In Psychotherapy
As with transference and countertransference, projective identification can however function not only as a source of interpersonal confusion, but also as a potential key to therapeutic understanding.
Thus in object relations theory, when projective identification is seen to be used as a form of affective communication, it has become accepted that projective identification may unconsciously aim to get rid of unmanageable feelings but it also serves to get help with feelings. As a result, the therapist's capacity for the toleration and containment of the projected identifications of unwanted aspects of the patient's self, particularly the negative aspects, for very considerable periods of time is considered an essential therapeutic resource.
Similarly in transactional analysis, where projective identification may be seen to have the force of hypnotic inductions when a person's Adult is decommissioned, drawing the recipient into the projector's script drama, the same process equally provides very useful information if the therapist's Adult is unimpaired.
Read more about this topic: Projective Identification