Projections, Fears and Stories

You might remember from previous articles that psychological projection occurs when we experience another person, object or situation in a way that is influenced by our unconscious (hidden) psychologies. This is similar to a movie projector casting an image on a screen. We see the image but not the screen. During projection, unconscious content is experienced but not the actual person, object or situation. In other words, we see and experience parts of ourselves through our projections.

When people make claims about situations that are biased or lacking in validity, often it is due to their projections. There are many reasons why projections occur. The most common reason is that people have not developed enough consciousness (awareness) to understand their unconscious psychologies. Another reason includes the emotion of fear. Often people won't admit to their fears. As a result, they feel threatened and projections occur.

Stories often accompany projections. The stories are usually far from accurate, due to being motivated by projections and fears. This results in people, objects and situations being experienced as very different by the person projecting. In other words, the screen in the movie theater is never seen for what it is. Only the projected image is seen.

There are many, many different experiences in life when projections, fears and stories dominate. Today, one phrase that is frequently heard and applies to this form of projection is witch hunt. This phrase refers to the historic slaughter of women in Salem, Massachusetts, who were wrongly accused of being witches and burned to death. The inaccurate stories were due to projections and fears that proved fatal to these unfortunate women.

Witches never existed; yet, women were accused of having these so-called powers. Stories can often be misleading and destructive, such as the story about the Salem women. Stories also are formed when someone wants to create a belief that a witch hunt is occurring even when it is not. It is important to realize that when people project they do so from their unconscious psychologies. On the other hand when people create misleading stories, they are often defending or protecting their interests or themselves. This is a conscious intention and is often malicious.

Although the Salem tragedies occurred long ago, the same psychological dynamics are occurring today. All we need to do is listen to the news to hear and see these frailties being reported. Actually, all we need to do is look to our communities to see these same dynamics occurring among people we know.