nags of a similar ilk

Ben took a touchy-feely class in graduate school that taught everyone how to communicate better.

One of the exercises they did taught them about people projecting their emotions, feelings, history onto the situation and onto the other person's responses. The term they used for this process is crossing the net.

It basically means rather than taking a situation for what it is, someone interprets the situation, often poorly, based on his emotions and mood of the moment.

The lesson learned with the exercise is to see a situation as it is, take a step back if needed, but don't project onto the situation and don't cross the net.

Ben can explain it much better, I think.