View source for Psychological projection

{{Short description|Attributing parts of the self to others}}
{{Psychoanalysis|Concepts}}{{Multiple issues|{{More citations needed|date=July 2025}}{{Too few opinions|date=July 2025}}}}
In [[psychology]], [[psychoanalysis]], and [[psychotherapy]], projection is the mental process in which an individual [[Attribution (psychology)|attributes]] their own internal thoughts, beliefs, emotions, experiences, and personality traits to another person or group.

== Definition ==
The [[American Psychological Association]] Dictionary of Psychology defines projection as follows:<ref>{{cite web |title=APA Dictionary of Psychology |url=https://dictionary.apa.org/projection}}</ref><blockquote>[T]he process by which one attributes one’s own individual positive or negative characteristics, [[Affect (psychology)|affects]], and impulses to another person or group... often a [[Defence mechanism|defense mechanism]] in which unpleasant or unacceptable impulses, stressors, ideas, affects, or responsibilities are attributed to others. For example, the defense mechanism of projection enables a person conflicted over expressing anger to change “I hate them” to “They hate me.” Such defensive patterns are often used to justify prejudice or evade responsibility.</blockquote>
==History==
A prominent precursor in the formulation of the projection principle was [[Giambattista Vico]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Harvey|first=Van A.|title=Feuerbach and the interpretation of religion|year=1997|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0521470498|pages=4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KdsKpZ6eJWMC|access-date=2020-09-25|archive-date=2020-11-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201102084832/https://books.google.com/books?id=KdsKpZ6eJWMC|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Cotrupi|first=Caterina Nella|title=Northrop Frye and the poetics of process|url=https://archive.org/details/northropfryepoe00cotr|url-access=registration|year=2000|publisher=University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division|isbn=978-0802081414|pages=[https://archive.org/details/northropfryepoe00cotr/page/21 21]}}</ref>{{How|date=July 2025}} In 1841, [[Ludwig Feuerbach]] was the first [[Age of Enlightenment|enlightenment]] thinker to employ this concept as the basis for a systematic critique of religion.<ref>{{cite book|last=Harvey|first=Van A.|title=Feuerbach and the interpretation of religion|year=1997|publisher=University of cambridge|isbn= 978-0521586306|page=4}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Mackey|first=James patrick|title=The Critique of Theological Reason|year=2000|publisher=Cambridge University press|isbn=978-0521169233|pages=41–42}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Nelson|first=John K.|title=A Field Statement on the Anthropology of Religion|journal=Ejournalofpoliticalscience|year=1990|url=http://ejournalofpoliticalscience.org/anthrel.html|access-date=2014-01-20|archive-date=2017-02-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170214013255/http://ejournalofpoliticalscience.org/anthrel.html|url-status=live}}</ref>{{How|date=July 2025}}

The [[Babylonian Talmud]] (500 AD) notes the human tendency toward projection and warns against it: "Do not taunt your neighbour with the blemish you yourself have."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Babylonian Talmud|pages=Baba Metsiya 59b; Kiddushin 70a|quote=And he who [continually] declares [others] unfit is [himself] unfit and never speaks in praise [of people]. And Samuel said: All who defame others, with their own blemish they stigmatize [these others].}}</ref>{{Attribution needed|date=July 2025}} In the parable of [[the Mote and the Beam]] in the [[New Testament]], Jesus warned against projection:<ref>{{Bibleverse|Matthew|7:3-5|NIV}}</ref>{{Attribution needed|date=July 2025}}<blockquote>Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.</blockquote>

=== Freud ===
Projection ({{langx|de|Projektion}}) was first conceptualised by [[Sigmund Freud]] in his letters to [[Wilhelm Fliess]],<ref>Jean-Michel Quinodoz, ''Reading Freud'' (London 2005) p. 24</ref> and further refined by [[Karl Abraham]] and [[Anna Freud]]. Freud argued that in projection, thoughts, motivations, desires, and feelings that cannot be accepted as one's own are dealt with by being placed in the outside world and attributed to someone else.<ref>''Case Studies II'' p. 210.</ref> Freud would later argue that projection did not take place arbitrarily, but rather seized on and [[exaggerated]] an element that already existed on a small scale in the other person.<ref>Sigmund Freud, ''On Psychopathology'' (PFL 10) pp.&nbsp;200–01.</ref>

According to Freud, [[projective identification]] occurs when the other person [[Introjection|introjects]], or unconsciously adopts, that which is projected onto them.<ref>Patrick Casement, ''Further Learning from the Patient'' (1997) p. 177.</ref> In projective identification, the self{{Clarify|date=July 2025|reason=Whose self?}} maintains a connection with what is projected, in contrast to the total repudiation of projection proper.<ref>Otto F. Kernberg, ''Borderline Conditions and Pathological Narcissism'' (London 1990) p. 56.</ref> 

=== Further psychoanalytic development ===
Freud conceptualised projection within his broader theory of [[psychoanalysis]] and the [[Id, ego and superego|id, ego, and superego]]. Later psychoanalysts have interpreted and developed Freud's theory of projection in varied ways.

