Summary
Introjection is the unconscious taking-in of other people’s attitudes, values or traits, so that they come to feel like one’s own. The term is psychoanalytic. Sándor Ferenczi introduced it in 1909, and Sigmund Freud held that the superego, the inner critical voice, is built by introjecting parents and other authority figures. It’s treated both as an ordinary part of growing up, as when a child takes on parental values, and as a defence against anxiety.
Gestalt therapists Fritz and Laura Perls later contrasted it with assimilation. An introject is an idea swallowed whole; assimilated experience has been chewed over, tasted, and then accepted or rejected.
Rationale
Introjection describes, one person at a time, what Part 2 calls enculturation. The Perls’ remedy, tasting what was swallowed whole, is near our interest in helping people notice assumptions “that normally go unnoticed or unquestioned”.