Reply to Stuart...Brian polishing his mirrors

• Projective Identification by Philip Brownell, 11/15/96
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    • Projective Invokiation by Stuart Stawman, 1/29/97
      
      

Let me respond to your posting as a case in point. When you say "projective invokiation", I can imagine you mean that I am projecting my own over-emphasis on theory unto you and/or the other people writing in this thread and responding with a need to scratch. I can accept that as possible. Yet I also know that this may not be true... or this may not be what you mean.

Let me propose a number of senarios

If this IS what you mean (and you ARE NOT projecting ) and I HAVE NOT been projecting, but I nonetheless accept what you have said and see this as true of me and say "yeh I have projected" then I am exhibiting introjection, and you are mistaken....

If this IS what you mean (and you ARE NOT projecting ) and I HAVE been projecting and I accept this then voila....awareness.... you are seeing me and I learn about me .... contact

If this IS what you mean (and you ARE projecting ) and I HAVE NOT been projecting and I ACCEPT this, then this is maybe termed projective identification on my part and projection on yours.... also you are mistaken.

If this IS what you mean (and you ARE projecting) and I HAVE been projecting also, and I then accept your projection.... what can I call this process?

(I have posted a table in the next posting to this one, which I hope gives a pictorial simplicity to these rather convoluted options.)

There a number of variations on this theme to where I indentify with a projection from you, made in response to a projection from me and having introjected a projection (projective identification) I might then retroflect to myself, which you then identify with and project your own retroflection unto this and then respond to me from your projecting of a retroflection caused by projective identification....

This is what I mean by mirrors within mirrors.

As I (and gestalt theory) is also informed by phenomenology, I return to the fact? (proof?) that I do not know what you mean by "projective invokiation" and I have the potential to imagine many various possibilities and theoretical constructs (as per the quote by C.S. Lewis). My own sense of balance to these myriads of "maybe's", is that I do not know what you mean by projective invokiation but I know you wrote it.

Brian

• Table by Brian O'Neill, 1/30/97