Occasionally, we have come to ask ourselves in conclusion about an extensive journey of mitigating emotional conflicts: "Why can't I be calm with anyone?" Constant confrontations, isolation, social avoidance and other frustrated interpersonal events can be caused by not the least evident (others) but because of a conflict that for many years has become the content of our unconscious, conflicts that are so painful, embarrassing, frustrating and immoral that we refuse to present and which in the best case is better to look for in others: the projection. In this Psychology-Online article we explain what is projection in psychology: definition and examples.
Index
- What is projection
- Projection as a defense mechanism in psychology
- Projection examples
- How to avoid projections
What is projection.
Projection is a term from psychoanalysis. The projection definition says it is a mechanism that consists of attributing to another person what happens to oneself
In psychology, we use projection to detect certain character traits, such as motivations, problems and frustrations. People's projective tendencies develop in an important way in paranoid-type personalities. Some of these people with this pathology manifest a tendency towards constant evaluation of others, they are very sensitive and capable of perceiving the unconscious of others and when interpreting it they forget their own unconscious. In severe cases, the projection leads to vicious deformation or a false image of reality (paranoid delusion). In some cases, well-channeled projection can generate incredible artistic or scientific creations.
Projection as a defense mechanism in psychology.
Hermann Hesse (1919) expressed something like projection theory as a Defense mechanism, and he did it with the following sentence:
When we hate someone, we hate in her image something that is within us.
Projection is one of the defense mechanisms most used against materially external threats, imputing responsibility for our own traits, feelings and behaviors to another person or environment. The individual attributes to other people their own shortcomings, virtues or defectseven to his own internal conflicts of ambivalence.
Projection as a defense mechanism generally operates in situations of affective / emotional conflicts or conflicts internal, where it ends up being attributed to the environment (people or things) the own feelings, thoughts or impulses that are uncomfortable or unacceptable to the person. In addition to the negative content, everything that guarantees and ensures the continuities of narcissism, the maintenance of intersubjective links, conservation processes: identifications, defense mechanisms, ideals, doubts and certainties.
So we understand that projection can function as resistance to face contact with one's own identity, thus attributing to others the emotions that we ourselves feel.
Projection as a defense mechanism causes us to spit out or expel our experiences onto the world, emotions or personality traits that we want to dislodge of ourselves for being unacceptable. Everything that is relatively gratifying is accepted by the self - as something belonging to it - but everything that manifests to be painful and unrewarding is considered as something alien to the self.
Projection examples.
The frustration that characterizes a person who tends to create projections of himself on other people disappears when he begins to believe that his defects, his deficiencies and his failures are also possessed by others, or that it is others who cause these failures, deficiencies or anything they do not want have. Here are some examples of psychological projections:
Steal and believe that others will steal from you
People who think in a certain way (for example, about the justification of an act of corruption) believe that others also think the same. For example, a store owner steals a few grams of each kilo of the product that it sells, when it has to buy in another store, it will be the most distrustful user (customer).
Thinking about being unfaithful and being afraid that your partner is
In a relationship, one of the two begins to present symptoms of anxiety (for example, he refers to feeling insecure and hopeless), as a consequence of constant ideas of infidelity from her partner, who has repeatedly tried to make it clear and evident that this infidelity is not real. Through an analysis, it is discovered that this person with anxiety symptoms has not been unfaithful to his partner either, but that there are many people who have seemed attractive and with whom he would very much like to have sex, but that his own conscience - and respect for his partner - do not allow him to do so. In addition to this projection, the person also projects his insecurity about your physique and personality comparing yourself to people close to your partner that you find attractive. In this article we talk about the causes of insecurity and how to overcome it.
Scolding your children for behaviors you do yourself
Another example of very frequent projection is that of parents towards their children, where, for example, the father constantly demands and protests about the immorality of the child and her behavior against the principles that have been taught, and also about the failures that this child may have, the same that the father could not overcome and principles that he has transgressed in different situations, either in his freshness or in disinhibitions current.
How to avoid projections.
Defense mechanisms involve a defensive behavior with which the personality operates to maintain a balance, that is, a regulation of tension and arousal.
With this defensive behavior, the body tries to achieve an adjustment or adaptation that dissolves all kinds of insecurity, frustration, danger, tension or anxiety. However, defensive behavior does not resolve conflicts, but is limited to restricting the ability of the ego to act in the face of disturbing objects.
Projections are conflicts or internal elements that are put outside as an attempt to dissolve, but that, evidently, provoke a journey in the opposite direction: the maintenance of frustrations and tensions. It is important a professionally-led, careful analysis to determine which internal elements may be that cause this inconsistency with the environment.
How to work the psychological projections? Observing and meditating if there are constant confrontations with family, friends, partner and at work will help to find and determine if in reality what happens and develops that instability is something with us themselves.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to What is projection in psychology: definition and examples, we recommend that you enter our category of Cognitive psychology.
Bibliography
- Hermann Hesse. (1919). Demian. Alliance of novels.
