Psychological Projection
The hidden, crucial aspect of our experience of life, and how to understand its power within you.
The honest, simple truth of this particular moment is that a subject in my mind is being embedded onto this object you will eventually be able to see. That is, I am projecting these words, from within the mind, onto this blank page, and for a great deal of it, I have no semblance of a clue how it is occurring. Now, you can be sure I’ve made an effort to do my research and take notes, filling both my mind and various pages with information, and in the process of writing this am being intentional about what it is I am actually writing, who I am writing for, and the overall energy and flow of the words. However, a great deal of what is occurring in this present moment is happening on its own, through me (hands, eyes, and mind, specifically) as the medium, messenger, vehicle, call me what you like.
This is projection. It is happening in every moment of our lives, mostly on its own - subconsciously - and you might concede is absolutely necessary for the function of life. Without projection, I would be consciously directing my fingers tapping the keyboard, contemplating the meaning and context of every word and sentence I write, noticing the way I am breathing as I sit on this chair with my sacrum forward and back intentionally erect (good posture, folks). Every. Thing. Would. Be. Conscious. And that is quite laborious. Evolution appears to have it so that I am capable of bucketing a great deal of functionality into autonomous projections from my subconscious mind onto the objects in my interaction with life, in order for my conscious attention span to focus on deciphering new aspects of life, aspects of complexity, uncertainty, curiosity, necessity. This seems to be the case. And it is both useful and, at times, not so useful.
A glaring contrast between projection and common error is that an error can be corrected, without much difficulty, by better information and then dissolve like morning fog in the sunlight; while in the case of the projection, the person doing the projecting will tend to defend themselves, in most cases with profuse zealous or resolute ignorance, against any adjustment.
The vexing reality is that projection can be particularly not useful, even harmful, just when we are least able to perceive it. And this is part of the fabric of projection, it is woven into mind, a mind we can’t exactly see with our two eyes or feel out with our hands. And the earlier it was woven in, or the greater intensity in which this was achieved, the more it is ensconced in the fabric of the mind. For example, a child who has experienced a parent in a specifically negative (it could be equally as positive, by the way) form tends to project that image out onto figures with some, however minor, trait of that parent later in life. Even if that projected quality has barely a sliver of relevance to the other person, as they truly are. In fact, what is projected is not only a memory image as one might initially conclude, rather a sum of the characteristic qualities that makes up a part of the observed parent. It is all there, stored in the mind of the child-turned-adult. And the glaring contrast between projection and common error is that an error can be corrected, without much difficulty, by better information and then dissolve like morning fog in the sunlight; while in the case of the projection, the person doing the projecting will tend to defend themselves, in most cases with profuse zealous or resolute ignorance, against any adjustment. It can be a rather cumbersome adventure to see our own selves, as we truly are. Yet, at times when the disconnect between our mind and reality comes to materially affect our lives, it seems necessary. And beyond those situations, are we all not intimately seeking to become more whole? It can be enlightening to move some of our most powerful projections in day-to-day experience from the dark tunnel that is our subconscious, to the light of conscious awareness, where we can take the reins, with a yes, no, or maybe, baby. For this, one must peel back the layers of the onion that is our mind, and discover how these processes are actually functioning.
So, let us go back in time a little along the evolution spectrum to our more “primitive” ancestors, and attempt to peer in at how they experienced both them selves and life.
The Primitive Man
In primitive people, the ego as we understand it barely exists. Life is but a stream of events in the outside world which coalesce with the (subconscious) mind, barely differentiated. With the primitive the inside is infinitely more an outside, and the outside equally as woven with the inside. The objects they interact with in their lives come to take on far deeper meaning in their mind, because they are not separated, or minutely so. The object is the subject, and vice versa. This is evidenced in their fairytales and myths, in their relationship to the illuminating sun, to the spirit of the winds, the power of rock, and the healing nature of plants. To understand primitive people, one must appreciate this weaving of the external object with the psyche itself. And for many modern people, this is not a straightforward concept to understand. For the modern man experiences a differentiated consciousness, where the subject in the mind is separated from the objects in reality, by way of what we call consciousness today. It is the capacity to be aware, that creates this “open space” if you like, between “us” and “them”. And very early on in our lives, we fill this open space with “I” and “this is me”. We separate the autonomous mirror of the within and without, with the belief in our own identity.
