Ego States and Projective Identification: A Six-Stage Relational Methodology

Abstract

This article presents a two-part framework to support relational transactional analysis practitioners in understanding and working through projective identification in clinical practice. It begins with a brief description of projective identification as communication and emotional regulation, including how it may be understood as part of a two-person psychology. The models presented are supported by diagrams illustrating intrapsychic and interpersonal dynamics as well as by clinical vignettes. The framework is applied to examples of negative and positive transference.

Keywords:

• Projective identification
• gestalt
• enactment
• transactional analysis
• relational
• bad object
• transference
• countertransference

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Charlotte Sills and Robert Brodrick for their insightful reflections, editing, and feedback on earlier versions of this paper.

Disclosure Statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes on contributors

Alistair Berlin

Alistair Berlin, Provisional Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst (psychotherapy), is a psychotherapist and supervisor in London, United Kingdom. He can be reached at Apartment 509, Astra House, 23–25 Arklow Road, London, SE14 6BY, United Kingdom; email: [email protected].

Megan Berlin

Megan Berlin, is a gestalt psychotherapist in London, United Kingdom. She can be reached at Apartment 509, Astra House, 23–25 Arklow Road, London, SE14 6BY, United Kingdom; email: [email protected].