Identification

1. Etymology

Identification names a psychological process in which the personality is partially or totally dissimilated. Related: identity (unconscious conformity); participation-mystique; projection; introjection.

2. Plain summary

Unconscious identity between subject and object grounds identification, projection, and introjection—and the naïve assumption that everyone shares one’s motives and morals. Identification aids early adaptation; later it hinders individuality. Identifying with the father means adopting his ways as if one were him—unconscious imitation, not conscious copying. When a better path appears, identification becomes morbid and dissociative.

Identifying with a complex (as possession) often feeds neurosis; so does identifying with a one-sided “truth.” The ego keeps integrity only by not identifying with one opposite and holding balance—conscious of both. Samuels: unconscious projection of personality onto person, cause, or figure; extreme form → identity or inflation; identification with the analyst precludes individuation if total.

Examples (exhaustive house list for this Index lemma — common identification motifs named across Jung’s essays and standard Jungian lexica; not a claim that Jung’s CW contains only these):
partial/total dissimilation; vs imitation (unconscious vs conscious); early help / later hindrance; father-identification; dissociative split; complex possession; one-sided truth catastrophe; balance of opposites; kinship with projection / participation-mystique; inflation risk.

3. Academic elucidation

In analytical psychology identification is unconscious conformity-process—Definitions and Nature of the Psyche territory. Descent Press keeps Sharp and Samuels in §4. §5 holds sample CW stamps at CW 6 ¶738; CW 8 ¶425. Prefer CW 6 ¶¶738, 742; CW 8 ¶425.

4. Lexicon

Sharp (1991)

Identification. A psychological process in which the personality is partially or totally dissimilated. … Identification differs from imitation in that it is an unconscious imitation… Identification with a complex (experienced as possession) is a frequent source of neurosis… The ego keeps its integrity only if it does not identify with one of the opposites…

(Sharp, 1991) — cites CW 6 ¶¶738, 742; CW 8 ¶425 in Sharp’s lemma.

Samuels, Shorter & Plaut (1986) — identification p. 69

identification An UNCONSCIOUS PROJECTION of one’s personality onto that of another… Identification is an important part of normal DEVELOPMENT. In extreme form… IDENTITY or… INFLATION. Identification with another person, say an analyst, does by definition preclude individuation…

(Samuels, Shorter, & Plaut, 1986, p. 69)

5. CW concordance — sample, not exhaustive

IDENTIFICATION. By this I mean a psychological process in which the personality is partially or totally dissimilated… Identification is an alienation of the subject from himself for the sake of the object, in which he is, so to speak, disguised. For example, identification with the father means, in practice, adopting all the father’s ways of behaving, as though the son were the same as the father and not a separate individuality. Identification differs from imitation in that it is an unconscious imitation, whereas imitation is a conscious copying… when a better possibility presents itself, identification shows its morbid character by becoming just as great a hindrance as it was an unconscious help and support before. It now has a dissociative effect…
(Jung, 1921/1971, CW 6, pp. 609–610, ¶738)

If the subjective consciousness prefers the ideas and opinions of collective consciousness and identifies with them, then the contents of the collective unconscious are repressed… The ego keeps its integrity only if it does not identify with one of the opposites, and if it understands how to hold the balance between them.
(Jung, 1947/1969, CW 8, pp. 284–285, ¶425)

See also: projection; participation-mystique; inflation; ego; complex; individuation; opposites; persona.

References

Jung, C. G. (1969). On the nature of the psyche. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (2nd ed., Vol. 8, pp. 284–285, ¶425). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1947)

Jung, C. G. (1971). Psychological types [Definitions]. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (Vol. 6, pp. 609–610, ¶738). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1921)

Samuels, A., Shorter, B., & Plaut, F. (1986). A critical dictionary of Jungian analysis. Routledge.

Sharp, D. (1991). Jung lexicon: A primer of terms & concepts. Inner City Books.