Identity
When a child is born, it really doesn’t go around letting the neighbours know, “Hi, I am Alexandra. I was born just last spring. I’m a banker now and take trips to Tropea every summer. This past summer I became fond of this boy there, Constantino. Costa is actually from Milano. He’s a real dandy.” No, most certainly not. Initially, the child is quite alike the primitive, in that much of what they express and do is unconscious. However the seed is there, planted in the mind of the child, and as it sprouts, it does so in a particular way very much under the influence of the parents and the surrounding environment. For the purpose of identity for the most part, is to foster the proper integration of an individual into society. And in the modern, “cultivated” human, identity filters a great deal of what we project. Just how does that come about?
We may consciously project out onto the world the identity of “I am a kind heart”. And then what was left behind from that, for no one individual is exclusively “a kind heart”, finds its own way to project out as well, albeit unconsciously from the hidden recesses of the mind and oftentimes with greater volition than one’s conscious determination.
If you have ever observed young children closely over time, perhaps as a parent or older sibling, you might be familiar with that moment when the child just comes “to know”: to know this person, that thing, that place. This is the beginning of consciousness. And as the child starts to mature, those people, including the child themselves, as well as the things and places all start to acquire labels. Initially, the child refers to themselves in the third person. Then, at some point, Alexandra comes to believe she is “Alexandra”. “I am Alexandra, this is me”. And from here sprout an entire array of “I” perceptions of the world. My survival. My parents. My friends. The identity is forming in relationship to the aspects of the world around it. This identity is a function of that which the child comes to believe, or is made to believe, it needs for its own existence. As the integration into society continues, at some point (and for some people, not all), there is a recognition of a duality within the individual and the experience in life, of the “also-I”. A tension emerges. My survival within the context of this. My parents within the context of that. Finally, as the individual becomes enmeshed in the fabric of society, the identity begins to solidify. And the solidity of this identity is a crucial point, because with it come increasing certainties, whose opposing uncertainties filter back into the hidden layers of the mind. And both are projected. We may consciously project out onto the world the identity of “I am a kind heart”. And then what was left behind from that, for no one individual is exclusively “a kind heart”, finds its own way to project out as well, albeit unconsciously from the hidden recesses of the mind.
Identity and Projection
Let’s take a step sideways now, and indulge off our path for a moment in order to appreciate the view and attempt a Rothkoesque portrait of our developing model of the human mind and its creation of projection (this is abstract stuff here, folks).
There’s the mind, that’s initially only operating unconsciously, and whatever it has encoded in there it perceives and projects out on the world. This is the purity of the child we know and love and become frustrated by (why can’t they just be more like us adults already?). Then at some point, the mind starts to operate consciously as well, the knowing sprouts, the “I” emerges. I am the center of the universe, and in order to survive well, I must manage the tension with all the strange separate things out there. So now we have two things going on. That which we’re aware of, and that which we are not. Conscious and subconscious. We understand that there are “things” initially embedded in the mind we are not aware of. We also can appreciate that as we move through life, certain aspects are emphasised, while other aspects are demoted to the unwanted ranks of the mind (yet, they are still there), and we also acquire new “things” that become embedded in our minds, particularly when our minds are more supple and vulnerable or when we encounter profoundly intense experiences. In this process, a conscious identity is forming that we task with smoothing our experience with society, and because many of us are almost exclusively enmeshed in society (who needs nature, anyway), a good deal of who we experience ourselves as becomes this identity.