[[Otto Fenichel]] argued that projection involves that which the [[Id, ego and superego|ego]] refuses to accept, which is thus [[splitting (psychology)|split off]] and placed in another.<ref>[[Otto Fenichel]], ''The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis'' (London 1946) p. 146.</ref>

[[Melanie Klein]] saw the projection of good parts of the self as leading potentially to over-[[Idealisation and devaluation|idealisation]] of the object.<ref>Hanna Segal, ''Klein'' (1979) p. 118.</ref> Equally, it may be one's conscience that is projected, in an attempt to escape its control: a more benign version of this allows one to come to terms with outside authority.<ref>R. Wollheim, ''On the Emotions'' (1999) pp.&nbsp;217–18.</ref>

[[Carl Jung]] considered that the unacceptable parts of the personality represented by the [[Shadow (psychology)|Shadow]] archetype were particularly likely to give rise to projection, both small-scale and on a national/international basis.<ref name="micro and macro projection">Carl G. Jung ed., ''Man and his Symbols'' (London 1978) pp.&nbsp;181–82.</ref> [[Marie-Louise Von Franz]] extended her view of projection, stating that "wherever known reality stops, where we touch the unknown, there we project an [[archetype|archetypal]] image".<ref>{{cite book |last=Franz |first=Marie-Louise von |url=https://archive.org/details/patternsofcreati00franrich |title=Patterns of Creativity Mirrored in Creation Myths (Seminar series) |date=September 1972 |publisher=Spring Publications |isbn=978-0-88214-106-0}} ''found in'': {{cite book |last=Gray |first=Richard M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F23WJ8altDUC&q=wherever+known+reality+stops,+where+we+touch+the+unknown,+there+we+project+an+archetypal+image&pg=PA201 |title=Archetypal explorations: an integrative approach to human behavior |publisher=Routledge |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-415-12117-0 |page=201 |access-date=2020-11-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407091814/https://books.google.com/books?id=F23WJ8altDUC&q=wherever+known+reality+stops,+where+we+touch+the+unknown,+there+we+project+an+archetypal+image&pg=PA201 |archive-date=2022-04-07 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Erik Erikson]] argues that projection tends to come to the fore in normal people at times of personal or political [[crisis]].<ref>Erik Erikson, ''Childhood and Society'' (1973) p. 241.</ref> 

=== Historical clinical use ===
Drawing on [[Gordon Allport]]'s idea of the expression of self onto activities and objects, projective techniques have been devised to aid personality assessment, including the [[Rorschach test|Rorschach]] ink-blots and the [[Thematic Apperception Test]] (TAT).<ref>{{cite book |last=Semeonoff |first=B. |title=The Oxford Companion to the Mind |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1987 |isbn=0-19-866124-X |editor-last=Gregory |editor-first=Richard |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00greg/page/646 646] |chapter=Projective Techniques |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00greg/page/646}}</ref>

== Theoretical views ==

=== Psychoanalytic theory ===
According to some psychoanalysts, projection forms the basis of [[empathy]] by the projection of personal experiences to understand someone else's subjective world.<ref name="McWilliams">{{cite book |last1=McWilliams |first1=Nancy |title=Psychoanalytic Diagnosis: Understanding Personality Structure in the Clinical Process |title-link=Psychoanalytic Diagnosis |date=2020 |publisher=The Guilford Press |isbn=978-1462543694 |edition=2 |location=New York, NY |page=111 |chapter=Primary Defensive Processes}}</ref> In its malignant forms, projection is a [[defense mechanism]] in which the [[Ego (Freudian)|ego]] defends itself against disowned and highly negative parts of the self by [[Denial|denying]] their existence in themselves and [[Attribution (psychology)|attributing]] them to others, breeding misunderstanding and causing interpersonal damage.<ref>Sigmund Freud, ''Case Histories II'' (PFL 9) p. 132</ref> Projection incorporates [[blame shifting]] and can manifest as shame dumping.<ref>Hotchkiss, Sandy; foreword by [[James F. Masterson|Masterson, James F.]] ''Why Is It Always About You?: The Seven Deadly Sins of Narcissism'' (Free Press, 2003)</ref> It has also been described as an early phase of [[introjection]].<ref name="pmid15577283">{{cite journal |author=Malancharuvil JM |date=December 2004 |title=Projection, introjection, and projective identification: a reformulation |url=http://www.kluweronline.com/art.pdf?issn=0002-9548&volume=64&page=375 |journal=Am J Psychoanal |volume=64 |issue=4 |pages=375–82 |doi=10.1007/s11231-004-4325-y |pmid=15577283 |s2cid=19730486}}</ref>

