Meaning of the color GRAY in PSYCHOLOGY

Contemporary man perceives and distinguishes more than a hundred shades of gray, as testimony of a familiarity that has not found any answer in the past. In medieval sensibilities, gray simply evokes the idea of ​​stains of absence, genuineness, and cleanliness. Originally, in effect, it was considered simply as a color of acromia, a negation of color and an element opposed to everything that is colored.

Fruit of the encounter between black and white, distinguishable only according to the degree of light or darkness, the Gray is a fundamentally indefinable value, without character and resonance, without possibility and without potentialities. It is absolutely neutral and therefore only definable for what it is not. In this Psychology-Online article, we will delve into more detail the meaning of gray color in psychology.

Index

1. The symbolic meaning of gray
2. The psychological meaning of gray
3. Gray: a working color

Two symbolic meanings are normally attributed to gray:

1. The first derives from the association with ash: In fact, Christian tradition considers gray as a symbol of death and the expiration of every creature and uses it in the Ash Wednesday liturgy. The gray-dust is, then, the color of the past and of oblivion, of the veil that time extends over everything that is transitory, but also of the mortification of all passion and desire: In the first centuries of Christianity this translated into the obligation to wear a suit of sackcloth dotted ash.
2. Non-participation and devitalization, inherent in gray, also refer to the idea of ​​old age and therefore to the descending phase of the earthly journey. In this sense, gray also assumes the meaning of neutrality and formality: in effect, it is used widely in relationships without personal involvement and is played on the maintenance of distances.

What has been pointed out so far refers, on the other hand, to the idea of ​​a hazy, metallic, cyrenic gray, but this color is present in our lives also in the meaning of silver gray, a hue to which a decidedly more meaningful meaning is attributed. positive. As Lüscher points out, it translates into terms of lightness, openness to experiences, availability to stimuli, influences, solicitations, contacts and, therefore, it becomes a symbol of wisdom and knowledge. Not for nothing is gray the color of the elderly, the wise par excellence, and the brain, often called "gray matter."

Meet here the Lüscher color test.

Gray is neither colored, nor dark, nor light: it is free from any psychological stimulus or tendency. Gray is neutral. It is a color that therefore has no territory, a bit of a no-man's-land, a border that sooner or later must be decided whether to cross or not.

When you put gray before choosing other colors you need to build a shelter, not to be recognized, to take time and then decide what attitude to keep. Gray must be understood as a need to disguise oneself as others, a kind of distrust that requires building a wall (gray) to protect oneself, not to get involved in the first person.

If gray is among the first colors chosen, it always indicates a lack of balance in the way of behaving, because the risk of acting self-ingannandos, that is, one acts out of an inner need for compensation, not out of a real interest in what is being doing.

From a physiological point of view, it indicates a devitalization, a numbness and a need for protection. For this reason, it is chosen by older people who tend to withdraw from active life and who express a certain exhaustion and a state of stress precisely with gray.

• Physiological perception of gray: numbness.
• Emotional perception of gray: shielding, disconnection.
• The shape of gray represents a gray hexagon on a white field, seen as a protective and impenetrable shield.

Gray as a middle way between the extremes of white and black sends a precise message of neutrality. Black and white are not properly colors either, but the effect of the complete absorption or reflection of light; intermediate gray, on the other hand, is the "non-color" par excellence, which accentuates the meaning of the vagueness and the strangeness of all the emotional values ​​that colors convey. In this sense it represents the predominance of reason over feeling, control over emotionality and the distance from all excess. Here you can see more information about:

• Meaning of the color white in psychology
• Meaning of the color black in psychology

The fact that it is the most commonly used color for office wear is not at all strange to these meanings. The message acquires different shades depending on the circumstance, for example, gray sends a message of equidistance and non-emotional involvement typical of some professions, but also gives an impression from emotional distance and coldness which excludes an empathic contact. It is a color that does not impose perceptibly and does not disturb the eye, but precisely because of this it is not distinguished in any way and recalls conformity.

He has often been referred to as the color of fear, and as a literary figure "the gray eminence" refers to an intelligence that controls events without ever appearing in the foreground. Verbal associations to gray point in the direction of the absence of impulses and feelings, which is the main characteristic of this color that seems to reflect, in its diffusion in certain historical periods, positions implicit philosophical

In practice, it is a currently widely used color, which has the advantage of being easily paired with other colors and therefore of being able to be animated by accessories.

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 Meaning of the color gray in psychology, we recommend that you enter our category of Emotions.

• Baldini, M., Spalletta, M. (et al.) (2006). The capelli fashion. The story, the theory and the data of the visual type. Rome: Armando Editore.
• Del Longo, N. (2013). Il test dei colori di Lüscher. Diagnosis manual for adults. Milan: Franco Angeli.
• Federici, P. (1999). Il tuo bambino says it with i colori. Guida al gioco-test e alle fiabe colorate per insegnanti, educatori e genitori. Milan: Franco Angeli.
• Santagostino, P. (2006). Il colore in casa. Come sfruttare gli effetti psicofisici dei colori for a house più sana e ambienti più accoglienti. Milan: Apogeo s.r.l.