**🔼 Up:** [[Defence Mechanisms]] **\#️⃣ Tags:** #Psychology #DefenceMechanism > **🌱 Planted:** Mon 20 January 2025 --- ***Projective Identification compels others to take on projected emotions***. Projective Identification (PI) was introduced by psychoanalyst [[Melanie Klein]] as part of her work in [[Object Relations]], and is a [[Defence Mechanisms|Defence Mechanism]] that extends beyond simple [[Projection|Projection]] where the projector attributes and pushes their unacceptable emotions and feelings onto someone else. In PI, the projector takes this a step further by unconsciously influencing or manipulating the other person to embody and identify with those projections to the point where the other person actually experiences and feels these emotions as if they were their own. This can create a self-fulfilling prophecy where the projector's initial belief about the other person is confirmed by the other person's behaviour, which has of course been created by the projector. It is a complex process which involves: 1. [[Splitting|Splitting]] — Where a person struggles to tolerate complexity, ambiguity or nuance in themselves or others and tends to see things in extremes—all good or all bad. This is the foundational basis upon which PI is fuelled. 4. [[Projection|Projection]] — The projector unconsciously pushes their unacceptable and disavowed parts of self onto someone else. 5. [[Introjection|Introjection]] — The person who receives the projection unconsciously absorbs and internalises the projected material. 6. Control — The projector acts in a way that attempts to overtly or covertly manipulate the other person to experience themselves in accordance with the projectors unconscious projections. 7. [[Identification|Identification]] — The person who receives the projection begins to unconsciously align with the projected material, taking it on and integrating it as part of their sense of self and identity. # See Also - [[Projection|Projection]] and Projective Identification is driven by [[Splitting|Splitting]], where the person who is projecting is unable to accept, acknowledge or tolerate the "bad" parts of themselves, so they instead project it outward onto others.