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 Projection is a normal process by which our charged design
contents are projected onto the outer world. This is similar to the action of a
slide projector shining its image onto a screen. We may project our aggression
onto someone else such that we see that person as very aggressive, and because
we have projected out that aggression we therefore view ourselves as not having
developed that trait. We project not only onto people but also onto situations
and objects. We could project an energy tone onto the inkblot of a Rorschach
test. By definition, projection is an unconscious action and so all projection
is projection of our potential.
The benefits of Projection.
 | Projection protects us. It is a defense mechanism and a coping
mechanism. We project psychological elements that we are not ready to
confront. Even if we are devoted to the ideal of self knowledge, no one has
the resources, time, energy, knowledge, courage, and strength to deal
completely with every internal and external dilemma that arises. Projection
lets us set aside certain conflicts by projecting them outward so that we can
focus on something else at this time. Our potential must be projected if the
ego is not yet sufficiently strong to endure our potential's contrary stance. |
| Projection calls attention to our psychological dynamics and our design
elements. |
| Projection adds meaning. A man may be interested in a woman as a friend,
or sexual partner, or simply as a person. When his anima projects onto her, his
interactions with the woman are charged with heightened importance and purpose. |
| Projection mobilizes us. We project an image representing a psychological
factor and also the energy that is associated with that element. We lose energy
when we project, and then we are motivated not only by the intriguing image, but
also by our unconscious desire to reclaim the vitality that we have put onto
someone. |
| Projection connects us to other people.
 | Individuals. When we project onto another person, we literally see
something of ourselves there, this projection grants a point of contact and
familiarity. |
| Society. We can form a commonality with a group of people, when we
are projecting onto a common object such as a cultural icon or a national
flag. |
| Projection allows us to affirm the values of our group. Projection is
innately hypocritical in that we are denying a characteristic that is within our
own potential. It is however, a means by which a society comes together in
agreement regarding its values. |
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Projection can be either productive or
destructive.
Misused, it can cause the following dilemmas:
| Projections distort our perceptions and our resulting actions. Our
impression of a person is mixed with the projection that we have cast upon
him or her. Our actions are responses to what we perceive, and those actions
are inappropriate to the extent to which our perceptions are incorrect and
our perceptions are incorrect to the extent to which our trait has been
projected. Depending on the element that is projected, we will encounter
additional concerns. For example:
| Potential. When we project the feared and hated elements of our
potential, we see the outer world as more dangerous and unpleasant than
it really is, so we become more frightened, aggressive, judgmental, or
discouraged.
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| The anima or animus. When we project this design of the ideal
individual, we expect the person to live up to the ideal, and we can
become disappointed or manipulative, as we try to change the person to
match the image. |
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We cause conflicts with people and objects. We have not come to terms
with the projected traits within ourselves, and we will have similar
problems with the people and objects onto whom we have projected the traits.
If we are intolerant of our own lack of discipline, we are intolerant of
people who have received our projection of lack of discipline.
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Our relationships are less intimate and effective. We are interacting
more with our projection than with the person, and the person is interacting
more with his or her projection than with us. We can hardly discern one
another's actual words, actions, and other communications and, those things
tend to be misunderstood. Projection results in what Jung called imaginary
relationships, so we are emotionally distant from the person simply because
we are not engaging with the person. These imaginary relationships are
particularly apparent when we fall in love with someone when in fact we are
responding primarily to the projection of our own anima or animus.
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We lose a part of ourselves. When we deny and project a quality from
our potential, we cannot use that quality. If we project our capacity for
anger, we aren't able to use this psychological function when it is required
for us to defend ourselves. When a man projects his animus feminine
qualities he is less able to express qualities such as compassion, love, and
intuition. He may even feel envy toward the person who has received his
projections.
