The Seba library treats Moral Splitting in 7 passages, across 5 authors (including Jung, Carl Gustav, Neumann, Erich, Klein, Melanie).
it seems as if the development of the feeling function in Western man forced a choice on him which led to the moral splitting of the div
Jung identifies moral splitting as a specifically Western civilisational achievement, precipitated by the development of feeling and crystallised in the Christian separation of an exclusively good God from an exclusively evil Devil.
, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, 1959thesis
identification with the ethical values, formation of a facade personality and repression into the shadow side of all personality components inconsistent with those values
Neumann traces the social mechanism by which collective moral ideals enforce repression of incompatible psychic contents into the shadow, producing the split between acceptable persona and disowned shadow that moral splitting institutionalises.
, Depth Psychology and a New Ethic, 1949supporting
the ego is incapable of splitting the object — internal and external — without a corresponding splitting taking place within the ego
Klein articulates the structural logic of splitting: any division of the object into good and bad halves entails a parallel division within the ego itself, establishing moral splitting as a pervasive developmental and defensive operation.
, Envy and Gratitude and Other Works 1946-1963, 1957supporting
a new era is opened in the understanding of schizophrenia … schizoid mechanisms, which result in states of schizophrenic dissociation
The editorial note situates Klein’s paranoid-schizoid position as the theoretical framework within which splitting — including its moral valence — is the foundational early-ego defence.
, Envy and Gratitude and Other Works 1946-1963, 1957supporting
as his splitting resolved, and as he owned and integrated his aggression his chronic fearfulness greatly diminished. Disowned and disavowed aggression and anger are often a significant hidden source of chronic fear.
Heller demonstrates clinically that the resolution of splitting — including the moral splitting that condemns aggression as bad — reduces chronic anxiety and restores the capacity for self-expression.
, Healing Developmental Trauma How Early Trauma Affectssupporting
PTSD and substance abuse are rare among psychological disorders in that both are marked by ‘splitting.’ That is, one’s internal world may have different states of consciousness that arise at different times.
Najavits maps splitting onto dissociative states in trauma and addiction, extending the concept beyond its strictly moral register into the clinical domain of self-discontinuity.
, Seeking Safety: A Treatment Manual for PTSD and Substance Abuse, 2002aside
constitutional differences in endowment and in capacity for development in general and for the development of consciousness in particular may cover an extremely wide span
Neumann contextualises the uneven developmental grounds on which moral splitting takes different forms across individuals, families, and collectivities.
, Depth Psychology and a New Ethic, 1949aside