Keith Olbermann obviously had fun re-enacting the voices of an e-mail dispute over the name "Elizabeth." Maybe too much fun.
Or maybe he was practicing "psychological projection."
Or maybe it was plain ol' misogyny.
Or maybe something in him, repressed for so-o-o-o long, is yearning to break free.
Psychological mysteries to be unraveled, on MSNBC every night. If we keep watching Keith long enough, all his inner demons will emerge briefly--before he is whisked off to extended treatment. It's only a matter of time.
Here's what Wikipedia has to say about "psychological projection":
Psychological projection (or projection bias) is when a person's personal attributes, thoughts, and/or emotions are ascribed onto another person or people. A modern view of projections is that they are prerequisites for normal social functioning. A person who is incapable of ascribing his/hers own feelings on other people would have great difficulties in understanding them. This may happen in Aspergers Syndrome.
In classical psychology projection are always seen as a defense mechanism which occurs when a person's own unacceptable or threatening feelings are repressed and then attributed to someone else.
An example of this behavior might be blaming another for one's own failure. The mind may avoid the discomfort of consciously admitting personal faults by keeping those feelings unconscious, and redirect their libidinal satisfaction by attaching, or "projecting," those same faults onto another.
Projection reduces anxiety by allowing the expression of the unwanted unconscious impulses or desires without letting the conscious mind recognize them.
The theory was developed by Sigmund Freud and further refined by his daughter Anna Freud; for this reason, it is sometimes referred to as "Freudian Projection"
H/T: Anne Schroeder of Politico.
