Projective identification, transference , and countertransference all model variations of intrapsychic projection . Perhaps you feel angry with me when your anger s true home lies buried in your connection with someone else. Your anger, perhaps denied and split off, weaves round a surrogate image. Those highly polarized feelings lodged within the unconscious somehow find a way around their ego s ability to deny them expression. They transferred themselves to a safer alternative.
Transference is an equal opportunity employer.
The fantasy of countertransference reciprocates this process. I experience my reactions to your projections onto me, rising up from within my deeply intrapsychic vulnerabilities, and I project these onto you. My response to your anger triggers some unconscious experience. I react, I defend . . . . I attach my reaction to you.