The Defence Mechanism of Projection and Transference Essays

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The defence mechanisms of Projection and transference.

Sigmund Freud first identified the psychological process of transference and projection and brought it into what is now modern day psychotherapy. He noticed that people had strong feelings and fantasies about him that had no basis in reality. Transference has become a more modern concept since Freud. In fact, transference is actually something that happens in life - and not just in psychotherapy.

What is Transference? During transference, people turn into a "biological time machine". A nerve is struck when someone says or does something that reminds you of your past. This creates an "emotional time warp" that transfers your emotional past and your psychological needs into the
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“You idiot! You numbskull! You inconsiderate bastard! People like you make me crazy and angry! You don’t care about anyone but yourself! Look at you in your huge, gas-guzzling new truck while I am putting along in my 10-year-old Range Rover with my children!”

During my therapy I started thinking back to the last time my righteous indignation went sour and crossed over into my projection of my own, personal unwanted, suppressed garbage. Just because I drove an old Range Rover doesn’t mean that I don’t have a gas-guzzling car! Nobody died; nobody had a wreck. but I am furious. This is because inwardly, something bigger than the actual incident occurred and I reacted with a 10 on a scale of one to 10, when the actual incident was probably only a three. That’s my unconscious, reacting by projecting.

Another form of projection is Projective identification which differs from simple projection in that projective identification is a self-fulfilling prophecy, whereby a person, believing something false about another, relates to that other person in such a way that the other person alters their behavior to make the belief true. The second person is influenced by the projection and begins to behave as though he or she is in fact actually characterized by the projected thoughts or beliefs. This is a process that generally happens outside the awareness of both parties involved. Projective Identification is a term first