The most peculiar of events, people, places may impact our sense of identity
Now, this identity formation is a complex process and especially so since a good deal of it happens when we are younger and our consciousness and capacity to be aware is still emerging. Moreover, the most peculiar of events, people, places may impact this sense of identity. The child that grew up in a privileged household in the Upper East Side of New York, surrounded by a chauffeur, a French nanny with a degree from Sorbonne (an imperative to a cultured adult is un peu de français both in the etiquette and off the tongue), a Chinese housekeeper (“we’re in the commodities broking business, son, and China is our biggest trading partner,” said Dad), and all the right schools (“it’s all about fostering good relationships, dearest,” said Mum), may end up going on a trip to Yosemite National Park in California in their teens and become infatuated with the experience of camping, hiking and exploring wilderness, all a world apart from their natural habitat (how civilised we’ve all become). And on the trip, they feel things, deep things, really good sensations inside. Something just seems right here; confusing, yet right (it happens with people too, of course). This powerful experience becomes stored in the mind, and quite frankly acquires even more profound latent power because of its dormancy in the shadows of the hyper-active psyche of a teenager living an entirely secluded life between Fifth Ave and Madison in the East 60s of Manhattan. You can be sure that this wilderness experience has been stored in the identity of the teenager, and it will be projected out onto the world in two particular ways : (1) sporadic frustration, temper-tantrums, rebellion for no apparent reason (that is, the urge to let the world know the image of the identity is not being met); and/or (2) the urge to anything related to that experience (so the image of the identity is being acknowledged), be it shopping at REI, tending to the ducks in Central Park, or going snowshoeing through the forest on the annual family ski trip to Vail, Colorado.
As this process of acknowledging projection starts to unfold within you, you will also have to the accept the intention for balance. And the reason for that is, acknowledging what’s going on in your mind does not mean satiating it.
And the identity projection is going on not only in the experience of the teenager themselves; it also materially affects how they relate to others. For now, in the (1) rebellion against their privileged life, they will likely come to look upon an assortment of its objects with disdain. And in their (2) urge to wilderness, will seek out, glorify and indulge objects that bring out more of who they seek to become. This might mean ditching the school blazer and tie as often as possible for an unkempt Patagonia fleece. It might mean befriending strangers in the park who also tend to the ducks, and who just happen to live a more “down to earth” life on the west side and take routine trips to the parks in upstate New York and Connecticut. And these are the more benign effects. Of course, we all know examples of far more extreme expressions of projection. Because, yes, it is projection. The subject in the mind, attaching to an object in life. Just like my mind and this paper.
Acknowledging Projection
When we come to accept that in every moment of our lives we are projecting a subject from our minds onto the objects of our experience, we begin to empower ourselves with an awareness and capacity to balance our mind, and beyond this, with the tools to design our life consciously. At first, this may be a daunting, even unbelievable task. That trip I just took to the grocery store to buy a Ben & Jerrys ice cream is projection? Yes, it is. And you want to be aware of it. I can’t be aware of every damn action I make and thought I have - that’s insanity. Just be subtle about it. Play with it. Simply acknowledge your self and your mind. And ask yourself questions. Why am I really making that trip to buy that ice cream? Is it to avoid doing the work? The ice cream will give me a sugar high, and a subsequent sugar low, is that what I really want for my day? Why do I want to feel low? As this process starts to unfold within you, you will also have to the accept the intention for balance. And the reason for that is, acknowledging what’s going on in your mind does not mean satiating it. You may want to go to the forest tomorrow, because that’s who your identity says you are, yet you will have to accept that tomorrow, you will be inside, working at a desk, and settle for a gentle, indulgent walk in the park. Your experience with your mind and life will become a back and forth of give and take. Yes, you want that romantic relationship to grow stronger, more exciting, expanding in new, unforeseen ways. Meanwhile, your career growth beckons, and the hours and work aren't going to do themselves. Back and forth. Acknowledgement. Play with it. Just when you feel the desperate, yearning impulse to finalise that project late into Friday night, adjust, set a plan for how to do the work over the next week, and surprise your partner with a romantic night at a new restaurant. This practice of playfulness and release brings about a malleable mind. And a malleable mind will “dance like a butterfly, sting like a bee”, as the untouchable Mohammed Ali would say.
