21/09/2025
Call for Papers: Projective Identification Meets Attributional Bias — Toward an Interdisciplinary Dialogue Between Psychoanalysis and Social Psychology.
We are delighted to announce a Call for Papers for a special issue of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. Guest Editor: Anna Zajenkowska has the pleasure of leading this special issue.
This issue aims to open an interdisciplinary dialogue between psychoanalysis and social psychology, focusing on the intersection between projective identification and attributional biases. We welcome contributions from psychoanalysts, social psychologists, developmental researchers, clinicians, and interdisciplinary scholars interested in bridging these domains.
🔹 Key topics include:
• How projective identification can be studied and operationalized in social psychology and social cognition.
• Clinical, theoretical, or empirical insights into how interpersonal communication is shaped by projective identification and hostile attributional biases.
• Applications across contexts: dyads, families, organizations, politics, and societies.
📅 Timeline:
• November 15, 2025 – Deadline for Letters of Intent (LOI, max. 1000 words)
• December 15, 2025 – Invitations for full submissions
• March 30, 2026 – Full papers due
📖 Submission format:
We invite Letters of Intent (LOI) summarizing the planned contribution (max. 1000 words). Selected authors will be invited to submit full papers and to participate in the peer-review process.
We warmly encourage you to join us in this effort to create a shared space for theory, research, and clinical insight across disciplines (contact: a.zajenkowska@vizja.pl)
🔗 Full submission guidelines:
Call for Papers: Projective Identification Meets Attributional Bias — Toward an Interdisciplinary Dialogue Between Psychoanalysis and Social Psychology
We invite contributions that explore the intersection of psychoanalytic theory and social psychology, particularly through the lenses of projective identification and attributional biases. This special issue aims to foster interdisciplinary dialogue, highlighting how deep intrapsychic processes and social-cognitive mechanisms jointly shape interpersonal experience, meaning-making, behavior, and psychopathology.
Projective identification is a central concept in psychoanalysis, describing not only a defense mechanism but also a complex interpersonal dynamic wherein an individual unconsciously projects disowned feelings, thoughts, or traits onto another person. Unlike simple projection, the projector subtly induces or pressures the other to feel, think, or act in accordance with the projected material. When enacted, projective identification becomes embedded in relational patterns. When acknowledged and contained—by a caregiver, therapist, or relational counterpart—it can serve as a powerful form of emotional communication.
In early development, projective identification allows infants and young children to express and share overwhelming or unformulated emotional states. Caregivers who can receive, process, and “translate” these affective communications help the child develop emotional insight, regulation, and symbolic language. However, if these communications are unrecognized or unprocessed, they may later give rise to maladaptive attributional patterns in adulthood. This is how the social psychological concept of attributional biases potentially intersects with psychoanalytic ideas like projective identification.
In social psychology, attributional biases are systematic distortions in how individuals interpret and explain the causes of behavior—both their own and others’. These cognitive shortcuts often lead to misinterpretations, particularly in ambiguous or emotionally charged situations. For instance, people may perceive unclear interactions as threatening, a phenomenon known as the hostile attribution or hostile perception bias. In this context, projective identification can, in some cases, be understood as a relational process that manifests cognitively as a hostile attribution bias. This reveals how different disciplines may use distinct terms to describe similar phenomena, exposing both conceptual overlaps and tensions. The lack of shared language between psychoanalysis, social psychology, and related disciplines can hinder theoretical integration and clinical or applied understanding. Moreover, the absence of a common vocabulary may inadvertently reinforce projective identification dynamics between subdisciplines, fueling conflict rather than fostering productive communication.
This special issue seeks to create a space for interdisciplinary exchange—bringing together developmental, clinical, cognitive, and social psychological perspectives. Projective identification is not only a clinical phenomenon but also a mode of communication across diverse relational contexts: between caregivers and children, partners, colleagues, political actors, and social groups.
We especially welcome contributions that:
• Explore how projective identification can be studied and operationalized within social psychological or social cognitive research;
• Offer clinical, theoretical, or empirical insights into how interpersonal communication is shaped by mechanisms of projective identification and hostile biases across diverse social-relational contexts in dyads, small and large groups (including organizations and societies).
We encourage submissions from psychoanalysts, social psychologists, developmental researchers, clinicians, and interdisciplinary scholars interested in bridging these domains.
Submission Guidelines:
To align editorial and author(s) visions, we will implement a two-tier review process. First, we invite Letters of Intent (LOI) (maximum 1000 words) summarizing the planned contribution and how it addresses the criteria described above. Authors are encouraged to contact the guest editor to discuss potential suitability before submitting a Letter of Intent. Based on the LOIs, the guest editor will invite full submissions. Authors invited to submit will also be required to serve as peer reviewers alongside those selected via traditional processes.
Proposed Special Issue Timeline:
o September 15, 2025 – Call for Letters of Intent (LOI)
o November 15, 2025 – Deadline for Letters of Intent
o December 15, 2025 – Invitations sent for full submissions
o March 30, 2026 – Full submissions due
o May 30, 2026 – Peer reviews due
o June 30, 2026 – Review decisions sent to authors
o September 15, 2026 – Revised manuscripts due
o October 15, 2026 – Final manuscripts due to the journal
For further reading and inspiration, consider for example Amy Pinkham’s research on social cognition, Christopher Bollas’ concept of “unthought known,” James Grotstein’s work on “projective transidentification,” and Danique Smeijers’ studies on hostile biases.
Their and many other papers are accessible via Goole Scholar.
Additional submission guidelines can be found here: https://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?show=instructions&journalCode=rpps20
