Abstract
Working through the different faces and vicissitudes of the death drive in the countertransference, and especially through projective identification, is a very challenging process. A thorough and versatile process of containment and working through of the manifold threatening expressions and influ-ences of the death drive is required, experienced most specifi-cally and deeply in the arena of projective identification. This paper demonstrates how each aspect that unfolds in the ana-lyst’s countertransference sheds light on a particular layer of anxiety and internal object relations related to it. The creation of a new meaning to the differing expressions of the death drive gradually lessens the compulsion to repeat and enables a better integration between the life and death drives. This process will be illustrated by a prolonged clinical case that in-volved intense internal working through of the death drive in the analyst’s countertransference.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 79-108 |
Number of pages | 30 |
Journal | Psychoanalytic Review |
Volume | 110 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2023 N.P.A.P.
Keywords
- Melanie Klein
- countertransference
- death drive
- projective identification
- transference
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Medicine