[quote author=Laura]
Projective Identification: this is an unconscious tendency to both induce in another what is being projected, AND to attempt to control the other person who is perceived as manifesting those characteristics that the split person is projecting.
That is, a person who cannot tolerate their own feelings of rage and aggression will unconsciously provoke and frustrate their target in subtle and not-so-subtle ways that will lead the target to actually FEEL the emotions that the split person is denying in themselves.
In this way, the split person can have the satisfaction of the expression of such emotions in a non-threatening way because it "doesn't belong to them," and they are, in a sense, "in control" of the manifestation.
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In Social Intelligence, Daniel Goleman talks about the neural mechanisms that cause what he calls "instant primal empathy". This instant primal empathy is a function of "low road circuits" in the brain and happens automatically without the intervention of conscious thought. Mirror neurons are said to be involved in this process of "emotional contagion". So when a person is projecting his emotions on another, the other person is "catching these emotions" at a level which is usually beyond conscious thought. This primal empathy happens much faster than conscious thought ( akin to the speed differential between the emotional and intellectual centers). Further,
[quote author=Social Intelligence]
Darwin saw every emotion as a predisposition to act in a unique way: fear, to freeze or flee; anger, to fight; joy, to embrace; and so on. Brain imaging studies now show that at the neural level he was right. To feel any emotion stirs the related urge to act.
The low road makes that feeling-action link interpersonal. For instance, when we see someone expressing fear - even if only in the way they move or hold their body - our own brain activates the circuitry for fear. Along with this instantaneous contagion, the brain areas that prepare for fearful actions also activate. And so with each emotion - anger, joy, sadness and so on. Emotional contagion does more than than merely spread feelings - it automatically prepares the brain for appropriate action.
Nature's rule of thumb holds that a biological system should use the minimal amount of energy. Here the brain achieves that efficiency by firing the same neurons while both perceiving and performing an action. That economizing repeats across brains.
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Conscious processing involving the prefrontal cortex circuits (the "high road") is a way to override the low road circuits and unwanted "emotional contagion".
However, there also seems to be a possibility to train "low road" functions - like Paul Ekman's study of microexpressions of the face to detect fleeting emotions which are being suppressed by a person.
[quote author=Social Intelligence]
The facial muscles are controlled by the low road, the choice to lie by the high road; in an emotional lie, the face belies what's said. The high road conceals, the low road reveals.
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In Ekman's method, people are first shown some photographs of people's faces frozen in a neutral look. Then for a fleeting moment, an emotional expression flashes by. When asked to identify which expression was seen, most people get about 40-50% correct. But then after practice sessions of studying the expressions in freeze frame and analyzing the microexpressions, when a post test is taken, most people get 80-90% correct. And this is after about 30 minutes or so of training according to Goleman and Ekman.
Feedback provided through such training helps the low road learn. Such feedback is not forthcoming in real life situations and so the low road ability to detect emotional lie remains untrained. Reminds me of the Gurdjieff statement about the emotional center or the "horse" being untrained and the "horse" (the low road) not understanding the language of the driver (high road - cognitive functions).
