Suzie Chick

“The most dangerous psychological mistake is the projection of the shadow onto others;  this is the root of almost all conflicts.” Carl Jung

This month, I thought I’d explore a meaty concept which comes up a lot in therapy, projection. As the quote from Carl Jung explains, projection is a psychological process which has a great deal of impact in the World. 

Definition and origins

Projection is a concept which was first conceived by Freud to describe the process where we might unconsciously displace our thoughts, feelings, traits or behaviours onto another person, object or animal.  

We project as a means to defend ourselves (our psyche) when faced with stressful or anxiety provoking thoughts and experiences.

An absolute classic example of projection is the early stages of romantic love. We can often believe the other person is absolutely perfect at the start of dating and then as we get to know them, we realise they are not so (no-one is btw) and then our challenge is whether the projection or reality will win out.

As the quote above from Carl Jung explains what can possibly get projected onto others are parts of ourselves, we don’t want to consciously own (our shadow). Jung spoke of the collective shadow in his work, relating to the persecution of the Jewish people by the Nazis. In other words, the Nazis projected parts of their selves onto the Jewish people, parts which they did not like or want to own internally.  Propaganda films by the Nazis made sweeping and wholly inaccurate generalisations about the Jewish people. One of the claims by the Nazi was around cleanliness and dirt. It’s clear to me that this was a quality the Nazis wanted to disown from themselves and project onto another group. The psychological notion being if I get you to be dirty, then I am clean in opposition. 

For me Princess Diana was massively projected on by others, hence the massive outpouring of grief when she died suddenly in 1997. The vast majority of the public didn’t actually know Diana and yet her death touched them very deeply. For me the public weren’t really mourning for Diana herself but mourning the projections that had been pushed onto her, mainly by the media. For example, some portrayals of Diana as a lonely woman, a selfless mother, a victim probably resonated with a great deal of the public mourners following her death. These mourners were not crying for Diana, the person, but what she represented to them. 

Stages of projection

To help guide us through this topic, I am using the works of Jungian analyst, James Hollis who I feel really gets to the nub of what projection is and how it operates in our lives. 

James Hollis describes five stages to projection:

1. We are triggered, for some reason, to displace our feelings onto another being and being to respond to this being as if those feelings are real. For example, a boss at work might remind us of a parent (as both might be older, more senior and have some authority over us). There’s the trigger, we then unconsciously displace some of the attributes (likely negative) onto the boss from our experience of our parents. Say for example our parent often dismissed our opinions or needs. We then believe this boss too will act the same towards us.
2. We begin to experience cognitive dissonance. This being that what we believe to be reality (e.g., the boss is dismissive of us) doesn’t actually happen. Maybe they pay attention to our contribution in meetings as opposed to our projection. So, the unconscious projection is not matching the actual reality.
3. Given the process remains in the unconscious, we try to essentially resolve this cognitive dissonance by acting out to make it so. So using the example of our boss, we might unconsciously set things in motion for our boss to dismiss us thereby reinforcing the projection. For example, we might draft emails to the boss that we neglect to actually send or fail to attend meetings etc (essentially we begin to dismiss ourselves). 
4. Stage four is when the projection collapses and is no longer held as the other (person, object, animal) has become too known.  Say, using our boss example, that the boss has noticed the employee has withdrawn (in order to try and uphold the projection in stage 3 of feeling dismissed) and makes a special effort to address this. It’s clear, in reality, that the boss is not the dismissive parent, and is someone who cares and considers their employee. The projection can no longer hold and collapses. 
5. Stage five is when we bring our projection fully into consciousness and own our “hidden agenda” (as Hollis describes it). We understand the origins of the projection (e.g., the experiences of being dismissed by our parents) and no longer unconsciously push it onto others. 

A bit of an explanatory note, not all of these stages always happen when it comes to projection. Sometimes it remains in the unconscious and “the other” never becomes known in reality and so we stick at stage 1 or 2.  Or other times we do get to know the other and so the projection falls away, but we never have that conscious self-reflection (so it ends at stage 4). 

In therapy

As a therapist, I always have my projection alert on and so hopefully I can catch these unconscious processes as they arise in session.  A classic example is when a client exclaims that they cannot stand so and so at work or in their family etc. This normally indicates a projection is in operation and it’s my job to explore this with the client to make it conscious. Projection blocks us from seeing the person, object, animal etc in reality and we can then miss out on what potential opportunities they might hold for us. And equally by projecting parts of ourselves outside we miss out on truly knowing our full selves, flaws and all. 

Projection can often happen between my client and myself (i.e., the client projects something onto me). This is called transference. It can be something as tame as projecting what kind of holidays I take or what books I enjoy, to projecting that, similar to past caregivers, I will reject a client following a moment vulnerability or potential conflict. Projection in therapy is an absolute treasure as it’s so rich with material and deepens not only the clients understanding of themselves but also strengthens our working alliance. 

I hope you’ve enjoyed my little exploration and that it’s made you wonder about the possible projections in your life. 

Image source: Milada Vigrova/Unsplash