projective identification
Projection occupies a foundational position across the depth-psychological corpus, appearing as simultaneously one of the most elementary and most theoretically contested concepts in the field. In the Jungian tradition, projection designates the involuntary transposition of unconscious contents onto outer objects — a process not consciously enacted by the ego but, as von Franz insists, done to it, arising from the primary condition Jung named 'archaic identity.' For Jung and his heirs, projection is the mechanism underwriting transference, the religious impulse, alchemy, and the experience of the numinous; its withdrawal constitutes the enlargement of consciousness itself. The Kleinian and post-Kleinian traditions introduce a crucial complication: projective identification, Klein's 1946 coinage, transforms projection from a unidirectional intrapsychic event into an interpersonal, phantasy-driven process in which parts of the self are forcibly lodged in an external object, modifying that object's actual psychological experience. Bion then radicalizes this formulation by theorizing projective identification as the infant's — and the patient's — primary mode of communication, one whose failure by the containing object produces catastrophic consequences for the capacity to think. Ogden extends this further, reconceiving projective identification as the generator of an intersubjective 'analytic third,' a co-created subject that both enriches and subjugates the individual subjectivities of analyst and analysand. The tension between Jungian and object-relational accounts — between projection as intrapsychic withdrawal and projective identification as interpersonal coercion — remains the field's most generative fault line.
projection is an involuntary transposition of something unconscious in ourselves into an outer object. The occurrence of projection stems in the last analysis from that original, universal psychological phenomenon which Jung calls 'archaic identity'
Von Franz establishes the Jungian definition of projection as an involuntary, ego-alien process rooted in the primordial undifferentiation of psyche and world that Jung termed archaic identity.
, C.G. Jung: His Myth in Our Time, 1975thesis
the ego takes possession by projection of an external object — first of all the mother — and makes it into an extension of the self. The object becomes to some extent a representative of the ego, and these processes are in my view the basis for identification by projection or 'projective
Klein articulates her foundational account of projective identification as the phantasied expulsion of bad parts of the self into the mother's body, constituting the basis of all identification-by-projection.
, Envy and Gratitude and Other Works 1946-1963, 1957thesis
projective identification involves a type of partial collapse of the dialectical movement of subjectivity and intersubjectivity, resulting in the subjugation (of the individual subjectivities of analyst and analysand) by the analytic third
Ogden reconceives projective identification as the mechanism generating a co-created intersubjective third that paradoxically both limits and enriches the individual subjectivities of both parties in the analytic dyad.
, The Analytic Third: Implications for Psychoanalytic Theory and Technique, 1994thesis
we never make the projection, but that it is done to us. I do not myself project something; that is the way one talks, but it is not true. The fact is that I suddenly find myself in the situation of projecting
Von Franz insists on the ego-alien, autonomous character of projection: it is not an act of the ego but a condition one finds oneself already in, a phenomenological correction of the grammatical habit of speaking of projection as self-initiated.
, Alchemy: An Introduction to the Symbolism and the Psychology, 1980thesis
The psychological process of transference is a specific form of the more general process of projection. It is important to bring these two concepts together and to realize that transference is a special case of projection
Jung establishes the systematic priority of projection over transference, framing the latter as a particular clinical instantiation of the broader projective phenomenon.
, Collected Works Volume 18: The Symbolic Life, 1976thesis
Elements of one's disowned self are put not only onto another and shunned, as in simple projection, but into another. The behavior of the other actually changes within the ongoing relationship because the overt and covert communication of the projector influences the recipient's psychological experience
Yalom distinguishes projective identification from simple projection by locating the former's defining feature in the actual interpersonal coercion of the recipient, whose behavior is altered through the projector's overt and covert communications.
, The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy, Fifth Edition, 2008thesis
projective identification, which is the name she gives to the mechanism by which parts of the personality are split off and projected into external objects
Bion restates Klein's definition of projective identification as the mechanism of splitting-and-projecting parts of the personality into external objects, situating it as the foundational operation underlying attacks on linking in borderline psychosis.
