I encounter this a lot, most recently at work, some of the least competent people I work with will consistently label others as defensive and unreflective when it comes to any matter of competence being discussed at all, although its difficult to counter or challenge the allegation of being defensive and unreflective because anything you say can be used as further evidence of your defensive and unreflective nature. Its pretty circular. Its been roundly critiqued as on aspect of psychoanalytical theory which takes no account of power relations and roles in framing, reframing and managing narratives.
On the topic of projecting, I pointed that out for a while on this very forum but got tired eventually of people, in a pretty childish manner its got to be said, responding with "whose projecting? your projecting" if you made any suggestion that this was what was going on, then again the same people I think were just trying to frustrate the fuck out of me for their own shits and giggles, as a troll might. It can be quite a circular thing too maybe.
Although I would say that I do like the theory of projecting and the shadow as developed by Jung or Jungian theory, I do think that people are apt to have what they do not like about themselves on their mind, they could be extra sensitive to it in others and notice it more readily in them than themselves.
What interests me is whether or not the projecting is done with any degree of awareness, if you take the example of "defensiveness", a highly defensive individual may have had that pointed out to them more than once and come to the conclusion that the quickest way to resolve conflicts is to label someone else defensive before they can label them, that would be a conscious, aware strategy, I've known people like that, although I've equally known people with lots of flaws who are not aware of them or who would deny them, very quickly, and who wouldnt own any mistake or action of theirs ever, and they are very, very highly critical of others, extremely so, if they do that as a conscious strategy to redirect attention from the failings and flaws they possess and know they do I'd be very, very surprised.
I'm undecided which of these two examples are the most insidious, most days I think the later, I've seen someone who fits that description reduce subordinates or colleagues to tears, I mean real distress, I dont mean frustration either but feeling angry and threatened by their behaviour but the same individual does not comprehend what they are doing, at least not right away, and if and when they do comprehend they may apologise but sure as night follows day they will repeat the same sort of thing in a few days or weeks or months.
There are people I've met who arent great at what they are expected to do, although the keep a low profile, dont annoy anyone and are given a pass by a lot of people, I've made my peace with that as time has gone on, its the world we live in and its far from perfect and wont ever be perfect, but the other type, that really bothers me, the type who is flawed and does everyone elses head in about performance. The funny thing about all this is being aware of and interested in psychoanalysis and these ideas is that when I became aware of all this I wondered myself if I was projecting myself and annoyed by all this because it was something about myself reflected in it but I've heard a lot of other people reach very similar conclusions about it which made me think its really is them.
*pats self on back* 
