1. in psychoanalysis, a defense mechanism in which the individual projects qualities that are unacceptable to the self onto another individual and that person internalizes the projected qualities and believes himself or herself to be characterized by them appropriately and justifiably. See projection.

2. in the object relations theory of Melanie Klein, a defense mechanism in which a person fantasizes that part of his or her ego is split off and projected into the object in order to harm or to protect the disavowed part, thus allowing the individual to maintain a belief in his or her omnipotent control. Projective identification is a key feature of Klein’s paranoid-schizoid position. Building on Klein’s work, British psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion (1897–1979) theorized that, in normal communication development, an infant will project part of his or her mind into an object in order to have that part of the mind felt and understood by the object.