# Projection

- Link: https://clearingintheforest.org/projection/
- Published: 2026-10-20T21:59:56+00:00
- Author: Saal_clearingforest

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[ All pages ](https://clearingintheforest.org/?page_id=267#pages)

[ Freud ](https://clearingintheforest.org/?page_id=467)

Freud's friend →

[ Ferenczi ](https://clearingintheforest.org/?page_id=468)

Ferenczi's patient →

[ Klein ](https://clearingintheforest.org/?page_id=469)

Klein's rival →

[ Anna Freud ](https://clearingintheforest.org/?page_id=470)

Klein's patient →

[ Bion ](https://clearingintheforest.org/?page_id=471)

Feelings on the Move · 1 of 5

# Projection

Seeing your feeling on someone else

SF

Meet the person

## Sigmund Freud

1856–1939

A doctor in Vienna who did something odd for his time: he let patients talk, and
he **listened**. He called it the “talking cure”. He noticed people often pin their
own feelings onto others without knowing. In 1938, aged 82, he escaped the Nazis
and came to London. His house in Hampstead is now the Freud Museum.

## The idea

Think of a cinema projector. The film is **inside the projector**. The picture shows
up **on the screen**. Projection is the same: the feeling is inside you, but you
see it on someone else. The screen doesn't change. Only how you see it does.

Projection: “I’m not angry. YOU’RE angry.”

## Has this ever happened to you?

Been sure someone was annoyed with you, then realised _you_ were annoyed with _them_?
Called someone lazy on a day you hadn’t done your own homework?Felt embarrassed 
and thought “everyone’s staring at me”?Blamed the controller, the ref or the ball
when you lost?

**Catch it:** when you’re sure what someone else feels, ask yourself, “Is this _my_
feeling?”

## Spot it

Maya is jealous of her friend Sam’s new phone. She tells everyone, “Sam is _so_ 
jealous of me.” What is Maya doing?

[ Next: Introjection → ](https://clearingintheforest.org/?page_id=468)

▸ For grown-ups: sources

[Ref: Freud S. (1895) Draft H: Paranoia. Standard Edition vol. 1. London: Hogarth
Press]

[Ref: Freud S. (1911) Psycho-analytic notes on an autobiographical account of a 
case of paranoia (Schreber). Standard Edition vol. 12. London: Hogarth Press]

Written by **Dr Saal Seneviratne**, Consultant Psychiatrist at [The Burlington Clinic](https://www.theburlingtonclinic.com),
London · Last reviewed 21 October 2026 · [About these pages](https://clearingintheforest.org/about/)