How we become different (or not) to our parents. The Role of Disidentification in the Growth and/or Stifling of Personality Evolution. (original) (raw)

Although the unconscious processes that comprise identification remain a theoretical cornerstone of personality development and of psychoanalysis, relatively little has been said about the process of dis-identification; whereby we relinquish important identifications, in order to change and to grow. This paper explores the different psychological climates that prompt dis-identification, sometimes in the service of growth, or sometimes as a denial of dependence and an enactment of unconscious envy. It is argued that a disidentification prompted by a move to internalize the combined parental couple will require that identifications with ...