=== Psychodynamic theory ===
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=== Post-psychoanalytic approaches ===
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== Applications ==

=== Psychopathology ===

==== Personality disorders ====
Projection is commonly found in [[borderline personality disorder]] and [[Paranoia|paranoid personalities]].<ref name="Gabbard2010">Glen O. Gabbard, ''Long-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy'' (Washington, DC 2017) p. 35.</ref>

In psychoanalytical and psychodynamic terms, projection may help a fragile [[id, ego, and super-ego|ego]] reduce [[anxiety]], but at the cost of a certain [[Dissociation (psychology)|dissociation]], as in [[dissociative identity disorder]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Trauma and Projection |url=http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/408692 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120510115906/http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/408692 |archive-date=2012-05-10 |access-date=2008-08-16}}{{Subscription required}}</ref> In extreme cases, an individual's personality may end up becoming critically [[Ego depletion|depleted]].<ref>R. Appignanesi ed., ''Introducing Melanie Klein'' (Cambridge 2006) pp. 115, 126.</ref> In such cases, therapy may be required which would include the slow rebuilding of the personality through the "taking back" of such projections.<ref>Mario Jacoby, ''The Analytic Encounter'' (1984) pp. 10, 108.</ref>

=== Psychotherapy and counselling ===

==== Counter-projection ====
Jung wrote, "All projections provoke counter-projection when the object is unconscious of the quality projected upon it by the subject."<ref>''General Aspects of Dream Psychology,'' CW 8, par. 519.</ref> Jung argued that what is unconscious in the recipient will be projected back onto the projector, precipitating a form of mutual [[acting out]].<ref>Ann Casement, ''Carl Gustav Jung'' (2001) p. 87.</ref> In a different usage, [[Harry Stack Sullivan]] saw counter-projection in the therapeutic context as a way of warding off the [[compulsive behavior|compulsive]] re-enactment of a [[psychological trauma]], by emphasizing the difference between the current situation and the projected [[fixation (psychology)|obsession]] with the perceived perpetrator of the original trauma.<ref>F. S. Anderson ed., ''Bodies in Treatment'' (2007) p. 160.</ref>

==== Psychoanalytic and psychodynamic techniques ====
The method of ''managed projection'' is a projective technique. The basic principle of this method is that a subject is presented with their own verbal portrait named by the name of another person, as well as with a portrait of their fictional opposition.<ref>(V. V. Stolin, 1981)</ref> The technique may be suitable for application in psychological counseling and might provide valuable information about the form and nature of their self-esteem. {{cite book |last= Bodalev |first= A |date=2000|title= "General psychodiagnostics". }}

=== Psychobiography ===
Psychological projection is one of the [[medical explanations of bewitchment]] used to explain the behavior of the afflicted children at [[Salem witch trials|Salem]] in 1692. The historian [[John Demos]] wrote in 1970 that the symptoms of bewitchment displayed by the afflicted girls could have been due to the girls undergoing psychological projection of [[Repression (psychology)|repressed]] aggression.<ref>{{cite journal |first=John |last=Demos |title=Underlying Themes in the Witchcraft of Seventeenth-Century New England |journal=[[American Historical Review]] |volume=75 |issue=5 |year=1970 |pages=1311–26 [p. 1322] |jstor=1844480 |doi=10.2307/1844480 |pmid=11609522 }}</ref>

== Types ==
In [[victim blaming]], the victim of someone else's actions or bad luck may be offered criticism, the theory being that the victim may be at fault for having attracted the other person's hostility. According to some theorists, in such cases, the psyche projects the experiences of weakness or vulnerability with the aim of ridding itself of the feelings and, through its disdain for them or the act of blaming, their conflict with the ego.<ref>''The Pursuit of Health'', June Bingham & Norman Tamarkin, M.D., Walker Press.</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=January 2020}}

Thoughts of [[infidelity]] to a partner may also be [[unconscious mind|unconsciously]] projected in self-defence on to the partner in question, so that the [[Guilt (emotion)|guilt]] attached to the thoughts can be repudiated or turned to [[blame]] instead, in a process linked to [[denial]].<ref>Sigmund Freud, ''On Psychopathology'' (Middlesex 1987) p. 198.</ref> For example, a person who is having a sexual affair may fear that their spouse is planning an affair or may accuse the innocent spouse of [[adultery]].

