Episode 2.2: The Ultimate Superpower – Projective Identification
From the gym to the boardroom to the nursery, human beings are always interacting; and always dealing with each other's psychological baggage. (Except for infants, who are the only humans with no baggage.) Especially when things get tense, knowing what we bring to the table, versus what the other person is putting on us, can be mysterious.
Projective identification is the key to solving this mystery. This is where the most powerful magic of psychoanalysis resides. Like a "Patronus" charm, or substitutiary locomotion, Projective Identification is a spell that requires skill and study. But used well, it can rescue us from the most treacherous of emotional entanglements.
Melanie Klein's work is elaborated by the "Intersubjectivists" and the "Baby Watchers," and we go from German Idealism to Ancient Indian philosophy to Quantum Physics so that we can understand the very real phenomenon that may as well be ESP.