which she is having trouble. Identification with the Aggressor: Adopting the traits or mannerisms of a … he eventually got into trouble with the law. His first contact with the police did not result in formal … he might play with the other children. When Kevin's family had to cancel a visit with the psychologist

Ferenczi's concept of identification with the aggressor: understanding dissociative structure with interacting victim and abuser self-states - PubMed Save Email Send to Display options Cite Display options ## Abstract No one has described more passionately than Ferenczi the traumatic induction of dissociative trance with its resulting fragmentation of the personality. Ferenczi introduced the concept and term, identification with the aggressor in his seminal "Confusion of Tongues" paper, in which he described how the abused child becomes transfixed and robbed of his senses. Having been traumatically overwhelmed, the child becomes hypnotically transfixed by the aggressor's wishes and behavior, automatically identifying by mimicry rather than by a purposeful identification with the aggressor's role. To expand upon Ferenczi's observations, identification with the aggressor can be understood as a two-stage process. The first stage is automatic and initiated by trauma, but the second stage is defensive and purposeful. While identification with the aggressor begins as an automatic organismic process, with repeated activation and use, gradually it becomes a defensive proce