When you read Jungian literature, perhaps you will soon become familiar with the term projection. But unlike Freud, who limited projection only to the scope of emotions, Jung postulated a more complex concept about projection. So this essay is more from Jung’s perspective.
In Jungian psychology, the cause of projection is one-sidedness. One-sidedness is a condition where our psyche is in an imbalanced state due to several factors, such as overusing the dominant function. Or in the grip of our inferior function, which leads us to lose ‘ourselves’ in the world of archetypal energy and personal complexes.
By having that, our psyche will give us a ‘hint’ about our other- side through projections on the outer world. Hence, projections can be our stepping stone to starting an individuation. But only after we withdraw our projection and put it back into our inner world can we explore our otherness.
Projection and Anima/Animus figure
Having that concept, we may understand that projection is projecting our otherness or other self, the part of us that we haven’t realized yet, to another person. Since this process is unconscious to us, we should keep in mind that every unconscious content has intense energy and also a flavor of emotions.
Projection is a terrific force. You are moved by it and you do not know why. The impact of the projection comes at you like a billiard ball. Through projection terrible things can be brought about. If you do not know of the hook in yourself or of the open door, then the devil creeps in (the projection) and has a tremendous effect. You cannot be indifferent to a projection. Carl G. Jung on Dream Analysis: Notes of a Seminar Given in 1928–1930
There is always an attraction between conscious mind and projected content. Generally it takes the form of a fascination.
Carl G. Jung, on Psychology and Alchemy (1944)
The most common projection is the projection of our anima, or animus. And we called it falling in love or love at first sight. This is because our anima, or animus figure, is unknown to us. Yet we can’see’ them by analyzing the red thread from our ‘personal choice’ of partners. So, the hint of this figure can be seen through the dynamics of our romantic relationship.
What is Anima
Every man carries within him the eternal image of woman, not the image of this or that particular woman, but a definite feminine image. This image is fundamentally unconscious, a hereditary factor of primordial origin engraved in the living organic system of the man, an imprint or “archetype” of all the ancestral experiences of the female, a deposit, as it were, of all the impressions ever made by a woman—in short, an inherited system of psychic adaptation.
… Since this image is unconscious, it is always unconsciously projected upon the person of the beloved, and is one of the chief reasons for passionate attraction or aversion. I have called this image the “anima.”
Carl G. Jung, Marriage as a Psychological Relationship
What is Animus
The animus is the deposit, as it were, of all woman’s ancestral experiences of man—and not only that, he is also a creative and procreative being, not in the sense of masculine creativity, but in the sense that he brings forth something we might call the spermatic word. Just as a man brings forth his work as a complete creation out of his inner feminine nature, so the inner masculine side of a woman brings forth creative seeds which have the power to fertilize the feminine side of the man.
Carl G. Jung, The Relations between the Ego and the Unconscious
These deposits of our ancestral experiences play an important role in shaping our anima or animus figures and ‘choosing’ hooks for our unconscious project that will lead to participation mystique.
Participation Mystique
Jung coined projection and borrowed the meaning of participation mystique from Levy-Bruhl. Therefore, at first, every relationship may arise from this projection process. One projects their anima/animus to one’s beloved, not knowing that we ‘fall in love’ only with the image that we ‘create’ within us.
While the projection is still ongoing, one cannot access and distinguish the ideal from the reality of their projected hook. Up to a point, when one finally sees the person that they are in a relationship with as they are, this process will arise in one’s consciousness. But having that realization doesn’t simply mean that one will realize that they did a projection and had a participation mystique. The first realization will be seeing the person merely as human, no longer as ‘god or goddess’.
Withdrawing A Projection
Considering its energy, withdrawing a projection won’t be easy. Yet it also offers us an opportunity to heed the individuation process. Assimilation of unconscious content into our consciousness is not an easy task. For some, in-depth analysis becomes a necessity.
To finally be able to see a person as they are, no longer as a hook for our unconscious content, is the meaning of having a relationship with them. To relate to each other in our authentic and reality form is what lies ahead after the withdrawal. But up until we accept our unconscious content and understand our otherness, we can not relate and may not have a real connection with others.
