AIM Framework glossary
Projection
Canonical definition
Projection is Confabulation applied to others, the generation of sincere but inaccurate explanations for other Individuals' motivational states, using cognitively available Templates drawn from the projecting Individual's self-model, cultural repertoire, and activated categories.
Explanation
Projection is not a separate mechanism from Confabulation, it is Confabulation, extended from self to other. Vocabulary Gap excludes M as an available explanatory category, and the brain's demand for cognitive closure forces completion with available templates. The valence of projection varies (positive, negative, or neutral), but the inaccuracy is structural. Whether the Individual projects "they're driven by genuine passion" (positive) or "they're evil" (negative), both attributions are confabulated if the actual source was Mimetic, and the Mimetic attribution cannot occur because the template does not exist. This extends the invisibility of Mimetic dynamics from individual self-understanding to collective social understanding: an entire population confabulating each other's motivations using templates that systematically exclude the M-category.
Epistemic status
Framework-Specific Construct. Confabulation applied to others.