Splitting and projective identification among healthier individuals.

This paper illustrates splitting and projective identification among people with normal and neurotic personality organizations. Adding these concepts to the repertoire of analytically oriented psychotherapists does not replace previous theories but adds to them. This approach can be integrated with drive theory and ego psychology in practice, or can be used to supplement the approaches of cognitive or interpersonal therapists. Not only borderline patients, but all of us, continually need to define and re-define ourselves in relation to others as we grow and change. The concepts of splitting and projective identification can help when that growth process becomes stymied.