Banksy’s recent sculpture portrays a man resolutely stepping into the void, his face veiled by a flag.
It suggests an ego fused with a collective symbol—the flag—losing its individual vision and
unconsciously advancing toward its own downfall.
The phenomenon of projection
and its transformative potential
Projection. To approach it, we will return to the study of Carl Jung’s essay “The Spirit Mercurius”.
In simple terms, to project is to see in others or in an object something that actually resides in us. For example, when we see a flaw in someone else that we ourselves also possess.
Jung said in his seminar on the book Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Nietzsche that what irritates us about others is very likely to be found within ourselves. Which does not mean that if you detest corrupt politicians, you are like one of them.
However, it does mean that, even if your behavior is honest, your psyche probably knows something about corruption or the greed that generates it, and that, in some way, you have been attracted to it, even if you have never succumbed to such a desire and are an upright person. This is the case of Nietzsche, who harshly criticized the masses, the people he considered morally inferior, and did not realize that despite his intellect and genius, his way of life was no different from theirs.
It is not pleasant to know that the flaws we detest in others are within us;
however, there is great potential in realizing this,
for projections are a goldmine for our personal development.
Carl Jung says, in the later parts of his essay on Mercurius:
“As long as nothing is known about a psychic existence,
it is projected.”
Here we encounter a more sophisticated concept of what projection is: not only a flaw of ours that we see in others, but “something psychic that remains unknown to us.” That psychic element could be any psychological component of ours that we have not assimilated: whether it be an emotion, a trait, a trauma, a fear, a way of thinking, a wound, an impulse, a defect, a virtue, an instinct, or even an archetype— even our own psychic energy.
Our greatest projection, according to Jungian psychology, is religion, along with its rituals and symbols, for in them we project our entire process of psychological realization (individuation).
We project onto others, but also onto objects, onto our worldview (the world itself would be a projection of the totality of the psyche, Jung also said), onto symbols, onto art, onto our homeland, onto nature, onto animals, and even onto concepts and the perspectives we hold about everything.
In all of this, we see structures, entities, and elements of our psyche.
Our outer world is a universe full of projections, and becoming aware of this helps us awaken, to become deeply conscious of ourselves, to cultivate and nourish the seed of the unique being we carry within.
Jung also says:
“We must bear in mind that we do not make projections, rather they happen to us.
(Letters, Vol. II)
To say that we project is not entirely correct, for it is really our unconscious that generates projections; we are simply the ones who experience them.
Projection is a mechanism of the mind through which we are able to see and interact with psychic elements that we not only do not know (or are unconscious), but also do not know how to deal with.
For example, a person who projects their bad temper onto another and is displeased by it is not only indirectly becoming aware of what they are not yet capable of seeing in themselves, but is also, in a certain way, engaging with that bad temper.
The strong bond created by hatred and projection
I like what Jung later says about this:
“Something of the bearer of the projection always adheres to the projection, and if we attempt to integrate into our consciousness what is known as the psychic, achieving this to some extent, then we integrate something of the universe and its materiality; or even more, we are assimilated by the inanimate, because the infinitely vast cosmos is much greater than we are”.
I love the previous quote because it aligns with something I had believed for a long time:
when someone projects onto you, they are depositing part of themselves; they are attaching something of their own to you.
That is why when you hate someone, or when someone hates you, a strong bond is formed between the two people, much more intense than the bond created by friendship or generosity.
Hatred and resentment toward others are, at times, more than justified (for example, when we have been deeply harmed—which does not mean that hatred is not harmful in that circumstance), but at other times we tend to exaggerate our hatred;
we hate and reject because we project inadmissible things from ourselves onto others. In doing so, we attach something of ourselves to that person and become bound to them.
That is why Marcus Aurelius says:
“The best way to defend yourself is not to become like them”,
(Ἄριστος τρόπος τοῦ ἀμύνεσθαι τὸ μὴ ἐξομοιοῦσθαι), others translate it as:
The best revenge is indifference.
Although Carl Jung, in the previous quote, by telling us that if we integrate the psychic (if we recognize and become conscious of which parts we are projecting), shows us a wiser path, for we are integrated by the universe; that is, we adapt to existence, to the laws of life, to our totality, to our nature.
We immerse ourselves in it as if it were part of our very structure, what we truly are, since behind the projection lies the immensity of the creator of the projection, that is, the Self that seeks for us to become one with it.
