Identification with the Aggressor


Identification with the Aggressor is one of the forms of identification conceptualized by psychoanalysis. Specifically, it is a defence mechanism that indicates taking the role of the aggressor and his functional attributes, or imitating his aggressive and behavioral modality.

History

The concept was first introduced by Sándor Ferenczi in his clinical diary on 24 June 1932 and then he developed it in his paper "The Passions of Adults and their Influence on the Development of the Character and the Sexuality of the Child" for the 12th International Psycho-Analytic Congress in Wiesbaden, Germany, on 4 September 1932. He further elaborated this work until he published it in 1949 in The International Journal of Psychoanalysis with the new title "Confusion of the Tongues Between the Adults and the Child—". In 1936, Anna Freud took up and developed the concept in her book The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence.

In art