When “splitting” occurs in the group

Abstract

The mechanism of splitting, not included in the specific and basic list of defenses that A. Freud originally prepared, has received much attention in recent years. Its nature and importance came to our attention through the observations of M. Klein (1957) and her school. To divide things up, so to speak, either by separating out different aspects of one and the same person and placing them in different pigeon holes marked either or bad, or to split an aggregate of people, say, a family, a community, a nation, or some other collective, into friend and fiend sections are some ways the splitting device works. There are other ways to split, and the process serves various though related functions, which promise slightly different gains. But the essential and ultimate purpose is the protection of a state of infantile and primitive omnipotence (Kernberg, 1974). Especially pertinent to group psychotherapy is that form of splitting that consists of certain interpersonal arrangements and alliances that enlist actually or hopefully the good will of one group sector. The motivation, as stated, is to continue the experience of being loved without intermission and vacillation and to continue the narcissistic illusion that Freud