Carl Jung also says:
“Everything that works from the unconscious appears projected on others. Not that these others are wholly without blame, for even the worst projection is at least hung on a hook, perhaps a very small one, but still a hook offered by the other person”
(~Carl Jung, CW 8, Para 99).
When we experience a projection, it does not immediately mean that others have nothing to do with it. For that reason, we must discern very carefully and be honest about what is truly provoked and what truly belongs to us, so that the situation may be balanced. If we manage to carry out this exercise with honesty and humility, we can navigate any situation successfully.
As a personal experience of this, I remember that during my military service there was a corporal who made my life impossible for months. In the final stage of training, at the shooting range, he tried to provoke me in a tense moment, as the tests were demanding. I felt a great deal of anger, but by observing myself honestly, I discovered that the real problem was not him, but my thinking about myself: I was projecting onto the corporal the possessive thoughts that created little confidence in me, since deep down I believed I would fail the test, even though the corporal was indeed a difficult man, without a doubt—but even more so was my thinking toward myself and my permissive attitude toward that thinking. Before shooting, the corporal warned me that he would be beside me also firing and “woe to you if you miss most of the shots.”
By becoming aware of my pattern of thoughts and seeing no way out, I said to myself: God, do what you see fit; then I decisively let go of the desire to maintain control of the situation. Immediately I calmed down, felt a great conviction and determination, and when I fired something unexpected occurred: all my shots hit the silhouette, even at 100 meters, and 90% were lethal hits, despite the fact that my rifle’s sight was not calibrated. The corporal barely achieved a 30% hit rate on the silhouette, although his rifle sight was also not calibrated (like everyone else’s). That day I was the best in the test and was congratulated by the company commander, and in subsequent tests the good results were repeated with the sights already calibrated. The corporal never bothered me again.
Projection and the mastery of our inner nature
We conclude this article with the following quote that contains a valuable reflection:
“Never and nowhere has man mastered matter, except when he has accurately observed its behavior and listened very attentively to its laws. And only in that case has he been able to master it to a corresponding degree. The same happens with the spirit that today we call the unconscious: it is as refractory as matter, as enigmatic and elusive as it, and it obeys “laws” that generally present themselves to us as “crimes against humanity” in their inhumanity and superhumanity”.
Here Carl Jung is addressing a topic that concerns us if we are to understand the importance of unveiling projection:
I said that our projections are a true goldmine. I reaffirm it, and not of vulgar gold, but of alchemical gold—the kind that represents the expansion of our understanding and consciousness. But to extract it, we must examine our relationship with others and with the outer world, and contemplate what we project with honesty and sincerity in order to understand and assimilate it.
When we become conscious of our surroundings, of our city, of our home, of the objects around us—even of the device you’re reading this on—we can see a magnificent, almost magical mastery of humanity over the outer world. This occurred due to our species’ capacity to observe and analyze external nature and thus understand the laws of nature. This is how we went from mastering fire to modern systems of artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and the sophisticated devices that have enabled travel into outer space, and those that allow us to explore and analyze the cosmos.
The formula remains the same for our inner nature and our unconscious—not only for our projections, but for our entire self, for our work upon ourselves.
Only when human beings carefully observed psychic laws were they able to become civilized and evolve spiritually, intellectually, and morally.
Although inner nature, like matter and outer nature, operates with laws and elements that surpass us, that are superior to our control (they are superhuman) or that contradict everything we believe aligns with humanity (inhuman), that is why Jung says they appear as (crímenes de lesa humanidad). Yet contemplating them expands our understanding and allows us to take another step on the ladder of the evolution of our consciousness.
For this reason, today more than ever it is important to have the capacity to contemplate ourselves behind the veil of projections and to see the laws and elements that lie behind them, in order to also discover the unique individual behind them. This is also a way to prevent falling into the mental abysses of our time, and to avoid taking a false step while wrapped in the veils of our era, as shown by Banksy’s recent sculpture.
I conclude with the following quote from Jung, which I leave to you as a task for your personal reflection:
As long as the ego remains unconscious, it corresponds to the Freudian superego and is a source of perpetual moral conflict. However, if it detaches itself from projection and ceases to be identical with public opinion, then one is truly one’s own self and not. The ego then functions as a union of opposites and, therefore, constitutes the most immediate experience of the Divine that is psychologically possible to imagine
(Carl Jung; “Transformation symbolism in the mass”; CW 11, para. 396).
Juan Duran
