ABSTRACT
Projection in the simplest sense consists of putting something outside which really belongs to the inside, of getting it out of oneself. This is projective identification, roughly speaking. It has been said that projection represents a higher form of defense than projective identification when we come to consider personality development, and perhaps this is true in that it may represent a greater degree of individuation. But projection occurs at the cost of repression, and consequently of insufficient integration of certain disavowed aspects of the person's makeup. Projective identification may be a more primitive form of defense, or a more primitive mechanism, but certainly when it is dominant the aspect of object relatedness is better preserved. Projective identification is also used for the externalization of a superego introject, which isn't the same as the projection of an aspect of the self-representation.