A [[Bullying|bully]] may project their own feelings of [[vulnerability]] onto the target(s) of the bullying activity. Despite the fact that a bully's typically denigrating activities are aimed at the bully's targets, the true source of such negativity is ultimately almost always found in the bully's own sense of personal [[Emotional security|insecurity]] or vulnerability.<ref>Paul Gilbert, ''Overcoming Depression'' (1999) pp.&nbsp;185–86.</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]).|date=July 2025}} Such aggressive projections of displaced negative emotions can occur anywhere from the micro-level of [[interpersonal relationships]], all the way up to the macro-level of international politics, or even international armed conflict.<ref name="micro and macro projection" />

Projection of a severe conscience<ref>Patrick Casement, ''Further Learning from the Patient'' (1990) p. 142.</ref> is another form of defense, one which may be linked to the making of [[false accusations]], personal or political.<ref name="micro and macro projection" /> In a more positive light, a patient may sometimes project their feelings of [[hope]] onto the therapist.<ref>Patrick Casement, ''Further Learning from the Patient'' (1990) p. 122.</ref> People in love "reading" each other's mind involves a projection of the self into the other.<ref name="McWilliams" />

== Criticism ==

Research on [[social projection]] supports the existence of a [[false-consensus effect]] whereby humans have a broad tendency to believe that others are similar to themselves, and thus "project" their personal traits onto others.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Robbins|first1=Jordan M.|last2=Krueger|first2=Joachim I.|date=2005|title=Social Projection to Ingroups and Outgroups: A Review and Meta-Analysis|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr0901_3|journal=Personality and Social Psychology Review|volume=9|issue=1|pages=32–47|doi=10.1207/s15327957pspr0901_3|pmid=15745863|s2cid=10229838|issn=1088-8683|url-access=subscription}}</ref> This applies to both good and bad traits; it is not a defense mechanism for denying the existence of the trait within the self.<ref name="Empirical Findings">{{cite journal |last1=Baumeister |first1=Roy F. |last2=Dale |first2=Karen |last3=Sommer |first3=Kristin L. |title=Freudian Defense Mechanisms and Empirical Findings in Modern Social Psychology: Reaction Formation, Projection, Displacement, Undoing, Isolation, Sublimation, and Denial |journal=Journal of Personality |volume=66 |issue=6 |year=1998 |pages=1090–92 |doi=10.1111/1467-6494.00043 }}</ref> 

A study of the empirical evidence for a range of defense mechanisms by Baumeister, Dale, and Sommer (1998) concluded, "The view that people defensively project specific bad traits of their own onto others as a means of denying that they have them is not well supported."<ref name="Empirical Findings" /> However, Newman, Duff, and Baumeister (1997) proposed a new model of defensive projection in which the [[Psychological repression|repressor's]] efforts to [[Thought suppression|suppress thoughts]] of their undesirable traits make those trait categories highly accessible—so that they are then used all the more often when forming impressions of others. The projection is then only a byproduct of the real defensive mechanism.<ref>{{cite journal |title=A new look at defensive projection: Thought suppression, accessibility, and biased person perception |last1=Newman |first1=Leonard S. |last2=Duff |first2=Kimberley J. |last3=Baumeister |first3=Roy F. |journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology |volume=72 |issue=5 |year=1997 |pages=980–1001 |doi=10.1037/0022-3514.72.5.980 |pmid=9150580 }}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Columns-list|colwidth=18em|
* [[Accusation in a mirror]]
* ''[[Ad hominem]]''
* [[Displacement (psychology)|Displacement]]
* [[Hostile attribution bias]]
* [[Introjection]]
* [[Rationalization (psychology)|Rationalization]]
* [[Regression (psychology)|Regression]]
* [[Psychological repression|Repression]]
* [[The pot calling the kettle black]]
* ''[[Tu quoque]]''
}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Defense mechanisms}}
{{Borderline personality disorder}}
{{abuse}}
{{Conspiracy theories}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Psychological Projection}}
[[Category:Defence mechanisms]]
[[Category:Borderline personality disorder]]
[[Category:Narcissism]]
[[Category:Harassment and bullying]]
[[Category:Cognitive biases]]
[[Category:Psychoanalytic terminology]]
[[Category:Freudian psychology]]
[[Category:Paranoia]]