Site Location: Home > Drug and Alcohol Information > Common Defenses > Projection

Drug and Alcohol Information

- Projection -

Overview

Unpleasant feelings and thoughts are sometimes hard to accept, especially if they don't fit our own image of who we want to be or who we ought to be. Anger, hatred, rage, jealousy, fear, and many other emotions can be hard to incorporate into our own self-image. We don't like to see ourselves as angry, fearful, or bitter people, so we are often tempted to disown those feelings. One way of disowning thoughts and feelings is to project them onto other people. We convince ourselves that those unpleasant thoughts and feelings are coming from someone else and not from us.

For example, if we are angry at a spouse but are too uncomfortable with the feeling to admit it, we may accuse our spouse of being angry rather than owning the feeling ourselves.

The difficulty with projecting our feelings and thoughts onto others is that this practice causes conflict in our relationships and detracts from the authenticity of our way of being. Persons who are addicted to drugs or alcohol often use projection as one of many ways of avoiding true feelings, but the way to recovery is recognizing the painful feelings and learning to own them for what they are.

Back to Common Defenses

eGetgoing addiction treatment and drug rehab program

Online Treatment
How Online Treatment Works Drug and Alcohol Information Frequently Asked Questions Adolescent Treatment Website
eGetgoing, Inc.
About Us Information For Substance Abuse Professionals Current News Resources

Addiction Information Chemical Dependency Is Chemical Dependency Treatable? The Risk of Addiction Disease Model Disease Progression Common Defenses Types of Dependency Enabling Addictive Drugs Glossary