**🔼 Up:** [[Defence Mechanisms]] **\#️⃣ Tags:** #Psychology #DefenceMechanism > **🌱 Planted:** Mon 20 January 2025 --- ***Identification is the act of taking on someone else's identity as if it were your own***. Identification is a [[Defence Mechanisms|Defence Mechanism]] in which a person not only internalises the beliefs, behaviours, attitudes or values of someone else, but also begins to take on the other's (the [[Projection|Projector]]'s) identity as if it were their own. It is one of the core processes in [[Projective Identification|Projective Identification]]. It is similar to [[Introjection|Introjection]], except it goes a step further where one's self-concept is actually altered to align with the person whom which they are identifying with. In this way, [[Introjection|Introjection]] and identification can be better viewed as a continuum, because Introjection often leads to Identification over time. A child who gets bullied at school, for example, might [[Introjection|Introject]] the bully's behaviour and mimic their actions to avoid being further bullied as a defensive strategy, but over time this can turn into identification where the child will start to see and experience themselves exactly like the bully. Later, they even might start to bully others as a result too. Another example might be a child who is repeatedly told by their family that they are bad, aggressive and manipulative, hears this so much that after [[Introjection|Introjecting]] these beliefs, begins to identify and view themselves with this [[Self-Concept]]. Then, they may actually start to become bad, aggressive and manipulative in a bid to act out against the false narrative which others have placed upon them.