It’s a recession. Your income is down. You are thinking of borrowing from your pension funds to pay for your child’s college tuition, but the value of the equity in your pension is well below your retirement goal.
Just then, a policeman pulls up slowly along side your car and looks at you. Although you have done nothing wrong, you are inexplicably very nervous about getting a moving violation and having to pay more for car insurance. When he passes you by, you silently say to yourself, “He must already have his quota or he would have found a reason to give me a ticket.”
You arrive at the dentist for your annual teeth cleaning. The dental hygienist tells you that it would be wise to schedule a second cleaning in four months because your plaque build up is substantial. You immediately feel she is simply trying to generate more income from you; and you let her know she is not going to double her income off cleaning your teeth - “Try that line on someone else’s teeth.”
When you get home you tell your spouse about your stressful encounters with the policeman who slowed down and stared at you and the dental hygienist who wanted to make extra money by seeing you every four months instead of once a year.
It doesn’t occur to you to mention you were feeling very anxious about how you’re going to fund your son’s education. Instead, you got “relief” by splitting off that anxiety about finances from yourself and projecting it into the minds of the policeman and the dental hygienist - each of whom were probably just doing their job, not looking for extra money.