Projection as a psychological defense mechanism. Psychological defenses
Let's talk about projections? What it is? And why, when we are undeservedly (as it seems to us) accused of something, we can safely answer: "These are your projections!"
Let's start as always with example. The driver rushes through the city, breaking all conceivable rules, swearing loudly and cutting off other cars. And here he is stuck in a traffic jam under the bridge. He opens the window and shouts to some quite respectable citizen: “You learn to drive, you drive like crazy!”.
Here is the projection. That is, the attribution of one's qualities and properties to another, usually unconscious. Freud first spoke about this mechanism. We remember from childhood all sorts of sayings: “You don’t judge others by yourself,” etc.
In psychology, projection is called defense mechanism of the psyche. Why? Because in this way a person relieves himself of responsibility (“we are not like that - life is like that”). We can project onto others not only our own negative qualities. For example, a young eighteen-year-old girl can write poetry, where she will describe her lover - a brutal guy, subtle and creative. Or a jealous loving husband constantly suspects his wife, although he himself has a "stigma in the cannon."
This mechanism is formed in childhood. For example, parents zealously said that “getting angry is bad!” That is, this quality was forbidden to manifest, but this is also such an important mechanism. Therefore, it remains somewhere in the deeper layers of our psyche - since then we have denied it in ourselves, but in others we notice it. As in the quote with a log and a mote.
Why are projections dangerous? Those that lead to an erroneous perception of reality. The mechanism of projections can be easily traced on the example of tests with fuzzy figures, on which their emotions are not visible or their actions are ambiguous. For example, Murray's Drawn Apperception Test (PAT).
How to find and calculate projections:
1. Projections are often hidden in assessments, for example, "You are kind of nervous."
2. Projections are often rooted in an attempt to "speak for others", such as "I know for a fact that he thought I wouldn't find out." How do you know about it? How can someone EXACTLY and for sure know the thoughts of another?
3. And of course, projections hide where we FEEL like what they think of us. Yes, the keyword seems to be. Maybe the boss really doesn’t like us, or maybe he had a fight with a friend and therefore raised his voice.
The projection is like a shadow, afraid of the light. Therefore, the main way to find out why someone is "some kind of nervous" or "looks askance at me" is to ask about it. However, not in the form of a statement, they say, “I know you can’t stand me.” And in the form of “It seems to me”, and of course, to start a dialogue not with “You are such and such”, but for example, “I feel some kind of understatement”, that is, with MY feelings.
Psychologists argue that all defense mechanisms have two characteristics in common: 1) they operate at an unconscious level and are therefore a means of self-deception, and 2) they distort, deny, or falsify the perception of reality in order to make anxiety less threatening to the individual. Psychotherapist also notice that people rarely use any single defense mechanism - usually they use various defense mechanisms to resolve conflict or reduce anxiety. Some basic defensive strategies will be discussed below.
Crowding out. Freud viewed repression as the primary defense of the self, not only because it is the basis for the formation of more complex defense mechanisms, but also because it provides the most direct way to escape anxiety (in a situation stress or outside of it). Sometimes described as "motivated forgetting," repression is the process of removing painful thoughts and feelings from consciousness, unconscious. As a result of the action of repression, individuals are unaware of their anxiety-producing conflicts and also have no memory of traumatic past events. For example, a person who suffers from horrendous personal failures may become unable to talk about this difficult experience due to repression.
Releasing anxiety by repression does not go unnoticed. Freud believed that repressed thoughts and impulses do not lose their activity in unconscious and to prevent their breakthrough into consciousness, a constant expenditure of psychic energy is required. This relentless waste of self resources can severely limit the use of energy for more adaptive, self-developmental, creative behavior. However, the constant striving of the repressed material for open expression can receive short-term satisfaction in dreams, jokes, slips of the tongue, and other manifestations of what Freud called "the psychopathology of everyday life." Moreover, according to his theory psychoanalysis, repression plays a role in all forms of neurotic behavior (with neurosis and not only), in psychosomatic diseases (such as, for example, peptic ulcer), psychosexual disorders (such as obsessive (pathological) masturbation, impotence and frigidity) - that is, in those cases when it becomes necessary professional psychological help - psychologist consultation, help of a psychotherapist. This is the main and most commonly encountered defense mechanism.
