Dear Frustrated in Fresno, It is very normal that your friend Matt is assigning his feelings to another person. What Matt is doing can be explained by Sigmund Freud’s Projection theory. Freud said that psychological projection is when one places his/her own desires, motivations and undesirable feelings or thoughts onto someone instead of admitting to or dealing with their own unwanted feelings. This sounds exactly like what your friend Matt is doing! Projection is a defense mechanism. The reason Matt is projecting his own unpleasant thoughts onto his coworkers is because it is easier for him to justify these negative emotions that he feels by blaming someone else. By placing these undesirable emotions onto someone else Matt is coping
