A Model for Brief Intervention with Couples Based on Projective Identification
STANLEY I. GREENSPAN M.D.1, and
FORTUNE V. MANNINO PH.D.2
1 Deputy Director, Mental Health Study Center, National Institute of Mental Health, 2340 University Blvd. East, Adelphi. Md. 20783
2 Psychiatric Social Consultant, Mental Health Study Center, National Institute of Mental Health, 2340 University Blvd. East, Adelphi. Md. 20783
Projective identification is a mechanism that has been described by many observers from different perspectives in a variety of settings. It has been most frequently associated with rather disturbed families as an interpersonal mechanism involved in distorted perceptions, identifications, and communication. The authors illustrate how this mechanism manifests itself in couples with relatively intact, although neurotic, personality organizations and how it interferes with their capacity to resolve problems and experience joint interpersonal growth. They suggest that a short-term treatment approach with such couples may usefully organize itself around the identification and correction of the perceptual distortions involved in projective identification.
