Ch. 4: Defending Inner Space said:
Projection
Feelings, impulses, and undesired aspects of the personality that create anxiety can be projected on to another person (group, family, etc.). Positive capacities also tend to be projected when they are felt to be under attack from the rest of the personality. A projection can be followed by relief; that feeling then gives way to one of depletion. Projection is part of a process in which I split myself into good and bad parts; then I relegate what I do not like to my shadow. Then is the time for myself to work on the personal and collective sources of the projection and reclaim that part of myself. The recipient of a projection often acts as a hook for it in terms of their personal qualities or behaviour. A feeling of greediness, forming part of the shadow, may be projected on to someone else who actually is greedy, but possibly does not have a problem with that feeling. I project that on to someone else, who will have characteristics that make him a good 'hook' for the projection. Although the shadow is usually encountered in someone of the same sex, it can also be met in partnerships and marriages. Furthermore, projection of the contrasexual image (anima/animus) forms the basis for heterosexual relations. However, excessive projection leaves the projector depleted of attributes, qualities, capacities and their associated energy - all of which he needs for effective functioning. The absence of projection means that an individual is absorbed in navel-gazing and not relating. Such a person may find it hard to empathize with other people. Empathy has its seeds in projective identification.
Projective identification
This refers to a process in which unwanted aspects of the self are evacuated in to another; the other then experiences a pressure to think, feel ot behave in a way that dovetails the projection. The other feels 'possessed' by an invasive foreign body, identifies with the projection, and feels controlled by it.
Projective identification is an extremely difficult concept because it reeks of mystification. It is not observable; but the experience of being on the receiving end is undeniable and usually unpleasant, sometimes to the point of physical illness or moments of 'madness'. In work with clients who have suffered extensive early damage, projective identification is often the major source of information about what the client is actually feeling, but cannot experience at that moment. The purposes of projective identification are to communicate what can be communicated in no other way; to avoid separation from the 'good' person; to control the 'bad', persecuting person. The process of projective identification brings with it the twin anxieties of a fear of retaliation and of a concern that the projected parts are now imprisoned in the recipient of the projection.
Subjectively, the recipient of the projection will feel 'all right' until he comes into contact with the projector. Then he will suddenly feel invaded by a feeling or impulse that has nothing to do with him, and of which the projector seems totally unconscious. The task is for the recipient to process the projection in such a way that the projector can take it back in a less toxic form. How the recipient processes the projection may be more important than what he might choose to say about it to the projector.
