Delusional Projection

Delusional projection is considered one of the most primitive psychoanalytic defense mechanisms, in which a person experiences delusions about external reality, typically of a persecutory nature, as a way of managing internal conflict. It sits at what psychoanalytic theory calls the pathological level of defense, alongside mechanisms such as denial and splitting, because it distorts a person's basic grasp of reality rather than merely coloring their interpretation of it.