Le vieil homme, l'analogon et l'objet identifiant

The identifying object is an object that in profane language would be called a “magic wand” or a “beacon object”, a situational benchmark that comes to the rescue when an adaptation that can not be found, an possesses transactional, motivational and communicational value. It is an object that obliges caregivers to think outside the classic boxes, and requires them, especially in dementia, to rethink psychological functioning. While it can illustrate magical thinking, it is not without symbolic effectiveness, bringing reassurance in the face of anxiety resulting from an unforeseen situation. In fact, it restores the time for a “talking interaction”, and the cognitive congruence of the communicating subject, especially in the exploration of a transitional space. In this regard, the identifying object has some points in common with Winnicott's transitional object, and with the floating object of the systematists. It essentially enables the initiation of meaningful communication behavior and an adaptive posture, provided that it is recognized and validated as such. It renders long-standing ritualized operations once again functional. Finally, it shares traits with meditative objects with a ritual purpose, of the Mandala type, thus favoring attentional abilities and arousing the desire to share other mental worlds. When observed in the psychic activity of old age, it points to resources of resilience in dementia and indicates that ideo-affective plasticity is at work. Its deterioration into an analogon, the basic unit of the imaging consciousness, is one of the possible conversions of the identifying object in the case of major neuropsychological disorder.