User:Jacobisq/Splitting, Vertical and Horizontal

Splitting, horizontal and vertical
Heinz Kohut has emphasised in his Self psychology the distinction between horizontal and vertical forms of splitting. Traditional psychoanalysis saw repression as forming a horizontal barrier between different levels of the mind - so that for example an unpleasnt truth might be accepted superficially but denied in a deeper part of the psyche. Kohut contrasted with this vertical fractures of the mind into two parts with incompatible attitudes separated by mutual disavowal.