Rothstein as a Self and Object Freudian: Commentary on Paper by Arnold Rothstein

  • When we feel overwhelmed by an inescapable threat, we >identify with the aggressor< (Ferenczi, 1933). Hoping to survive, we sense and >become< precisely what the attacker expects of us – in our behavior, perceptions, emotions, and thoughts. Identification with the aggressor is closely coordinated with other responses to trauma, including dissociation. Over the long run, it can become habitual and can lead to masochism, chronic hypervigilance, and other personality distortions. But habitual identification with the aggressor also frequently occurs in people who have not suffered severe trauma, which raises the possibility that certain events not generally considered to constitute trauma are often experienced as traumatic. Following Ferenczi, I suggest that emotional abandonment or isolation, and being subject to a greater power, are such events. In addition, identification with the aggressor is a tactic typical of people in a weak position as such, it plays an important role in social interaction in general.

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Metadaten
Author:Jay Frankel
Parent Title (English):Psychoanalytic Dialogues Vol. 12 (2002), pp. 101-139.
Document Type:Articles
Language:English
Year of first Publication:2002
Release Date:2017/11/20
Format:xerox upon request / Fotokopie auf Anfrage
IdNo:Frankel_H_2002
Erich Fromm's Library and Erich Fromm Archive:Articles / Artikel
Licence (German):
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