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We lose control of our lives. We unconsciously select certain people
to be our friends or enemies simply because they are suitable recipients of
our projections. We relinquish control in other ways:
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We experience emotions that arise solely because we are responding to
a projection. |
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We are unable to perceive reality beneath the projected image. |
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We can be manipulated by people who would have no power over us if we
had not projected some of our power onto them. |
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| We give faulty feedback to people. If we are responding to our own
projections rather than to them, we are depriving them of realistic
feedback. If they believe the glorious sweet nothings that we tell them when
we fall in love with them, and we are projecting our anima or animus, they
mistakenly think that they are more lovable than they are. Through the
responses that people receive from us, they create and discover their social
identity, and they judge their competence in communication, persona
development, social finesse, and other interpersonal skills. |
| Projections can overpower people. The best defense against
projections lies in a strong ego. We know who we are, so we can reject the
image and energy of contrary projections. For example:
| Some adults turn into children when visiting parents project their
image of them as their kids. Part of our adolescent rebellion is the
rejection of our parents' projections so that we can define our own
identity. |
| A teacher projects failure onto a student, who accepts the image and
then unconsciously strives to live down to that image. |
| A recovering drug addict is drawn back into an addiction lifestyle by
people who convince the addict that he or she is incapable of staying
drug free. Those people are projecting their own faults onto the addict. |
| Celebrities can be severely stressed when they receive projections
from millions of fans. One writer suggested that the suicide of Marilyn
Monroe is partially attributable to her psychological damage that was
caused by the anima projection of so many men. |
Projections are charged with energy.
 These elements have a charge of energy, because we are not
expressing their
energy in the present circumstance such as a circumstance that evokes anger
which we then repress, or the elements have a residual energy from a previous
design encounter in which we did not properly release the energy. When we are
not releasing that energy willfully by expressing it through our actions, it
escapes from us and then naturally moves like iron to a magnet to a suitable
host through the process of projection. Sometimes that person can feel the
energy that is projected. The energy is noticeable when a politician is
invigorated by the constituents' projection of the Leader design, or when a rock
star is incited by the fans' projections of their repressed wildness, or when a
man feels intense energy from a woman who has projected her anima onto him and
who thus perceives him as an idealized male, or when a celebrity seems to glow
with charisma. When we receive projected energy, we can intuitively gain
knowledge regarding the sender. One reason why a police officer's attention is
instinctively drawn to a suspicious person is because the person has denied his
or her lawfulness and is therefore projecting that detectable energy onto the
police officer who represents lawfulness. The criminal is subtly, unconsciously
drawn to that police officer and to justice, in a desire to reclaim that
projected energy and content. This unconscious desire for correction and
wholeness could explain why only the honest criminals are caught. It is one
reason for imperfect crimes in which mistakes create evidence that leads to an
arrest.
We can recognize our projections.
To minimize the destructiveness and
inefficiency caused by projections, we can start by identifying those
projections. The process of identifying projections is similar to the process of
identifying design elements. In either case, we are recognizing charged
elements.
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| Our inaccurate perceptions.
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| Our inappropriate reactions. We naturally respond to people with our
liking or disliking, interest or disinterest. If we have cast a projection
onto someone, we react with an additional charge, which is the charge we
have projected from our own designs. Our reaction can be expressed as an
undue and exaggerated irritation, fascination, obsession, infatuation,
hatred, astonishment, or praise. A list of the traits to which we respond is
a description of our own traits that we have projected.
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| Our inappropriate expectations. We expect people to fulfill the trait
that we have cast upon them. Whenever someone fails to meet our assumptions,
we may discover a projection.
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| Patterns in our life. Until we reclaim and discharge the elements
that we have projected, they will project themselves onto one person and
then another. We will repeatedly encounter the same difficulties in
relationships with lovers, employers, co-workers, and other people. We will
stereotype people, because we are seeing the reiterated projections rather
than the individuals.
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Self awareness. Sometimes our recognition of a projection starts when
we see an exaggerated quality in our external world and then we look inward
to find our potential for that same quality. If the world seems to be an
excessively violent place, we can find that we are projecting our own
repressed aggression. At other times, the process occurs in reverse. As we
gain self awareness, we look inward and discover that a trait seems to be
absent, and then we look outward for the person onto whom we have projected
that trait.
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Psychological testing. Psychologists search for our projections
through such tests as the Rorschach inkblot test, sentence completion tests,
or the Thematic Appreciation Test (TAT) in which we are asked to explain
what seems to be occurring in various photos. As in real life, we project
our conflicts and other psychological activity onto these images and
statements.
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Our recognition of exaggerated traits in people. One reason for the
difficulty in identifying projections is the fact that they are cast onto
people who already have the trait that we are projecting onto them. We
naturally project our repressed anger onto an angry person. Our projected
anger makes the person appear to be even angrier. The person's pre-existing
trait is called the projection's hook. In this process, the repressed energy
leaves us when we are in the presence of someone who has a similar energy.
This is an automatic matching procedure in which our energy responds to an
external energy that matches ours. We do not have to be in the physical
presence of the person. If we are merely thinking about the person, we are
in his or her mental presence. We can note other phenomena regarding hooks:
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Next topic: Attachment |
