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# Introjection
- URL: https://www.descentpress.com/index/introjection/
- Published: 2026-09-05T04:40:52.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-10T01:41:58.000Z
- Description: >
- Author: Jae Botávn
- Tags: #index

## 1\. Etymology

**Introjection** names a **process of assimilation of object to subject**, the opposite of [projection](https://www.descentpress.com/index/projection/). Related: [empathy](https://www.descentpress.com/index/empathy/); [libido](https://www.descentpress.com/index/libido/) investment; passive vs active.

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## 2\. Plain summary

Sharp treats introjection as a process of [extraversion](https://www.descentpress.com/index/extraversion/) in a specific sense: assimilating to the object requires [empathy](https://www.descentpress.com/index/empathy/) and investing the object with [libido](https://www.descentpress.com/index/libido/). Passive introjection includes [transference](https://www.descentpress.com/index/transference/) phenomena and cases where the object compels the subject; active introjection includes empathy as adaptation.

Samuels: opposite of [projection](https://www.descentpress.com/index/projection/); attempt to internalize experience; Jung wrote of it far less than projection (typological note: as introvert he more often projected to meet the outer world). Empathy, for Jung, more explicitly uses introjection—taking the other’s personality or situation inside—rather than projecting ego into another’s psyche.

**Examples (exhaustive house list for this Index lemma — common introjection motifs named across Jung’s essays and standard Jungian lexica; not a claim that Jung’s CW contains only these):**  
object → subject assimilation; opposite of [projection](https://www.descentpress.com/index/projection/); empathy + [libido](https://www.descentpress.com/index/libido/) investment; passive ([transference](https://www.descentpress.com/index/transference/) / compelling object); active (empathy as adaptation); internalize experience; less frequent in Jung than projection; kinship with [assimilation](https://www.descentpress.com/index/assimilation/) / [identification](https://www.descentpress.com/index/identification/).

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## 3\. Academic elucidation

In analytical psychology introjection is **object-to-subject assimilation**—Definitions ¶768\. Descent Press keeps Sharp and Samuels in §4\. Prefer CW 6 ¶768.

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## 4\. Lexicon

**Sharp (1991)**

> Introjection. A process of assimilation of object to subject, the opposite of projection. … A passive and an active introjection may be distinguished: transference phenomena… belong to the former category… while empathy as a process of adaptation belongs to the latter category.

(Sharp, 1991) — cites CW 6 ¶768 in Sharp’s lemma.

**Samuels, Shorter & Plaut (1986)** — *introjection* p. **85** (house vessel neighborhood.

> introjection The opposite of PROJECTION; an attempt to internalise experience. … Jung’s approach to empathy makes explicit use of introjection rather more than of projection…

(Samuels, Shorter, & Plaut, 1986, p. **85**)

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## 5\. CW concordance — sample, not exhaustive

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**See also:** [projection](https://www.descentpress.com/index/projection/); [empathy](https://www.descentpress.com/index/empathy/); [assimilation](https://www.descentpress.com/index/assimilation/); [transference](https://www.descentpress.com/index/transference/); [identification](https://www.descentpress.com/index/identification/); [libido](https://www.descentpress.com/index/libido/); [extraversion](https://www.descentpress.com/index/extraversion/).

## References

Samuels, A., Shorter, B., & Plaut, F. (1986). *A critical dictionary of Jungian analysis*. Routledge.

Sharp, D. (1991). *Jung lexicon: A primer of terms & concepts*. Inner City Books.

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