The Specifics (and Perils) of Projection
Projection happens in every aspect of our existence. It filters both through our identity and as a (typically subconscious) rebuff to it. And in most of our everyday experience in life, things are alright. We truly need not concern ourselves with this. However, there are moments when projection can become an issue, and this is where we are going to go now. We’re winding down now into the sunset hour.
Projection tends to emerge as an issue in four scenarios:
Situations of intense emotional charge
Situations with high complexity and/or uncertainty
An incongruity between the mind and reality that is materially impacting life
When life becomes too habitual (too unconscious)
Can you understand the reason why in each of these scenarios? The first three are for the most part an expression of the same issue: a separation between the mind and life that is not well understood, or far away from harmony. The fourth scenario is the inverse of the prior three: an almost complete entwinement between the mind and life, with little to no room for expansion or reflection.
Emotional Charge
What happens when we are intensely emotional? More precisely, why is it, at the very core, that we become emotional? Emotion is what arises to fill the space between our vision of life in the mind, and the actual life we have in front of us. Something truly remarkable happens, and we well up with exuberant emotions. Another day, the plant-based milk man delivers already expired almond milk, and a sharp emotion of irritation and anger arises… The curious phenomenon with emotion is that it is a lot like torrential rain or blistering sunlight, and everything in between. The more extreme the conditions, the harder it is to actually experience and perceive what’s going on. Sometimes these conditions can linger for days or weeks, even months at a time. And when it’s hard to see, it becomes far more straightforward for our minds to project incorrect subjects onto improper objects in life. Common sense, right? And as long as that emotion keeps welling up inside, we will keep doing it. In fact, often times, if the projection we learned to use during the storm is not proven blatantly incorrect by life, we may end up moving through the months and years ahead with this rather convenient, yet incorrect, projection. Eventually, this leads to problems. Almost with certainty.
Complexity
Ok, so what about those situations with great complexity, that deprive us of our certainty. Well, we have to be aware there too, because when there is just too much going on where we don’t understand, our odds of projecting suitably tend to be quite low. This may be with a new job, meeting a new individual, or moving to a new environment. For example, a new person we meet may have expanded to such a degree that our ability to perceive them well through our currently conditioned mind just won’t be conducive to projection; we will over-over simplify them, or bucket them into 1/100th of who they truly are. And that may work for a little while, however, in short order, it is unlikely to be sustainable. Someone has to shrink, or someone has to expand. This happens all the time in the workplace, for instance, where people resort to projecting a small portion of themselves in an attempt to fit into the mold of the workplace culture. There is too much complexity otherwise, for things to get done efficiently, so people tend to project into a rather rigid, fixed space, within which the work is produced. And fixed projection makes it hard for the person to expand beyond that environment.
Incongruity Between Mind and Life
When we find ourselves in situations in life where things just simply don’t seem to be working well, and consistently so, it is almost certainly because of a disconnect between our understanding of that aspect of life and our mind’s ability or willingness to interact with it. Place a blooming twenty year old kid from a remote Sicilian village of 1000 Italians into the heart of New York City, and that kid is going to go through a lot of jubilation and exuberance…. and suffering and trauma. There simply isn’t the understanding and ability to consistently interact well on his behalf. Another aspect of imbalance, though less frequent, emerges in situations where the individual may indeed have a good understanding of the situation in front of them, however the mind quite simply resists and is not willing to interact well with life. In both of these scenarios, the habit of projection will lead to material issues with the experience of life.
