Projection is the psychological mechanism by which a person tries to escape from the consciousness of his problems by projecting his own characteristics onto others.
The mentally ill person comes to believe that what he perceives is actually a characteristic of others, somewhat like believing that a projected photographic image originates from the screen instead of from the slide projector.
Problems as well as qualities can be projected, causing the person to become anxious and alienated. In cases of extreme projection, the person is incapable of dealing with his problems. If we are unable to deal with a problem in ourselves, we will also be unable to control it in others. And if we are unaware of an illness in others, we will also be unaware of it in ourselves and easily fall prey to its ill effects.
The most serious aspect of the mechanism of projection is that the person projects onto others the causes of the problems for which he himself is responsible; that is, he harms himself and his life because of his psychopathological attitudes and the sociopathological attitudes he learns from society, and blames others for it. The consequence is a never-ending, self-destructive process that prevents the individual from solving his problems because he does not see the real cause of his suffering and harm.
Keppe warns that only an interiorized individual can stop the process of projection and accept seeing in himself the faults he previously saw in others - at which point the journey toward the cure of his organic and psychological disorders (neurosis and psychosis) begins.
See also: Envy and Censorship
From: PACHECO, Cláudia Bernhardt de Souza. The ABC of Analytical Trilogy - Integral Psychoanalysis. São Paulo: Proton Publishing House, 1988.
Reflection:
Do you realize that accepting to see your own problems that before you only projected onto others is the first step to solving them?
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