, Attacks on Linking, 1959thesis
If the mother cannot tolerate these projections the infant is reduced to continue projective identification carried out with increasing force and frequency. The increased force seems to denude the projection of its penumbra of meaning.
Bion theorizes the catastrophic consequences of maternal failure to contain the infant's projective identifications: the escalating force of the unprocessed projections strips them of meaning and devastates the infant's nascent capacity for thought.
, A Theory of Thinking, 1962thesis
the object offers a hook to the projection, and even lures it out... For all projections provoke counter-projections when the object is unconscious of the quality projected upon it by the subject
Jung introduces the crucial concept of the 'hook' — the minimal real property in the object that attracts and enables projection — and notes that unconscious qualities in the object automatically elicit counter-projections from the projicient.
, The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, 1960thesis
she introduces the term 'projective identification', a concept discussed below. Furthermore, a new era is opened in the understanding of schizophrenia
The editorial note to Klein's 'Notes on Some Schizoid Mechanisms' marks the 1946 introduction of the term 'projective identification' as a conceptual watershed that opened a new era in the psychoanalytic understanding of schizophrenia and early ego processes.
, Envy and Gratitude and Other Works 1946-1963, 1957thesis
contents of the unconscious are primarily 'projected' indirectly as contents of the 'outside world' and not directly experienced as contents of the unconscious. Thus, for example, a 'demon' is not regarded as a part of the man to whom he appears, but as a being who is present and active in the outside world.
Neumann employs the cinematic metaphor of the projection screen to explain how unconscious contents appear as denizens of the outer world, using the figure of the demon as the archetypal example of unrecognized inner material projected outward.
, The Great Mother: An Analysis of the Archetype, 1955supporting
wherever known reality stops, where we touch the unknown, there we project an archetypal image
Von Franz demonstrates that archetypal projection is a universal epistemological event occurring at the horizon of human knowledge, illustrated by medieval maps and early alchemical cosmology.
, Creation Myths, 1995supporting
a tendency toward the development in man of an ever broader state of consciousness seems to emerge, which at the same time means an expansion of his psychic realm through the withdrawal of projections
Von Franz identifies the progressive withdrawal of projections as the functional mechanism of expanding consciousness, simultaneously explaining the historical relationship between religion and psychological health as the management of archetypal projections in sanctioned form.
, Psychotherapy, 1993supporting
Projectors need to rid themselves of an emotion or part of themselves because it is intolerable for them to own or contain it. So they will project it onto another and coerce that person to experience it and give it back to them as verification of their expectation.
Flores, drawing on Ogden, provides a clinically concrete account of the three-phase coercive dynamic of projective identification, showing how the projector externalizes an intolerable self-state and compels the recipient to confirm it.
, Group Psychotherapy with Addicted Populations An, 1997supporting
Human beings have a need as deep as hunger and thirst to establish intersubjective constructions (including projective identifications), in order to find an exit from unending, futile wanderings in their own internal object world.
Ogden argues for the existential necessity of projective identification, framing it not merely as a pathological defense but as a fundamental human need for intersubjective escape from the solipsistic enclosure of the internal object world.
, The Analytic Third: Implications for Psychoanalytic Theory and Technique, 1994supporting
the projective mechanism underlying empathy is familiar in everyday life... in my 'Notes on Some Schizoid Mechanisms' (1946), I suggested the term 'projective identification' for those processes that form part of the paranoid-schizoid position
Klein situates projective identification within a continuum that includes ordinary empathy, distinguishing the pathological extreme she names while acknowledging the normative projective mechanisms on which intersubjective understanding rests.
, Envy and Gratitude and Other Works 1946-1963, 1957supporting
other new projections have been produced — projections which seem to us to represent 'objective' scientific models of the outer world. These new models have pushed away the old ones, and thus we see the old ones as projections.
