What do you know about infant splitting?

MamaKate

In addition to Can't Stop Linny G.'s answer...

... "splitting" is a psychological term used to describe a natural defense mechanism. (You may also want to research the term, "Protective Identification" as it relates to psychology.) This is all part of the "primal wound" theory.

It should also be noted that "splitting" and "protective identification" have been linked to "hatred as a defense mechanism" when not properly addressed and have been considered as a factor in such things as racial issues, religious intolerance and other "extreme view points". This could be one reason an adoptee may have extreme views towards certain people. For example: Fear/hatred towards social workers or FPs of whom they have no personal knowledge.

"Individuals who have not achieved object constancy /object permanence still relate to reality using the defensive of splitting. They are unable the identify the feelings of others and view them objectively.

An infant fears that once mother is out-of-sight, she is destroyed, not having the capacity to visualize a permanent image of her."

"Splitting is a defense mechanism that infants and toddlers use to ward off unacceptable anxieties. It is unacceptable to a toddler to withstand unbearable anxiety and as a result, the toddler will split-off what causes the anxiety. A child may be want to be independent but at the same time experience feelings of dependence on the same person. This conflict is unacceptable and the toddler cries in psychic pain from the crisis. On the other hand if a fixated toddler continues to split-off the anxiety caused from the need to be independent, then a chronic dependence would out flank any strivings to become an individual."

http://www.strategypage.com/militaryforums/12-4812.aspx
http://www.toddlertime.com/mh/terms/splitting.htm

"objects can become separated and compartmentalized within the mind. When these internal objects become separated, and one object is not communicating with another object, then we call this â€˜splittingâ€™. In other words, the object relationship was split up and fragmented into areas of the mind that do not talk to each other. Lets look at how you would be able to observe if someone is suffering from internal fragmentation. For example, have you ever met anyone that can put you on top of the world one moment and then completely devalue you then next moment? Ever notice how some people cannot see a person as a â€˜whole continuous personâ€™ but rather as devils or as angels? Ever notice how some individuals have all the information but cannot make a rational statement? Itâ€™s because the mind is fragmented and the internal object relations are â€˜splitâ€™ into different compartments. "

"The factor of adoption played a consistently important role in the genesis and perpetuation of the given
symptom picture. Two major hypotheses were suggested for the higher incidence of psychological disturbances in the adoptee. Firstly the adoptee may intra-physically continue a split between good and bad in his infantile object relations, since in reality he has two sets of parents. Secondly, the adoptive parent is often confused in his or her role due to unconscious guilts and hostilities and tends to project this disturbance backward into the heredity of the child i.e. the natural parents. "

http://www.adoptioncrossroads.org/what_they_knew_&_didn%27t_tell_us.html
http://www.adoptiontriad.org/primal.htm
http://www.birthpsychology.com/birthscene/adoption4.html
http://www.toddlertime.com/dx/borderline/psych-101.htm#Splitting_
http://www.radicalpsychology.org/vol7-1/semmel.html
http://www.saintmichael.net/articles/articles_hatred.htm

cantstopLinnyG

Many adoption counselors talk about "splitting" . It is a survival instinct for an infant who has been traumatized due to being separated from his or her first Mother.

They build up a wall of sorts, and make it hard for people to get close, for fear of being hurt again.

Some premature babies also do this, when they are kept in incubators and are not able to be held as much as they would be if they were full term. That is why doctors now encourage preemies to be held as much as possible by their mothers.

http://www.nancyverrier.com/pos.php

http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:yXW6xMmXK8YJ:www.luc.edu/socialwork/praxis/pdfs/vol4_chapter4.pdf+adoptees+splitting&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=safari

http://www.terrylarimore.com/PrimalWound.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1544302

Lori A

Not sure I understand as I have never heard of infant splitting. If you are talking about separation anxiety then it is based on being with one mother for 9 months, knowing her voice, heart beat, smell, etc... and then being removed from her and delivered to people who are strangers at first. They have to depend on adults or older people for they food, shelter, safety and security. That is shattered when it is not the only person they have ever known. An unborn child feels safe, secure with his/her mother, to remove that familiarity is frightening.

kitta

Newborns know their natural mothers right from birth. They will cry when taken from their mothers (by hospital nurses for example), and they will stop crying when they are returned to their mothers.

The natural mother means security to the newborn...life, food, warmth, comfort, safety.

To deprive the newborn of mother, produces anxiety and fear, and stress.

realmom lese

A good book that touches on this subject:

Lost and Found by Betty Jean Lifton

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