I am glad you are reading about our theory. I think as you continue your reading on this site as well as in the case conference site, you will see that there are some similarities with other contemporary theories, but many, many differences. Projective identification for example is a complex term. The concept of projective identification is a Kleinian and Bionion term that has been around for a long time. It was first introduced by Klein in 1946 and later elaborated by Balint in 1952, and in 1968, Rosenfield in 1952, 1954 and 1971, and Bion in 1959. Ogden brought it into the popular American psychoanalytic culture in 1982. Weiss is the only person I have seen who used it to refer to an intentional interaction, for the purpose of mastery, (even if unconscious), where a patient wants to show you something that he or she can not find the words to tell you. The purpose is so that you can help them deal with a trauma. This is very different idea than an attempt to get rid of the feelings or destroy an object you are envious of. Weiss' theory posits that the patient wants to get better and is trying to do so through a variety of strange actions such as showing you in action what was wrong in their early experiences. People often ask if Passive into Active was a Freudian term. Freud first used the term passive into active in 1920 in Beyond the Pleasure Principle (p35). There he introduces the compulsion to repeat unpleasant actions in order to master actively an experience that previously was passively endured. Freud returns to this concept in 1926 in the Addenda of Inhibitions, Symptoms, and Anxiety, (p 167) where he summarizes the adaptive sequence of signal anxiety. In this action the ego is warned of a danger, and fears helplessness. This promotes the ego to reactive actively to overt the feared course of traumatic experience. Freud believed that changing from passively experiencing a traumatic event to actively controlling the action would allow a child "to master their experience psychically." This concept has also been linked to the concept of identification with the aggressor. Rangel also used the concept of trial by action in '68. Again the main important technical difference is whether you believe that a patient will want to remember (either through thoughts or actions) in order to work through his or her traumas as Weiss does (and Freud did some of the time in some of his writings), and that patients come into treatment planning to do just that. The testing concept refers to learning how to handle traumatic experience, and acquire through identification with the therapist, new ego strengths, which will help you deal with future trauma. The expectation creates a different type of therapeutic relationship in which resistance has a different meaning.
There are three main ways that this concept has been used. One of the ways the term has been used is the idea that one is getting rid of feelings that are unpleasant. Another use emphasizes the creation of the feelings in another in such a way that the other experiences the unwanted feelings. Some do not believe that you have to actually receive the feelings for this to be happening which seemed like simple projection to me? Some see it as an aggressive act intended to destroy. Ogden (and others) also used the term as a form of communication between the therapist and patient. Betty Joseph in 1987 offered the possibility that it can be used (whether or not intended) as a way to understand your patient's communication.
SO INANSWER TO YOUR QIESTION THERE ARE SOME VERY IMPORTNT TECHNICAL DIFFERENCE! Please ask more!
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