Von Franz makes the epistemologically radical point that scientific models are themselves projections that have replaced earlier ones, implying that all cognitive frameworks are projective overlays recognized as such only retroactively.
, Creation Myths, 1995supporting
Projective identification as a theoretical perspective is a complicated issue with a sometimes unclear definition and history. It has been viewed as a diagnostic indicator, a defensive operation, and a communication device.
Sedgwick surveys the contested theoretical status of projective identification within Jungian-inflected clinical thinking, cataloguing its triple function as diagnostic marker, defense, and communication in the therapeutic relationship.
, An Introduction to Jungian Psychotherapy: The Therapeutic Relationship, 2001supporting
The film showing my interior Midas was rolled up in the can. Advertising men, evil and foolish, tended to appear at night on a large screen, and I was naturally fascinated... It was mostly projection anyway.
Bly provides an autobiographical illustration of shadow projection, showing how disowned interior qualities are displaced onto external figures and experienced with compulsive fascination before being retrospectively recognized as projections.
, A Little Book on the Human Shadow, 1988supporting
anima and animus are projected upon their human counterparts.... But in so far as anima and animus undoubtedly represent the contrasexual components of the personality, their kinship character... point[s]... to the integration of personality
Hillman and Jung's text together identify the projection of anima and animus onto actual persons as the central psychological dynamic of intimate relationships, pointing beyond projection toward the integrative task of individuation.
, Anima: An Anatomy of a Personified Notion, 1985supporting
the course of ego-development and object-relations depends on the degree to which an optimal balance between introjection and projection in the early stages of development can be achieved
Klein frames the early developmental dialectic of introjection and projection as the foundational substrate of ego development, with pathology arising from imbalance between these complementary processes.
, Envy and Gratitude and Other Works 1946-1963, 1957supporting
You have a certain image in yourself, without knowing it, of woman, of the woman. Then you see that girl, or at least a good imitation of your type, and instantly you get a seizure and you are gone.
Edinger, citing Jung, illustrates anima projection through the phenomenology of falling in love at first sight, emphasizing the ego-overwhelming, seizure-like quality that marks the operation of an autonomous archetypal image.
, Science of the Soul: A Jungian Perspective, 2002supporting
projection 28; and alchemy 280, 281, 289–90; and the anima/animus 113, 116–21, 127–8; of the collective unconscious 68–9; living through 98–9; religious 300; of the shadow 94–5, 97, 98–9, 102–3
The Handbook index entry for projection maps its systematic distribution across the major Jungian topoi — alchemy, anima/animus, collective unconscious, shadow, and religion — indicating the concept's centrality to every domain of analytical psychology.
, The Handbook of Jungian Psychology: Theory, Practice and Applications, 2006aside
the Devil stood for the seducing and dangerous father; he also represented parts of Fabian's mind... he shows in an extreme form that component of infantile emotional life which... hostile and evil projective identifications which in the novel are described as violent intrusions into people
Klein reads Fabian's devil-figure as an embodiment of pathological projective identification in its most violent intrusive form, using literary analysis to illustrate the phenomenology of hostile projective attacks.
, Envy and Gratitude and Other Works 1946-1963, 1957aside
George had suffered a primal wounding and made his wife his mother even as Oedipus had made his mother his wife
Hollis illustrates the clinical consequences of unresolved mother-projection in intimate partnership, showing how primal wound and obsessive projection combine to produce delusional jealousy impervious to therapeutic intervention.
, Swamplands of the Soul: New Life in Dismal Places, 1996aside
Projection, 231. See also Projective identification... Projective identification, 145, 224-225, 235, 438, 451, 525-529 as communication, 526-527; as compared with projection, 525
The index entry in Flores's group therapy text systematically distinguishes projection from projective identification while cataloguing the latter's multiple functions — communicative, complementary, concordant, and relational — as they operate in addicted populations.
, Group Psychotherapy with Addicted Populations An, 1997aside