Projection. As a defense mechanism in its theoretical significance in psychology projection follows repression. It is the process by which an individual attributes their own unacceptable thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to other people or environments. Thus, projection allows a person to place the blame on someone or something for their shortcomings or blunders. A golfer who criticizes his club after a bad shot shows a primitive projection. On another level psychologist, psychotherapist may observe the projection of a young woman who is unaware that she is struggling with her strong sex drive, but suspects everyone who meets her of intent on seducing her. Finally, a classic example of projection is a student who has not prepared well for an exam, attributing his low grade to dishonest testing, cheating other students, or blaming a professor for not explaining this topic in a lecture. Projection also explains social prejudice and the "scapegoat" phenomenon, since ethnic and racial stereotypes are a convenient target for attributing negative personality characteristics to someone else. Discussion of manifestations of the projection mechanism is a frequent topic in psychologist's office and in practice psychotherapy.
Substitution. In a defense mechanism called substitution, the manifestation of the instinctive impulse is redirected from the more threatening, defiant fear object or person to a less threatening one. A common example, known not only psychoanalysts- a child who, after being punished by his parents, pushes his younger sister, kicks her dog or breaks her toys. Substitution also manifests itself in the increased sensitivity of adults to the slightest annoying moments. For example, an overly demanding employer criticizes an employee, and she reacts with outbursts of rage to minor provocations from her husband and children. She does not realize that, being the objects of her irritation, they are simply replacing the boss. In each of these examples, the true object of hostility is replaced by a much less threatening one for the subject. Less common is this form of substitution when it is directed against oneself: hostile impulses addressed to others are redirected to oneself, which causes a feeling of depression or condemnation of oneself (up to depression), which may require counseling and assistance of a psychologist.
Rationalization. Another way for the self to deal with frustration and anxiety is to distort reality and thus protect self-esteem. Rationalization refers to false reasoning by which irrational behavior is presented in such a way that it looks quite reasonable and therefore justified in the eyes of others. Stupid mistakes, bad judgments, and blunders can be justified through the magic of rationalization. One of the most commonly used types of such protection is rationalization according to the "green grapes" type. This name originates from Aesop's fable about the fox, which could not reach the bunch of grapes and therefore decided that the berries were not yet ripe. People rationalize in the same way. For example, a man who was humiliated by a woman when he asked her out on a date consoles himself with the fact that she is completely unattractive. Similarly, a student who fails to get into the dental department of a medical school may convince herself that she doesn't really want to be a dentist.
Reactive education. Sometimes the ego can defend itself against forbidden impulses by expressing opposite impulses in behavior and thoughts. Here we are dealing with jet formation, or vice versa. This protective process is carried out in two stages: first, the unacceptable impulse is suppressed; then, on the level of consciousness, the opposite is manifested. The resistance is especially noticeable in socially approved behavior, which at the same time looks exaggerated and inflexible. For example, a woman who experiences anxiety (and sometimes panic) in connection with his own pronounced sexual desire, can become in his circle an adamant fighter against pornographic films. She may even actively picket film studios or write letters of protest to the film company, expressing her strong concern about the degradation of modern cinema. Freud wrote that many men who make fun of homosexuals are actually defending themselves against their own homosexual urges.
Regression. Another well-known defense mechanism used to protect against anxiety and fear, - this is regression. Regression is characterized by a return to childish, childish patterns of behavior. It is a way of alleviating anxiety by returning to an earlier period of life that is safer and more enjoyable. Easily recognizable manifestations of regression in adults include intemperance, discontent, as well as features such as "sulking and not talking" with others, baby talk, resisting authority, or driving a car at a recklessly high speed - manifestations that indicate the appropriateness of receiving psychological consultation.
