The Problem with Projecting Emotions Onto Others

Without the proper social-emotional knowledge, it’s easy to engage in several defence mechanisms instead of actually confronting the actual issues at hand. Whether we have realised it or not, I’m sure every one of us has projected our own emotions onto someone else. Projecting emotions is one of the most common psychological defence mechanisms, and most people have no idea when they have done so…myself included.  

I’ve always had a difficult time expressing my emotions. In the past, whenever I was upset about something I would resort to projecting those emotions on my loved ones instead of asking for help. It was never easy for me to be vulnerable and talk about my feelings, so instead, I would bottle everything up and take it out on my close friends and family. Even to this day, I wish I could have seen that by projecting my emotions I was not only hurting myself but also those around me.