Specifically, it is a defence mechanism that designates the assumption of the role of the aggressor and his functional attributes or the imitation of his aggressive and behavioral mode, when a psychological trauma poses the hopeless dilemma of being a victim or an abuser.
[2] This theoretical construct is also defined as a process of coping with mental distress[3] or as a particular case of zero-sum game.
[4] The concept was first introduced by Sándor Ferenczi in his clinical diary in June 1932[5] and then developed in his paper "The Passions of Adults and their Influence on the Development of the Character and the Sexuality of the Child" (German: Die Leidenschaften der Erwachsenen und deren Einfluß auf Charakter und Sexualentwicklung des Kindes)[6] for the 12th International Psycho-Analytic Congress in Wiesbaden, Germany, in September 1932.
[7][8] He further elaborated this work until he published it in 1949 in The International Journal of Psychoanalysis with the new title "Confusion of the Tongues Between the Adults and the Child—(The Language of Tenderness and of Passion)".
[9] In 1936, Anna Freud took up and developed the concept in her book The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence (German: Das Ich und die Abwehrmechanismen).