Mirroring, imitation, identification: the sense of self in relation to the mother's internal world

Abstract

The phenomenon of neonatal imitation, and the use of mutual imitation by mother and baby in the service of attunement, are considered in relation to psychoanalytic theories of mirroring, imitation and identification. Material from infant observation and from the treatment of two children on the autistic spectrum is discussed in terms of the suggestion that developmental imitation implies a perceived position of balance between the external baby and the mother's supposed internal occupant. This is seen as making possible introjective identification and assimilation, with the enrichment of the sense of identity, in contrast to the kind of imitation involving mimicry, in which adhesive or projective identification may be operative.

Keywords:

• Autism
• eye contact
• identification
• imitation
• internal object
• introjection
• mirroring

Notes

An earlier version of this paper was read at a Tavistock Clinic Scientific Meeting, London, 9 February 2004. I am grateful for points raised in the discussion, and for comments by Cathy Urwin, Linda Dawson, Pamela Bartram and Hilary Dawson.

Point-light displays attached to the joints of people enacting a variety of emotions were presented to children with autism and to matched controls. The controls named the emotion conveyed, whereas the children with autism tended to describe the physical movements.

This material was previously published in Rhode (2003).

An extensive experimental literature exists concerning mirror-recognition and its implications, in children both with and without autism, consideration of which is beyond the scope of this paper (e.g. Zazzo, 1995). I am grateful to Anna Burhouse for introducing me to Stefanik and Balazs (1995).

Dyadic entrapment quintessentially occurs in the absence of the Oedipal father, as formulated for instance in Hamilton's (1982) discussion of Narcissus as an adolescent who cannot achieve autonomy from an unhelpfully indulgent mother, or in Resnik's (2001: 11, and 56, note 13) concept of the père pontifex (the father whose function as a bridge both links the child to the mother and prevents engulfment by her).