Understanding the defense of introjection

We talk a lot about projection in our field, but not nearly enough about it's corollary - introjection. Introjection is a defensive process in which the child internalizes the feelings, beliefs and attitudes that the parent projects onto and into the child. In so doing, the child preserves the illusion that the parent is "good" and s/he is the bad one. These introjected feelings and attitudes often have lasting, albeit, unconscious influence on the patient's sense of self. Helping the patient face the reality of what happened and their true feelings about it so they can get clear about who is who and what is what, is an essential therapeutic goal.