Thursday 16 August 2012

Projection

Projection


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.
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.
The theory was developed by Sigmund Freud - in his letters to Wilhelm Fliess, '"Draft H" deals with projection as a mechanism of defence - and further refined by his daughter Anna Freud; for this reason, it is sometimes referred to as Freudian Projection.

Counter-projection

When addressing psychological trauma, the defense mechanism is sometimes counter-projection, including an obsession to continue and remain in a recurring trauma-causing situation and the compulsive obsession with the perceived perpetrator of the trauma or its projection.
Jung writes that "All projections provoke counter-projection when the object is unconscious of the quality projected upon it by the subject.

Psychopathology

In psychopathology, projection is an especially commonly used defense mechanism in people with certain personality disorders: 'Patients with paranoid personalities, for example, use projection as a primary defense because it allows them to disavow unpleasant feelings and attribute them to others'.
According to Kernberg, all 'the primitive defenses, such as splitting, [projection] and projective identification, are commonly connected with primitively organized personalities, such as
Borderline personality disorder
Narcissistic personality disorder
Antisocial personality disorder
Psychopathy

Projective techniques

Drawing on the theory that 'the individual "projects" something of himself or herself into everything he or she does, in line with Gordon Allport's concept of expressive behaviour',[19] projective techniques have been devised to aid personality assessment. 'The two best-known projective techniques are the Rorschach ink-blots and the Thematic Apperception Test.

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