Sublimation. According to Freud, sublimation is a defense mechanism that enables a person, for the purpose of adaptation, to change his impulses so that they can be expressed through socially acceptable thoughts or actions. Sublimation is seen as the only healthy, constructive strategy for curbing unwanted impulses because it allows the self to change the purpose or/and object of the impulses without inhibiting their manifestation. The energy of instincts is diverted through other channels of expression - those that society considers acceptable. For example, if over time masturbation causes the young man more and more anxiety, he may sublimate his impulses into socially approved activities such as football, hockey or other sports. Similarly, a woman with strong unconscious sadistic tendencies can become a surgeon or a first-rate novelist. In these activities, it can demonstrate its superiority over others, but in a way that will produce a socially useful result.
Freud argued that the sublimation of sexual instincts was the main impetus for great achievements in Western science and culture. He said that the sublimation of the sex drive was a particularly salient feature of the evolution of culture - it alone made possible the extraordinary rise in science, art and ideology, which play such an important role in our civilized life.
Negation. When a person refuses to admit that an unpleasant event has occurred, this means that he turns on such a defense mechanism as negation. Imagine a father who refuses to believe that his daughter has been raped and brutally murdered; he acts as if nothing like this ever happened (which protects him from devastating grief and depression) or a wife who denies treason husband. Or imagine a child denying the death of a beloved cat and stubbornly believing that she is still alive. Reality denial also occurs when people say or insist, "This just can't happen to me," despite obvious evidence to the contrary (as happens when a doctor tells a patient that he has a terminal illness). According to Freud, negation is most typical of psychology young children and older individuals with reduced intelligence (although mature and normally developed people can also sometimes use denial in highly traumatic situations).
Denial and other described defense mechanisms represent the paths used by the psyche in the face of internal and external threats. In each case, psychological energy is expended to create protection, as a result of which the flexibility and strength of the self is limited. Moreover, the more effective the defense mechanisms are, the more distorted the picture of our needs, fears and aspirations they create. Freud noticed that we all use defense mechanisms to some extent, and this becomes undesirable only if we rely on them excessively. The seeds of serious psychological problems fall on fertile ground only when our methods of protection, with the exception of sublimation, lead to a distortion of reality and subsequent psychological suffering when a person needs psychological help and psychotherapist consultation.
25. The concept of projection in psychology. Types of projection. Projective methods in psychology.
Projective Methods- special methods based on the use of unstructured stimulus situations, and actualizing the subject's desire to convey trends, attitudes, relationships and other personal characteristics. The term "projective methods" was introduced by Frank in 1939. They are named so because they are based on a single psychological mechanism, which, following Freud and Jung, is usually called "projection". Projection - in psychoanalysis, projection is a protective mechanism (L attributes repressed thoughts, experiences, motives to other objects, and this is the mechanism of psychological protection from the awareness of the presence of these tendencies in oneself). Initially, PM was considered as methods of clinical orientation, i.e. revealed the ability to predict the individual style of behavior, experiences and affective response in significant or conflict situations, to identify unconscious aspects of l-ty. The PM score is based on the Jung word association test. He proved the possibility of obtaining information about a person indirectly. Freud and Jung showed that unconscious experiences are diagnosable, because are reflected in the character of quick verbal associations, involuntary reservations, in the content of dreams, fantasies. The connection of fantasy images with properties and personality traits was also convincingly proved by Hermann Rorschach - the "Inkblots" test. In 1935, TAT, a technique for the study of fantasy. Authors - Murray and Morgan. The test material is plot pictures depicting indefinite sit-tions that allow different understanding and interpretation. As conceived by the authors, stories based on plot pictures make it possible to judge inclinations, interests, and often reveal painful states of the psyche. Under projection began to understand the tendency of people to act under the influence of their needs, interests, the entire psychological organization . In 1939 Frank's works appeared. He was the first to use the term projective techniques» to designate a special group of personality research methods.
In 40-50 years. - two theoretical paradigms to substantiate the projective approach.
1) in line with psychoanalysis. The more uncertain the conditions, the more mental activity approaches the "primary" mental processes (imagination, hallucinations) driven by the pleasure principle. In this case, it is necessary to recognize the identity of "primary" mental processes and mental activity in a situation of projective research.