Bringing the Mind and Life into Harmony
Now is the moment where that capacity for consciousness we contain as humans comes to be of use. Most of the time we are projecting and things are working well, at least to an approximate degree. For the other scenarios, if we want to adapt and bring the inner and outer into closer harmony, we want to dive out of our automatic faculties, and onto the raft that is the awareness of our conscious minds. From this raft, we start to reflect on what’s happening down below in the water (our minds), and on the world all around us (life). And, we can start to use that slightly distorted yet perfectly intact mirror that exists between our minds and life. We will go into this in the following section where we investigate specific instances of projection. Suffice to say for now, if you start paying attention to your life closely, you will start to see patterns: patterns in the type of people you meet, patterns in the places you go, patterns in the type of work you do; and those patterns are similar to the patterns stored in your mind, albeit in the minds own unique neuronal, hormonal way, that then project out to shape your experience of life.
Excessive Habit
At times, the experience of life can become incredibly automatic. A person enters their comfortable zone, and they resolutely refuse to come out of it. We observe this with the older population - they’ve had their fill of fun and exploration and tried to accomplish much of what they’ve wanted to accomplish, and now its time to operate on auto-pilot, with free time to enjoy the scent of the roses and tender to the gardens. We also see this from time to time in people who become absorbed in their lives or pursuits to the point where everything becomes drudgingly routine. These circumstances are emblematic of the decline of the individual; for while the elderly moving into an excessively habitual life is somewhat in tune with the sunset of their time on this Earth, the younger man or woman that narrows in on just a few aspects of life, at the expense of expansion elsewhere, also puts a premature darkness into their experience. For while vertical growth in an area, be it family life, career development, does ask of us to narrow of focus and direct a great deal of energy to the task on a daily basis, it ought not come at the expanse of the horizontal growth of the individual which adds the flavour and variety to life. Too much vertical growth for too long often leaves the person stuck up in their tower, a barren land awaiting them outside with no where to go and no one to see when they come down.
A Day-to-Day Vista into Projection
We have progressively zoomed in our focus as we moved through this piece, starting with an initial macroscopic, abstract portrayal of the landscape of projection; and now, we will tentatively conclude with an evening soiree that attempts to paint three portraits of how projection occurs in the real world, in the day-to-day experience of life. To do this, we will take an obvious example of peoples relationship to movie stars, one less obvious yet alarmingly common aspect from peoples relationship to food, and finally, a somewhat more contentious look at how childhood experiences with the ever powerful symbol of the parent often lead to an identity trait that plays out with surreptitious vitality over the course of ones life.
The Movie Star Brought Down to Earth
Before we had social media, platforms and products designed to gather in our energy and attention by hyper-stimulating us in unique ways through “hacking” our biology, movie screenplays were written to sell box office tickets by stimulating us through the principles of drama and symbolism. Movies engage us on the principle that without conflict, there is no action. Without action, there is no character. Action is character. And character is need and resolution. Almost all screenplays incorporate the need of the main character, and the journey toward that resolution. There is a drama created around an array of symbols. And those symbols typically tend to be ones that are common to most of us. Unresolved, unrequited symbols we tender deep within. Movies only work because of the power of projection. When Leonardo Dicaprio acts out the romantic wandering artist on board the Titanic, the courageous hero who rescues the wealthy, secluded and internally trapped girl in first-class, and the Saint who sacrifices himself to give his Goddess life, suddenly Leonardo Dicaprio the man on planet Earth becomes exhibit A for nearly every girl that watched Titanic in her youth. The less the girls know about Leo himself, the better, because this leaves more space for the imagination to project out onto. And as long as Leo remains an almost blank canvas, just about any girl he meets at a nightclub or party (there are of course exceptions), will to some degree place him on a visceral pedestal, as the saviour who will rescue her from her own trapped existence, as the romantic artist who will take her on a journey vagabonding around the world, or the man that will, at the end of the day and after years of love and romance, give himself up so that she can live. These symbols live within her, they live in most of us as archetypal images, and project out onto Leo, because of emotionally-charged attributions the mind made whilst watching Titanic. And very little of it is real! Just observe the evolution of Leo’s romantic life, or at least what we know of it in public, over the past two and a half decades since Titanic was released. Yet, it certainly has been real in a great deal of the minds of the all the women he has enjoyed himself with over that time.
