The asymptotic projection technique is used to investigate the polarization effect that arises from the interaction between the relaxed, and frozen monomeric charge densities of a set of neutral and charged hydrogen bonded complexes. The AP technique based on the resolution of the original Kohn-Sham equations can give an acceptable qualitative description of the polarization effect in neutral complexes. The significant overlap of the electron densities, in charged and pi-conjugated complexes, impose further development of a new functional, describing the coupling between constrained and non-constrained electron densities within the AP technique to provide an accurate representation of the polarization effect. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.