2) within the cognitive new look approach. Rapoport identified specific processes that determine the projective response. Projective production is the result of a complex cognitive activity, in a cat. merged cognitive moments and emotional moments. Bruner, within the framework of the new look approach, considered the main mechanisms of selective perception.
In psychology, there are types of projection:
1. Attribute projection - attributing one's own motives, feelings and actions to other people.
2. autistic projection - Determination of perception by human needs. Own needs determine how the subject perceives other people or objects. For example, looking at fuzzy images, a hungry person may perceive an elongated object as a slice of bread, an aggressive one as a knife, and a horny person as a symbol of male sexuality.
3. Rational projection characterized by rational motivation. For example, when students were asked to comment on the structure of the educational process, it turned out that truants and lazy people complained about the lack of discipline, and poor students were dissatisfied with the insufficient qualifications of teachers (i.e. students unconsciously attributed their undesirable features to teachers). Here, as in the case of ordinary rationalization, instead of recognizing their own shortcomings, people tend to attribute responsibility to
for their failures to external circumstances or other people.
4. Complementary projection - a projection of features that are additional to those that the subject actually has. For example, if a person feels fear, then he tends to perceive others as threatening, scary. For him in this case, the trait that is attributed to others is a causal explanation of his own condition. And a person who feels himself a strong, powerful person perceives other people as weak, as "pawns".
Were formulated resonance principle- incentives that correspond to attitudes and interests are perceived faster; principle of sensitization- increased sensitivity to stimuli that threaten the integrity of the individual, which can lead to a violation of mental function, and recognition of these stimuli faster than others.
Projective methods are characterized by the following properties:
1) the use of semi-structured, vague incentives; incentives acquire meaning not only because of their content, but also in connection with personal meaning;
2) "openness" of the set of potential answers - all reactions of the subject are accepted;
3) an atmosphere of benevolence and the absence of an evaluative attitude on the part of the experimenter;
4) measuring not the mental function, but the mode of the personality in its relations with the social environment.
The use of projective methods is advisable in psychological counseling, because they contribute to the establishment of contact, are carried out quite quickly and clearly show the changes that have occurred (if the technique is repeated at the final stage). Projective techniques solve not only diagnostic, but also corrective tasks (for example, by drawing his state, the client can begin to reflect). Some projective methods are used in professional selection for diagnostic purposes.
Classification (E.T. Sokolova):
1 to institutional- structuring stimuli, giving them meaning (Rorschach inkblot test);
2) constructive involve the creation of a whole from separate parts (test of the world);
3) interpretive- interpretation of events, situations, i.e. picture story (TAT, Rosenzweig);
4) to atartic- carried out in game activity (psychodrama);
5) expressive- drawing on a free topic;
6) impressive- preference of some stimuli to others (Lusher);
7) a additive- completion of sentences, story (incomplete sentences).
Advantages of projective methods: they give a deep cut of the personality, are used to "build bridges" with the subject, do not hurt prestige, because any answer is "correct".
Criticism of projective methods not sufficiently standardized, the results are "on the conscience" of the experimenter, the usual requirements for tests (reliability, validity) do not apply to them, high degree subjectivity in analysis. If the psychologist is not professional enough, then he can show a "secondary projection" - interpret the materials of the methodology based on his own subjective ideas. At the same time, a direct projection of one's own mental states or problems cannot be excluded.
Projection in psychology is an erroneous perception of intrapersonal processes by individuals as arising and occurring from the outside. From lat. projectio - I throw ahead - endowing the surrounding objects with characteristics that the person has conditionally chosen for them inside himself, but perceives them as data received from the outside. Projection in psychology is a type of primary, primitive, psychological defenses classified by Nancy McWilliams.
The projection allows the individual to justify his own actions, behavior and motivation, with the explanation “everyone does it”, and he is a positive hero, forcedly placed in a situation. The functions and purpose of the defenses is to reduce the intrapersonal conflict (anxiety, tension) caused by the confrontation of the impulses of the unconscious with the learned requirements of the society that arise as a result of education and social communication. By weakening the conflict, the defense mechanism regulates the behavioral scenario of the individual, becoming a way through an unconscious distortion of reality.
