Projection — How Abusers and Victims Both Use It

Emotional abusers employ projection regularly. Actually, we all do. Projection isn’t wrong in and of itself, it is part of normal life. It happens so commonly that we are unaware of it when we do it. Naturally, catching someone else projecting onto us can be even more difficult. Projection is often not spoken aloud. It is frequently just part of the attitudes and expectations of the one who is projecting.

Projection allows normal people to interact with others, especially people we don’t know well. We are projecting when we assume that another person is familiar with the same things we are. We use our own experience and perspective to build a more “complete” mental picture of who this new person is in our life, and what they are like.

This is where we start from in a new relationship. Projection can consist of a myriad of things, many of them…