Primitive Mental States Explained

Splitting As Precursor to Projective Identification (Vol. 1, Issue 32)

The potential violence of projective identifications, explored in last week’s issue, transitions nicely into a detailed discussion of splitting—the other primitive defense mechanism.

It is not clear that splitting literally occurs as a precursor.

Perhaps both primitive defense mechanisms emerge spontaneously, in parallel?

In any event, here is the logic: