Those items in the environment (people or things) that strongly affect us instead of just informing us are usually our own projections. Items that bother us, upset us, repulse us, or at the other extreme, attract us, compel us, obsess us- these are usually reflections of the shadow. As an old proverb has it, "I looked, and looked, and this I came to see: That what I thought was you and you, was really me and me."