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Defense Mechanism: Projection

Santosha

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Psychological projection or projection bias is a psychological defense mechanism where a person subconsciously denies his or her own attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which are then ascribed to the outside world, usually to other people. Thus, projection involves imagining or projecting the belief that others originate those feelings.[1]

Projection reduces anxiety by allowing the expression of the unwanted unconscious impulses or desires without letting the conscious mind recognize them.

An example of this behavior might be blaming another for self failure. The mind may avoid the discomfort of consciously admitting personal faults by keeping those feelings unconscious, and by redirecting libidinal satisfaction by attaching, or "projecting," those same faults onto another person or object.

"Your projecting on me here"
"No your projecting on me!"

I'm sure we've all seen various movies, posts and real life experiences where the above statements are made, usually in comical fashion (atleast it's almost always funny to me)... but I do have a question regarding projection.

Where does psychological identification end and projection begin?
I have been toying with this idea for a while now.. I think I need some ti-ers up in here to help me make the distinction... is there a clear distinction? How does one know they are being projected on? Is projecting always a bad thing?
 

SilkRoad

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The idea that I may be projecting my feelings/motives/etc onto others seriously makes me nervous.

I actually catch myself occasionally sort of nervously pulling up and wondering if someone is annoying me because of what I'm projecting on them, not because of what they are actually like or what they are actually doing.
 
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garbage

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This deserves a lot more thought than I'm giving it right now, but I'm chiming in anyway.

Psychological projection or projection bias is a psychological defense mechanism where a person subconsciously denies his or her own attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which are then ascribed to the outside world, usually to other people. Thus, projection involves imagining or projecting the belief that others originate those feelings.[1]
[...]
Where does psychological identification end and projection begin?
In my estimation, the former is true empathy and the latter is bias. The former is a true understanding of the other individual, which entails an understanding of human nature and of our own biases (so that we can correct for them). It's an ideal. Projection is a thing that we do to some degree, because we can only truly see from our own perspective.

Like any judgment we make, our 'empathy' (identification) might be wrong or colored by our own biases (projection). But if we let that stop us from making any judgments, we'd never act.

How does one know they are being projected on?
Short answer: when what the other person tells us truly reflects their feelings and not ours. Like any criticism, an assertion may or may not be valid--it may or may not come largely from projection. We can reflect on it and determine whether it has any merit.

Is projecting always a bad thing?
Every bias is useful in some situations--this one in particular reduces our own anxiety at the expense of discovering some truth. They're always short-term fixes, though, and we're better off understanding and correcting for projection and other biases.
 

UniqueMixture

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Yeah, this was a question I used to ask myself in a more generalized form. [MENTION=5578]bologna[/MENTION]: I would say it's not necessarily empathy if it's good because oftentimes people ascribe good characteristics to people that they do not have because they like the person or don't understand human nature like you said.
 

CrystalViolet

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I had an ex who was terrible for projection, combined with my empathetic tendencies, it was really a recipe for disaster. What ever he was feeling, I would mirror it back, even though I wasn't the originator of those feelings. His feelings used to bleed into my consciousness, and I didn't know which way was up. Really hard to establish personal boundaries. It took me a long time to figure out after we broke up where I started, and he began.
 

nanook

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if you are interested in projection you are not going to regrett reading this.

http://www.kenwilber.com/editor/TAGT.pdf

unless maybe you already know all about retroflection.

this concept is extremely helpful in understanding how projection works.
and analyzing, from which underlying repression a given projection results, or why it can be so confusing.

sorry, i can't summarize it in english language, right now.
if you speak german, i have written about it here.
 

Porcelain Hearts

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The idea that I may be projecting my feelings/motives/etc onto others seriously makes me nervous.

I actually catch myself occasionally sort of nervously pulling up and wondering if someone is annoying me because of what I'm projecting on them, not because of what they are actually like or what they are actually doing.
OMG I THINK ABOUT THAT TOO!!!! Sometimes thoughts are instilled and I have no clue where it originated from... past experiences? It's just unsettling when you feel you're in control of your thoughts but you're really not...

nanook said:
if you are interested in projection you are not going to regrett reading this.

http://www.kenwilber.com/editor/TAGT.pdf

unless maybe you already know all about retroflection.

this concept is extremely helpful in understanding how projection works.
and analyzing, from which underlying repression a given projection results, or why it can be so confusing.

sorry, i can't summarize it in english language, right now.
if you speak german, i have written about it here.
Will check that out.
 

INTP

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projection is essentially about your unconscious mind leading your ego into focusing onto something on the external world in a certain way, even tho its inside of you.

basically there is an instinct from the unconscious(unconscious communicates to ego via instincts), which brings something into your ego, but in the case of projection, the contents are repressed to some extend since they are painful for ego(usually due to conflicting with something that is already there or because its just something too painful for the ego to handle). now after the partial repression you still get reminded by the thing, but you cant see it clearly and cant see it in yourself, instead this instinct starts to guide your ego and conscious awareness about the external world and you easily draw conclusion about the people/animals/objects/whateverthatyouprojectonto.
so you might for example have intense repressed anger inside and when you see someone who shows even the slightest hints about them being angry inside, you immediately see that this person is angry, even if he really isnt, but you just draw some snap conclusion about him due to projection.
 
