Hi Psychee,

Because this was caught early in yourself it did not have to go to full blown dissociation, parts, DID/DDNOS etc.

Here's a bunch of fufurough I looked up. Please disregard if meaningless.

In Dependent Personality Disorder it may be an ego defense mechanism whereby an individual unconsciously incorporates into his own ego structure the qualities of another person, usually a significant other. It happens early in life and continues less intensely throughout.

Introjection is also the name of a defense mechanism, which handles threats from the outside that can potentially cause anxiety by infolding them into the internal world of the subject, where they can be neutralized or alleviated. More specifically introjection means incorporating attributes, attitudes or qualities of an absent person of high significance (for example, an absent working mother or a recently deceased relative) into oneself.

One example often used is when a child envelops representational images of his absent parents into himself, simultaneously fusing them with his own personality.

Individuals with weak ego boundaries are more prone to use introjection as a defense mechanism. According to Donald Woods Winnicott "projection and introjection mechanisms... let the other person be the manager sometimes, and to hand over omnipotence.[2]

There are two categories of personal boundary, physical and psychological.

According to Nina Brown, [1] there are 4 kinds of psychological boundaries:
Soft - A person with soft boundaries merges with other people's boundaries. Someone with a soft boundary is easily manipulated.
Spongy - A person with spongy boundaries is like a combination of having soft and rigid boundaries. They permit less emotional contagion than soft boundaries but more than rigid. People with spongy boundaries are unsure what to let in and what to keep out.
Rigid - A person with rigid boundaries is closed or walled off so nobody can get close to them either physically or emotionally. This is often the case if someone has been physically, emotionally or psychologically abused. Rigid boundaries can be selective which depend on time, place or circumstances and are usually based on a bad previous experience in a similar situation.
Flexible - This is the ideal. Similar to selective rigid boundaries but the person has more control. The person decides what to let in and what to keep out, are resistant to emotional contagion, manipulation and are difficult to exploit.