This surprises me a lot. I almost wake up and almost consciously try to look deeper into the cave. In appearance, the cave-hut looks shallow and very cramped. Its vault is made of gray-blue dusty boulders. It's dark inside. A deep hole goes somewhere inside and down. Suddenly, black smoke begins to suck me there like a funnel."

Desert and waterlessness as a symbol of resource scarcity. But there are survivors in this desert. This is not a woman, not a man, or blindness, or the integration of opposite parts. Silence and static. Deep antiquity as a meeting with archetypal energies. But this turns out to be only the beginning of the journey. Everything is not really what it seems. It looks like a small cave of boulders, in fact, keeps the entrance inward and downward. And there is no longer any fear to look there. There is interest in continuing the search.

The encounter with this silent androgen impressed me greatly. And suddenly, after a couple of months, the client brings me a dream, which for some reason immediately connects with my own. It is as if a connection is being established between these two dreams. What does my old Indian woman have in common with her dream? But in my experience it is like the same story. Here is an excerpt from the session and part of the discussion of sleep.

"I came to my parents. Their house, but the layout of the rooms does not look like this. Here I am, husband, parents, younger brother … And there is such a small room in the house - 2 by 2, 5 meters. A dog lives there for some reason. The room is cluttered." There are no windows. Walls with plaster. I open the door - the dog wags its tail. (This is a real dog - one of the 3, which the parents have.) The dog is uncomfortable, there is rubbish. I put in order.

I'm in this room again. There is no window. On the left is a sofa. On the right is a mirror, not on the entire wall, I can see myself halfway. And on the right is a staircase to the second floor. I know that there is the same room, but with a window. And it must be flooded with light. Why do I know? And I see these rooms like a dollhouse from the inside.

I go to the mirror. I see the reflection of the room. And the closer, the more I see. I see a couch. A gypsy sits on the edge and looks at me. Dark, in a red scarf. I turn around - no one is there. I was scared: a feeling of eerie. She went out and closed the room. Parents are sitting on the couch. “You know, I saw that there !? It must be removed. "They:" We wanted to, but better not touch it. If you try, it will be worse. " The gypsy was in a red kerchief, her arms folded, her legs one on top of the other. Then someone went to the 2nd floor. I also thought to go, but I suddenly became a bummer. And I thought: "I'll see it later!"

The gypsy woman is 40 years old. She is cunning, easily manipulates, it is better to keep by the side. But not scary, and not "gypsy" in dress. The parents have a real house richer, this lacks finishing work."

T: "There is a room in the house where you can see the hidden …"

- They put things in order, and the dog was transformed into a gypsy. The gypsy is like the “Soul of the House”. Maybe Spirit, and not very positive, but no one says - "Bad". The gypsy is a personality that is difficult to accept. Mom says "must", but I do not feel love … and I consider myself insensitive. But the gypsy is the one who will act regardless of what people think of her. (Glad from the movie "Tabor Goes to Heaven"). (My dad's grandmother was married to a gypsy for the first time, the uncle was of gypsy blood. There are many settled gypsies in the village). This is something dangerous and you have to be careful.

The encounter with the symbolic parental figures and parental home is not as expected. The house as a structure of the client's psyche and as a symbol of her Ego is "similar to the parent's", but it is not: it lacks interior finishing work and is not so rich.

An amazing image of an internal mirror in a client's dream: "I go to the mirror. I see the reflection of the room. And the closer - the more I see" - some kind of opposite effect for the mirror itself and its physical properties - the closer you get, the more you see, but this is exactly about analytical work - the closer and closer, the more details can be considered, and therefore the deeper the analytical work.

The result of a year and a half of work with a client is that in a dream she discovers a secret room in her parents' house, which she does not know about. It is like her inner territory, her personal space. It is still very small and cluttered. There is also an idea of the same room on the second floor, which has a window and light. This means that the inner space contains many more possibilities than the client is able to realize. There is still a lot of material that requires differentiation and processing. But there is already a place for the living - a dog lives there. The dog is the embodiment of instincts and a symbol of the living part of the client's soul. And her Ego clears a place so that the dog can survive in this room.

The secret room from the dream contains a secret. The image of a gypsy is reflected in the mirror. But you cannot look at the gypsy directly, you can only see her through the reflection in the mirror - a direct designation of the symbolism of the mirror on the shield of Perseus, which made it possible to neutralize Medusa the Gorgon. This inner character as a symbol of the client's identity, which she cannot trust and cannot get rid of, and this is not advised by her parent figures.

When it becomes impossible to continue the individuation path of development, a cliff occurs, abrupt, irreversible and unambiguous. The unconscious way of salvation is breaking the communicative space, separating territory and resources from the object of identification once and for all, so that there is no temptation left in a difficult situation to pray for help again and strive for merging and dissolution.

This is how a new path begins. And this is also a trap. Your own path is felt as unique when there is nothing more valuable than what is within yourself. "Do not desire …" when you can go your own way and appreciate what you have. And from this impossibility to continue the analysis, a meeting with the Inner Healer is born.

Identification as the path to the inner healer.

Sleep: A middle-aged man in a Russian shirt and bast shoes approaches a little girl. He is a healer. The girl is very ill; she has a congenital disease - "cleft lip". The healer looks at her. He can heal her. He asks her to open her mouth. The girl's lip and palate are cut. It looks scary. The girl is about 5. But the girl's mother does not trust him. Years go by. The girl has grown into a beautiful girl. There are not even signs of her illness. Meeting again. There is some kind of interaction with the Healer, but his image is not clear.

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