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Ginkgo

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Just because one is projecting doesn't mean one is incorrect in attributing qualities to another. There is no place psychological identification and projection end; it just depends on whether you hit the nail on the head in any particular case. People sometimes say "you're projecting" like there's an implicit "you're incorrect about me", instead taking a stance with their self-awareness. I don't think projection is necessarily a bad thing because 1. for the sake of practicality, we sometimes need to assume qualities about others who are similar, and 2. denying one's own qualities at a particular moment in time due to projection depends on the capacity of one's attitude to look either outward or inward, and projecting at a particular, undefined moment in time doesn't negate recognition of one's own qualities in the long term. In fact, projection opens up one's potential to recognize more things about themselves if they choose to do so. I project and there's nothing I can do to change that essential quality about myself, so I may as well channel it into something useful.
 

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Ego-defence mechanisms(in general);
- are normal processes which operate on an unconscious level and tend to deny/distort reality
- help the individual to cope with anxiety and prevent the ego from being overwhelmed(can be a positive thing)
- have an adaptive value if they do not become a style of life to avoid facing reality

Projection;
- anxiety arousing impulses are externalized by placing them, or projecting them, onto others
- a persons inner threats are attributed to those around them

There is no place psychological identification and projection end; it just depends on whether you hit the nail on the head in any particular case.

identification is opposite from projection. basically with projection you are seeing something that is in you in others and not in yourself, this way distorting the reality. identification is when you start to unconsciously behave like someone else(for example identifying with your father and starting to behave like him). basically its like mimicking someone, except that mimicking is conscious. jung says that its possible to identify on complexes(leading to neurosis) and with your conscious attitude(basically your dom/aux function and leading to one sided development). freudians have also wrote about identification quite alot
 
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Ginkgo

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identification is opposite from projection. basically with projection you are seeing something that is in you in others and not in yourself, this way distorting the reality. identification is when you start to unconsciously behave like someone else(for example identifying with your father and starting to behave like him). basically its like mimicking someone, except that mimicking is conscious. jung says that its possible to identify on complexes(leading to neurosis) and with your conscious attitude(basically your dom/aux function and leading to one sided development). freudians have also wrote about identification quite alot

Ah. Woops.
 

violet_crown

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Where does psychological identification end and projection begin?
I have been toying with this idea for a while now.. I think I need some ti-ers up in here to help me make the distinction... is there a clear distinction? How does one know they are being projected on? Is projecting always a bad thing?

Interesting question.

I think the distinction between identification and projection relies upon the extent to which the denial of the externalized trait occurs.

We discern the world through experience. I think in our attempts to understand people we have to overlay some model that we're familiar with in order to say what's happening. The danger is twisting facts to fit theories. In other words, where the person unconsciously blinds themselves to certain facts of the other person's circumstances in order to maintain the integrity of their explanation of them. In my mind, this distortion is the crucial distinction between identification and projection. The challenge is that it's impossible for the individual to recognize when they've failed to be objective, so to that extent all extent we're always projecting to some degree. Perhaps it's overly charitable to simply think of projection as the dark side of empathy, but there's no other way to look at it if we consider it to be an unconscious phenomenon.
 

INTP

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Interesting question.

I think the distinction between identification and projection relies upon the extent to which the denial of the externalized trait occurs.

We discern the world through experience. I think in our attempts to understand people we have to overlay some model that we're familiar with in order to say what's happening. The danger is twisting facts to fit theories. In other words, where the person unconsciously blinds themselves to certain facts of the other person's circumstances in order to maintain the integrity of their explanation of them. In my mind, this distortion is the crucial distinction between identification and projection. The challenge is that it's impossible for the individual to recognize when they've failed to be objective, so to that extent all extent we're always projecting to some degree. Perhaps it's overly charitable to simply think of projection as the dark side of empathy, but there's no other way to look at it if we consider it to be an unconscious phenomenon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identification_(psychology) or if you had just read my post.

Like i also mentioened in my last post, projection is a way to keep ego from feeling overly anxious, so i wouldnt call it any dark side of empathy, or having anything to do with empathy, since empathy is again the opposite direction of projection, like identification is. Projection goes inside out and identification and empathy goes outside in.
 

violet_crown

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identification_(psychology) or if you had just read my post.

Like i also mentioened in my last post, projection is a way to keep ego from feeling overly anxious, so i wouldnt call it any dark side of empathy, or having anything to do with empathy, since empathy is again the opposite direction of projection, like identification is. Projection goes inside out and identification and empathy goes outside in.

The OP never explicitly stated that she was using the Jungian definition, so I figured that "identification" in this case was subject to interpretation. However the word was defined her question was interesting because the OP asked about where there may or may not be a point of convergence between the two concepts. None of your posts so far seem to actually address that issue. You just seem to be regurgitating definitions and post shitting on people who are actually trying to think it through.
 

INTP

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The OP never explicitly stated that she was using the Jungian definition, so I figured that "identification" in this case was subject to interpretation. However the word was defined her question was interesting because the OP asked about where there may or may not be a point of convergence between the two concepts. None of your posts so far seem to actually address that issue. You just seem to be regurgitating definitions and post shitting on people who are actually trying to think it through.

its a general term in todays psychology, like projection is
 

viryan23

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I honestly am thankful for being a psychology major. I became aware of my own projections and these were lessened. Projection as a defense mechanism can lead to self-denial so long as you have someone or something to throw it to (which we all have a lot of). But yes, as stated above, projecting lessens anxiety as the ego calms down.
 
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