Ask Lemmy

I mean the way you explained it does make sense for them to do, for example if I had a certain medical condition, I might see someone describe it in terms I'd describe and say "it sounds like you might have MS", but the confusing side/aspect of it, to me, comes from exchanges where someone is, for example, accusing another person of being an art thief, and that person responds "stop projecting, you're the art thief" (or, alternatively, the act of projecting is hard to think of a lead-up for). And it happens often enough I scratch my head at how it's seen as having gravity.

I've seen/heard it described as "psychologically caused", but I've never been in a situation where I've felt gravitation towards doing it, or, strictly speaking (which I say that way because it might boil down to coincidence when I describe others doing it, so I'm saying it relatively loosely in those instances), suspected it. It reminds me of how long it took me to understand sarcasm, which I still take literally, since "I didn't know you were being sarcastic" when they were is easier to fathom as a plea for forgiveness than "I thought you were being sarcastic" in response to someone being sarcastic.