Re:dnms and dissociation

There are many possible ways a self system can develop - usually the "front" part of the self is the "face that meets the faces", and is more like a store-front or porch, with the inner dynamics being like the internal rooms. Yes indeed, the front part can distract, but we don't call it an introject. An introject is when an external person is sort of swallowed whole in the mind's eye, or rather, that a part of the child's self adopts the persona or "costume" of an external person.

Introjection is normal. We all have introjects of key people in our lives and those introjects "speak" to us even though they may be long gone. They live on in our heads. The problem introjects are the internal clones of external people who were malignant forces inthe child's life. Then, it is as if the child gets a toxic injection of the external person. There are many reasons this occurs, psychodynamically, including but not limited to: keeping the child in line by internal reprimands, which may decrease the external ones; maintaining some level of attachment, even if it is only a crouton of love the child got from that person; wish fulfillment, if the child manages to idealize the person, as in, "my Mommy is a great lady," and more which escape me right now.

So a front part of self is only an introject when the kaleidoscope is turned that way, that is, when the part of the self system that is the introject is facing forward. Said another way, it is when the environment pulls for the state dependent learning that is associated with that introjected role. Or, you could say, when the environment pulls for the person to act the way their Mom would (for example).

Well, that's a partial explanation, More would be helpful, but I've got to quit here for now.

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