Unfortunately you do have to make a post explaining what introjection is and why its bad if you don’t support it /nm /gen
Hello, let's a get a few things straight.
1) I never claimed that introjection is bad, and I never said I don't support it. The initial post this anon is referring to involves me stating that holding onto the belief that you are a literal fictional character is anti-recovery rhetoric. Either the anon misunderstood my post, or they're twisting my words, the second of which I don't appreciate.
2) I am a nursing student and am currently employed at a disability office. I know what recovery should ideally look like and what it doesn't look like. Aside from that, people more qualified than me have studied this element of psychology, and there are plenty of resources out there explaining what I'm talking about.
But since you and the original post author asked, and since I'm running on 26 hours of no sleep and don't care to wait for the morning to make this post, you'll get my explanation now. Apologies in advance if my tone sounds rude or aggressive. I don't mean to be, and again, lack of sleep may affect my tone. I'll maybe edit this after I sleep to sound nicer. Who knows.
Introjection, as defined by the APA (American Psychological Association), is "a process in which an individual unconsciously incorporates aspects of external reality into the self, particularly the attitudes, values, and qualities of another person or a part of another person's personality."
Introjection is something every single human on this planet will do, even outside of dissociation. Cultural values are a good example. If you primarily grow up in a Latin American household, you may introject traditional family values, the same values your parents may display. The same goes for any culture and their own values. This occurs with fictional characters as well. Ever watch a TV show and you suddenly start using your favorite character's vocabulary? That's also introjection.
In dissociative patients, particularly those with a complex dissociative disorder, introjection is commonly found with abuser introjects. These introjects often take the form of persecutors. Here's a screen grab from The Haunted Self:
"Without the ability to mentalize perpetrators, to create symbolic representations, children may "take in," introject, the "bad" object of the perpetrators. Thus, as EPs they claim they are the abuser, and not the abused, and have the affects and behaviors of a perpetrator to varying degrees."
These introjects serve as coping mechanisms, as do all alters within a dissociative system. With these particular alters, the brain creates them to build a barrier between it and the abuse. An internal thought process may be, "if I commit violence against myself, then I'm not really being hurt because I'm doing it by choice." Various thought processes similar to the one I just outlined are used as justification for the internal abuse. Children direct blame towards themselves rather than the perpetrators because they're often told the fault of the abuse belongs to them by their abusers or even by others. To protect the child, persecutory abuser introjects may form to direct the abuse inwards as a way to make sure they're "actually at fault." Introjects are largely used to cover up an internal struggle or trauma within the self.
Fictional introjects are no exception. The thought process for introjecting a fictional character may be, "if I am [character], then the abuse never *actually* happened to *me.*" The brain may see a character that has gone through something similar to the body and grab onto said character as a defense mechanism for denial. This has been documented, however my hazy memory and 26 hours of no sleep is not a good way to hunt down the sources for this. This segment may be edited when I get some sleep.
Taking all of this into consideration, stating and believing that you are literally a fictional character feeds into the denial loop the traumatized brain has created. Denial is never a good ingredient for recovery. Recovery begins by facing what has happened to you and healing from it. Hiding behind denial prevents this process from happening. It prevents integration (the lowering of dissociative barriers), communication, and teamwork from occurring within the system, all of which are needed for healing. Hiding behind what is essentially a lie created by your brain does not help you, nor does it help your alters beside you.
I do understand that not everyone is ready to face the denial and challenege it, and thus saying/believing that you are literally a fictional character is what is keeping you alive at the moment, but the line has to be drawn when you start encouraging others to feed into the denial loop as well. Healing is done on one's own time, and spreading anti-recovery rhetoric removes that autonomy from others. I could visually see that spread in the reblogs.
That spread is the problem I had with the initial post. I never had a problem with the post being about introjection itself. My problem is that it is encouraging others to stunt their recovery when they may otherwise be ready.
Seeing posts similar to that initial post tends to prevent the process of looking inwards and figuring out what is needed in the individual. It encourages the process of looking outwards and only applying what is deemed "acceptable" within the community to oneself. I know that I personally only began to see myself and what I needed when I moved away from the community and stopped seeing anti-recovery posts. I'm sure I'm not alone in that regard.
@certified-silly-guy Here's that post! I don't have the energy to do back and forth reblog replies, so please DM if you have any questions.
