L’ombra dell’eredità: lost and found

The Shadow of Heritage: Lost and Found... When speaking of the influence of past experiences on the present, we might individuate three pathways, tightly interwoven with each other, within which the shadow of the past may transit through the psychic apparatus. An intrapsychic pathway starting from early experiential traces in quest of meaning; an intersubjective interplay that gives the imprint to either structuring or traumatizing inter-generational or trans-generational transmission; and, finally the institutionalized transmission of our discipline and practice since Freud discovered and formulated it. The Author discusses questions related to the conceptualization of identification in relation to psychic organization, to the different definitions of superego introjects and internal objects as well as to the quality of the objects that cast their shadow on the ego. Primary and secondary identifications as well as its metapsychological place are relevant to the understanding of ideals and idealization from the perspective of transmission and the formation of ego and superego boundaries;

Jacqueline Amati Mehler, L’ombra dell’eredità: lost and found in "PSICOANALISI" 1/2008, pp 5-25, DOI: