Looking for Hate in All the Wrong Places

Projective identification is a concept in depth psychology where one person (the projector) unconsciously projects unwanted or unacknowledged aspects of themselves onto another person (the recipient), who then internalizes and identifies with those projected traits. For example, imagine someone who struggles with unacknowledged feelings of inadequacy and aggression. To avoid confronting these traits, they project them onto a colleague, perceiving and treating them as weak and hostile. The colleague, often due to their own psychological vulnerabilities—such as low self-esteem or a tendency to absorb others’ perceptions—may begin to internalize this projection. Over time, they might start behaving in ways that align with the projected image, such as acting defensively or passively, thus seemingly becoming the “weak, hostile” person. This dynamic illustrates how projective identification involves both the projector’s unconscious disowning of traits and the recipient’s unconscious adoption of them.