2. What Is Projection? A Practical Guide

Last updated on 22 Oct 2025

Projection describes the psychological process through which I unconsciously project material from my inner world onto the outer world—and then believe I'm perceiving it there.

Sounds complicated at first, but it's not at all.

The Foundation: What Is Projection?

Projection means:

I have something in me that I'm not aware of
This can be very different things—what this unconscious material is, more on that in a moment
I'm not aware of it, but I can project it onto the outer world, so to speak
And then believe I'm perceiving in the outer world exactly what's actually in me

So—that's the foundation.

What Kind of Unconscious Material Gets Projected?

Now the question is: What could be unconscious material that I project?

And the main points that usually come up there are:

1. Unconscious Emotions

Unconscious emotions—that is: emotions that I have right now but that I don't feel.

2. Beliefs

Beliefs—that is, aspects of how I assess, perceive the world or myself, but perhaps don't even know that I have them.

3. Attitudes

And also whole attitudes—attitudes toward life.

These could be things like moods that aren't really emotions but always present moods.

Or even very clear body postures that I don't sense in myself but transfer to the outer world—for example, a collapse.

And although I actually have the posture of collapse, I perceive in the outer world: "Everything is boring."

That's unconscious material.

An Important Point

Very important point: It's completely normal that we're not aware of everything in us. And it's also completely normal that we project certain aspects of it outward and perceive them in the outer world.

So you could say: Projections are actually the points where I say something like: "This is how you are, this is how the world is."

I've projected aspects that are in me outward—and don't perceive them in me, not in us.

Examples of Projections

Example 1: Projecting Anger

A typical example: I project an emotion in me that I can't perceive.

I believe we all do this, and we all do this very regularly.

Anger: Particularly Visible

An emotion where you can see this particularly well is anger.

I am angry. I usually have exactly two ways to project this outward:

Variant 1: You Are Angry

Either I project: "You're actually angry."

I'm not angry, but: "You're angry! You've been walking around with such a face all day today!"

I believe: You have the emotion that I have.

Variant 2: The World Makes Me Angry

The second possibility of how I can project is that instead of feeling "I am angry" in me, I see in the outside many reasons that make me angry:

"That's just stupid"
"It's wrong"
"You did that wrong"

The Driving Example

For me, best seen: Driving.

Someone already has some—a bit—of basic tension. And then while driving, someone cuts them off, or someone takes the right of way—and everything explodes:

"You asshole! How can you drive like that?! You asshole!"

All of that gets projected outward: "You're doing it wrong, you're stupid, you didn't drive correctly."

I don't even notice that I was perhaps already angry before. I perhaps don't even quite notice that I'm angry right now.

I only notice: "What happened there is wrong."

The Argument Example

An example of how we might see this in our own lives is arguments.

When I have the impression: "You just wronged me"—and we're in a stress situation where I perhaps on one level still notice "I'm maybe a bit angry"—but what I'm mainly concerned with is: "You just said that!"

The Dynamic

And how hard it can be to get out of this dynamic where I only see that you just said something that hurt me.

I perhaps didn't even notice that I'm actually angry, and I'm dealing with my own anger.

The Back and Forth

So you can see arguments where this back and forth emerges and we accuse each other, attack each other—precisely because what's in us in terms of feelings, we mainly see in my counterpart and say: "You're responsible for this."

We project what's in us outward and always see the reasons, the responsibility, outside.

Example 2: Projecting Beliefs

The same can happen with beliefs.

"I Can't Do That"

I perhaps have a belief that says: "I can't do that."

I perhaps don't even know that I have this belief, but actually: As soon as someone makes a suggestion to me, immediately comes: "I can't do that."

The Mechanics

I don't perceive in myself that I have this generalized belief.

Instead: Whenever someone makes a suggestion to me:

"Hey, we could do that"
"Hey, wouldn't you like to try to achieve this goal?"

Immediately comes from me: "I can't do that."

Even More Interesting: Projecting onto Others

And perhaps even more interesting: When then someone else, for example my counterpart, says: "Then I'll just do it. Then I'll just do it alone."

I can even transfer this: "Oh, that won't work out anyway."

Not because this person, this human perhaps can't do it, but because I transfer this conviction of "I can't do that, it's too much" and similar things from my inside outward and think in the outside: "They'll fail at that, I can't do it."

I didn't notice: That's my belief.

Example 3: Projecting Fear (Especially in Sessions)

One way this especially likes to show up in sessions is that often at the points—both in therapy, in coaching, and in bodywork—where we're actually approaching points that are vulnerable but also very important, often fear comes up.

Here: Fear that has laid itself around this topic.

The Projection of Fear

And then we perhaps don't perceive the fear in us at all, but project it outward:

Variant 1: The Frame Isn't Safe

"You're not safe, this frame isn't safe."

That is: I as client, protagonist say: "This here isn't safe."—I believe that.

But I perhaps don't even notice that I currently have a feeling of fear.

I'm suddenly convinced that the frame isn't safe.

Variant 2: You Have Fear

Another projection could also be:

"You have fear right now. Are you sure that's okay for you right now? That it now—is that so? Are you really sure?"

And here too I perhaps again don't notice in myself that I have fear, but am quite convinced that my counterpart doesn't feel comfortable with this right now.

Summary

That means: Briefly expressed once more:

Definition