Eating at the Speed of Thought
It is in our best interests to eat food slowly. It really is. First of all, it’s simply far more enjoyable to actually taste the food, to smell its aroma, and experience it fully. It’s really only possible to pay attention to the food in this way if we take the time to do so and pay attention along the way. And second, science has clearly understood that our digestive system needs a slow, peaceful, happy environment in order to best process the food we put into it, because of its connection to the parasympathetic nervous system and vagal tones. Yet, how often do we see that person going solo at lunch, with their face buried in a bowl, eyes on a smartphone, and fork ready to serve the next bite just milliseconds after the previous one was sent down the oesophagus? How often are we that person? What’s going on here, why are we acting in our best interests? Projection. Projection loves simple, everyday, habitual activities to work its magic, and keep conscious awareness in the background. It also loves vulnerable situations (and people).
The Loveless Lover
Imagine a young girl, growing up in a seemingly (from the outside) normal family with a mother and father. This child is inherently vulnerable. It is in the most supple years of its life, where everything she encounters, everyone she meets, filters into the sponge that is her mind and body. Now, this young girl has needs - innate, archetypal needs, as all children do. And this girl’s exterior (personality) is being shaped by the experiences with her mother, while her interior (spirit) is being formed a great deal by her experiences with her father. In the days and years of her youth, the girl sees Mum frequently and Dad seldom. When her father is around, his remarkable presence makes her feel exceptionally alive. The majority of the time though, when it’s just her and her mother, she observes a rather stoic woman, void of much emotion, truly rather cold with an apparent lifelessness. She yearns for that similar feeling of care and presence that she witnessed from Dad once a week, every day from her mother - it just rarely comes. Stoic and lifeless is what she observes. Stoic and lifeless is what becomes soaked up in that sponge within her. And a mother-image that keeps the house immaculately clean, maintains affairs in order, socialises actively with girlfriends, yet just can’t seem to recognise her daughter’s need for affection, for adulation, for love. Fast forward into early adulthood. Our beautiful girl is now a young lady in her 20s, as yet unmarried, with a zest for life and curiosity to experience the world (remember, Dad), and a seemingly unexplainable ability to go out into the world and make things happen, however challenging the situation (stoic Mum). That same zest for life is a magnet for the artistic man with an affliction for the intense romance. The industriousness being an equally big hit. What neither of them will anticipate is that once the zest and exuberance evaporates away in the course of their union, the unconscious projection of the father’s aliveness from the inner world, will turn into the loveless, cold and stoic conscious personality of the mother. The artist man will be stumped at this dramatic turn of events, while the girl-turned-lady will be disparaged by the lack of connection she has to her inner world once the inflation of the romance settles down. A loveless love. And until the lady integrates the symbol of her mother experience, seeing it as closely as it can be seen to what it is, and then subsequently makes the conscious decision to go her own way, this projection will continue taking place in the relationships of her life. She will continue finding herself in relationships with men whom she can romance with and then use the relationship as a way to heighten her conscious development of the symbol of her mother. And this will occur not only with the significant others in her life. She will also be innately looking for any woman in her life who displays the similar characteristics of the mother, and pushing away those of a different variety. This is projection. Subject in the mind, onto the object in life.
The Ending Remarks
So, where to from here? Now that we’ve seen how projection emerges from the core, and gone as far as to look at its expression in day-to-day life, what’s next? Well, to be honest, this is pretty powerful stuff going on here. And it applies to the most simple of men and women, and equally so the most complex and powerful. When we begin to be aware of the projections we make in our lives, we peer into what’s happening within our mind. It may seem a great surrender to this thing called life, to admit that much of what is happening through me, I’m not really consciously aware of. Yet in doing so, we are empowered to use our lives and deepen the knowledge and fabric of our own minds, of who we are. And vice versa, when we engage in meditative practices, create art, write in journals, we come to be more aware of what’s stored up in our minds, and then are able to observe the patterns as they tend to come out into life. Projections are only so when they are unconscious. When we make a projection conscious, it loses its power. We are able to consciously decide whether this is what we want, whether this is who we are.