Projective identification: between internal phantasy and interpersonal enactment

A conversation with David Bell interviewed by Anna Zajenkowska. This interview explores the focus of this special issue: the search for a common language between psychoanalysis and social psychology. These two traditions have long developed in parallel, often describing similar phenomena through different conceptual vocabularies. This challenge is not limited to the space between disciplines – it is similarly visible within psychoanalysis itself, where the concept of projective identification carries a range of meanings and where the same term may be understood in substantially different ways even among those who use it. David Bell is a psychoanalyst and psychiatrist widely known for his theoretical work on psychoanalytic concepts, such as projective identification. The interview was conducted by Anna Zajenkowska, a researcher whose work focuses on hostility biases and social cognition, and who is also a practising group analyst with a deep commitment to understanding relational processes. Despite consisting of only two voices, the conversation that follows encompasses several distinct perspectives – scientific, psychiatric, psychoanalytic, relational, and individual – reflecting the breadth of the territory that the concept of projective identification continues to occupy.