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The [[notion ]] of the identificatory [[project ]] was proposed by Piera Aulagnier to account for the I's (the perceived [[self]]'s) [[work ]] of identification as a function of [[future ]] time. In <i>The [[Violence ]] of [[Interpretation]]: From Pictogram to [[Statement]]</i> (1975), Aulagnier defined the identificatory project as "that continuous self-[[construction ]] of the I by the I that is necessary if that [[agency ]] is to be able to project itself into a [[temporal ]] movement, a [[projection ]] on which the I's very [[existence ]] depends" (p. 114). The temporal [[dimension ]] that is projected onto both the [[past ]] of [[memory ]] (in auto-historization) and the imagined future (in the identificatory project) is the basis for the I's ability to respond in its own [[name ]] to the unavoidable questions that sum up the identification [[process]]: "Who am I?" and "What must the I become?"Aulagnier's [[theory ]] of identification owes a great deal to Jacques [[Lacan]]. For her, it is the [[mother ]] who initially [[identifies ]] the preverbal [[infant ]] as the entity that [[demands ]] what she gives; because of this, the infant depends upon the [[maternal ]] [[imaginary]]. But at the same time, the infant self-represents itself based on the "pictographic [[representation]]" it has of its earliest experiences of [[pleasure]]. The second [[phase ]] of identification, which follows this primary period, is [[specular ]] identification (the [[mirror ]] [[stage]]). In Lacan's theorization, this stage shapes the function of the I and establishes [[the imaginary ]] [[register ]] as the locus of the ego's identifications ("The Mirror [[State ]] As Formative of the Function of the I As Revealed in [[Psychoanalytic ]] [[Experience]]" [1949/2004]). For her part, Aulagnier emphasized that after the young [[child ]] recognizes the [[image ]] in the mirror as [[being ]] its own, it turns toward his mother seeking approval in her [[gaze]]; this enables the child to see in the mirror "the junction between the image and the legend" (p. 124). In these [[conditions]], [[object]]-[[libido ]] and ego-libido are joined together; the [[baby ]] discovers in the image the entity whose [[presence ]] brings pleasure to the mother and in turn derives pleasure from the valorization of this image that he [[knows ]] to be his own. Hence the definition that Aulagnier proposed with [[regard ]] to the second phase of identification: "To be like the image that [[others ]] admire or to be like the image admired by those whom the I admires are the two formulations that the [[narcissistic ]] [[wish ]] borrows from the field of identifications" (p. 126).With the notion of "identification with the projection" ([[1968]]/1986), which in <i>The Violence of Interpretation</i> became the "identificatory project," a fundamental [[change ]] took [[place]]. The immediacy of the [[exchange ]] of care, contact, and gazes was succeeded by the temporal distance of the project(ion) referring to a time in the future. However, the possibility of access to the dimension of a genuine future (one that is not merely a coming reactualization of the past) is not automatic, and it is the trial of [[castration ]] that gives the [[subject ]] such access.Aulagnier likened what she calls the identificatory project to what [[Freud ]] called "ego ideals." She also underscored its difficulty: "The I's task is to become capable of [[thinking ]] its own [[temporality]]. To do this it must [[think]], anticipate, and invest in a future time-[[space]], despite the fact that lived experience will quickly reveal that in doing so, the I is investing not only in the unforeseeable, but also in a time that it might not even have to live. In [[other ]] [[words]], the I is cathecting an 'object' and a '[[goal]]' that possess the properties that it most abhors: precariousness, unpredictability, and the possibility of inadequacy."In the "something less" borne in the [[present]], by comparison with the [[ideal]]-filled future, Aulagnier proposed in <i>The Violence of Interpretation</i> to see "the assumption of the castration trial in the identificatory register" (p. 116), [[meaning ]] that the I will never coincide with its ideal in the present of a realization, but instead will always project it forward in time. The identificatory register can thus be seen to be indissociable from the [[libidinal ]] register, because a representation of the [[desiring ]] subject always [[figures ]] there. Being, or rather, [[knowing ]] who one is, is essentially knowing who one wants to become. This opens the way for extending these [[ideas ]] into [[clinical ]] [[practice]], not only with regard to [[psychosis]], but in other areas ranging from geriatric [[depression ]] to adolescent turmoil.

# [[Lacan, Jacques]]. (2004). The mirror state as formative of the function of the I as revealed in psychoanalytic experience. InÉcrits: A selection ([[Bruce Fink]], Trans., pp. 3-9). New York: W. W. Norton. (Original work published 1949)# Mijolla-Mellor, Sophie de. (1998). Penser la [[psychose]]. Une lecture de Piera Aulagnier. [[Paris]]: Dunod.