Identification with the Aggressor () is one of the forms of identification conceptualized by psychoanalysis. Specifically, it is a defence mechanism that designates the assumption of the role of the aggressor and their functional attributes or the imitation of their aggressive and behavioral mode, when a psychological trauma poses the hopeless dilemma of being a victim or an abuser. First edition. This theoretical construct is also defined as a process of coping with mental distress or as a particular case of zero-sum game.
History The concept was first introduced by Sándor Ferenczi in his clinical diary in June 1932 First edition. and then developed in his paper "The Passions of Adults and their Influence on the Development of the Character and the Sexuality of the Child" () First edition. for the 12th International Psycho-Analytic Congress in Wiesbaden, Germany, in 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—(The Language of Tenderness and of Passion)". First edition. In 1936, Anna Freud took up and developed the concept in her book The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence (). Die Identifizierung mit dem Angreifer.
Further research
The experiment conducted in 1963 by Elliot Aronson and J. Merrill Carlsmith on the forbidden toy seems to endorse such a hypothesis and therefore this type of dynamic: one attributes oneself a mutilation of one's own desire in order to perceive oneself as autarkic, independent and not submissive.
In 2019, Yael Lahav, Anat Talmon, and Karni Ginzburg developed the Identification With the Aggressor Scale (IAS), a self-reported questionnaire that assesses identification with the aggressor based on the theory of Sándor Ferenczi. Utilizing the IAS, various quantitative studies among survivors of child abuse and intimate partner violence have documented the phenomenon of identification with the aggressor and revealed its negative implications for survivors' well-being. These implications include dissociation, self-injurious behavior, urges to harm others, violent acts toward others, suicidal ideation and behavior, willingness to return to an abusive relationship, eating disorders, feelings of guilt, sexual re-victimization, as well as PTSD and CPTSD.
See also Internalized oppression Masters of suspicion Repetition compulsion Self-deception Self-sabotage Cultural assimilation Conformity Wartime collaboration Quisling Learned helplessness Forced conversion Stockholm syndrome Ben Franklin effect#Converse Victim blaming Ragging Ponzi scheme
Proverbs More Irish than the Irish themselves Holier-than-thou More royalist than the king If you can't beat them, join them
In art Fight Club Heauton Timorumenos, Menander and Terence L'Héautontimorouménos, Charles Baudelaire Zombie apocalypse H. R. Giger Alien (franchise) "Mr. Self Destruct", Nine Inch Nails
References
Further reading