An update on primary identification, introjection, and empathy

Abstract

This paper tries to follow the historical development of the ideas related to the term “primary identification.” It is shown that Freud's thinking regarding primary identification was developed around the phenomenon of mass suggestion, which was explained using the concept of identification with the leader, “primary identification,” and Einfühlung. However, two false translations from Freud's German to English led to severe confusion in the subsequent literature. The most important one was that “Einfühlung” was translated as “empathy.” It is shown that Freud meant by Einfühlung something like affect contagion that was considered to be an inborn capacity to activate motoric patterns by just looking at the behavior of other human beings. This idea is a conceptual forerunner of mirror neurons. The activation of these is a prerequisite for empathy, but without separation between the self and the other, the attribution to which the feeling belongs is impossible. Kernberg, following Klein, uses the term “introjection” for the process of very early internalisations. We are proposing to discriminate interjections from identifications following Piaget's description of assimilation versus accommodation.

Keywords:

• identification
• introjection
• empathy
• mirror neurons