Projective identification, countertransference, and hospital treatment.

The principal purpose of this article is to illustrate the pivotal function of projective identification within the therapeutic milieu of the hospital. A detailed description of crises in the treatment of two patients undergoing long-term inpatient psychiatric treatment is given. These patients suffered from very different psychiatric illnesses; hence, their cases illustrate some features of hospital treatment that cut across different types and degrees of severity of psychopathology.