Identificatory Channels in Psychosis: Mimicry as Adhesion and Mockery as Differentiation

Tillman, J.G. Identificatory Channels in Psychosis: Mimicry as Adhesion and Mockery as Differentiation. In J.P. Muller & J.G. Tillman (Eds.), The Embodied Subject: Minding the Body in Psychoanalysis (pp. 67-80). Lanham, MD: The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

Tillman examines the developmental trajectories of mimicry and mockery, using an extended clinical case report of intensive treatment of a patient with schizophrenia, and a review of salient aspects of the literature on these constructs. Mimicry and mockery are within the repertoire of social behavior in normal and psychopathological development--they exist on a continuum, involving expressive use of bodily activity. The setting for [the clinical experience] is a small psychiatric hospital devoted to the study and treatment of severe psychopathology.

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