Projection is the opposite. If the latter is the desire to psychologically appropriate an external object, placing it in the field of one's personality, then the projection, on the contrary, seeks to give the internal to the responsibility of the external. Psychoanalytically, this happens when the impulses of the ID are condemned by the Super-Ego (Super-I) and the personality ("I") needs a tool to resolve the confrontation. Paranoid tendencies are an example of an extreme manifestation of projection.
What is projection in psychology?
The projection mechanism is unconscious. It can manifest itself in paranoid tendencies, when the unconscious desire to control the environment is realized in the accusation of persecution, the desire to cause harm. Unwillingness to recognize one's own and accept them due to self-condemnation or social unacceptability, often subjective, provokes the growth internal stress, and in order to create the possibility of contact with his desire, he rewards this desire (for example, to allow himself to behave in a certain way) with an external object, and then condemnation is possible outside.
Projection in psychology examples are seen in everyday communication. Various Traits, attitudes, beliefs belonging to one's own are attributed to external objects and then perceived as coming from outside.
Projection in psychology is an example of a primary unconscious defense. It was assumed that the mechanisms of introjection and projection are dependent on the separation of the self from the external. Rejection, thoughts from the world of the Self and their expulsion to the outside world have the potential to bring relief to the confrontation only when the Self distinguishes itself from the outside. According to Freud, the starting points for the work of these psychological defenses are extremely complex and the mechanism is not as simple as it seems. In accordance with the theory of the British school, which operates during the period of Freud's study of defenses, they are the very processes without which the differentiation of the individual from society could never be realized.
The projection scheme can be represented as a sequence of separate processes - understanding the nature of the impulse (not conscious understanding), cessation of the impact on the environment necessary to satisfy this impulse, which is its only goal, exclusion of active action from external activities I creates a conditional field around my personality, in which the necessary (because desired) impulse comes from outside, as it seems. This, already subjectively emanating from an external impulse, is perceived by a person as aggressively and forcibly directed, forcing to react, because the I unconsciously and in the same way forcibly stops its own contact with its own unconscious impulse.
This process is considered as an adequate element mental development, not necessarily leading to neurotic tendencies. Projective defense is formed during the period when the child realizes his separation from the people around him. If the separation takes place adequately, a person is able to separate his desires from those of others.
The global work of the mass projection is various forms prejudice. Prescribing to a certain group the presence or absence of qualities (there are bad ones, there are no good ones) on the basis of subjective sensations, leads to a distorted interpretation of facts and events in an effort to pay off one's own repressed impulses. Freud believed that the worldview of the religious (and the mythological in general), at least in part, is the result of the projection outward of the inner psychological content of people, creating powerful images.
There are such conditional types of projection:
- attributive - attributes one's motivation and behavior to others;
- autistic - one's own needs push one to interpret the attitude of one's neighbors in accordance with the expectations and requirements of unconscious impulses;
- rational - explaining their miscalculations by interference created by other people;
- Complementary - a person rewards himself with the qualities of strength, as opposed to weak others, denying in himself the characteristics that are subjectively perceived as manifestations of weakness of character.
Usually, the mechanism works in a complex way, using different kinds simultaneously. The larger the participation of the projection in the work of the internal processes of the personality, the more responsibility is given to the outside, the more passive the individual, the psychic energy, instead of being directed to a productive channel of self-realization, is spent on creating an explanation of one's own lack of initiative.
Projection - psychological protection
Examples of projection from life are subjective views on the environment, which are characteristic of the individual. , in balance, are necessary for the psyche to compensate for traumatic events. But if the defense begins to prevail, captures the mental space and becomes the dominant way of communicating with the world, we are talking about neurotic behavior, and in extreme forms it manifests itself as psychotic disorders.
An example of a normal and successful use of projection is the actor's experience of the hero's drama, endowing him with his pain, re-experiencing emotion in a role. Thinking and planning actions from the angle of "what would I do, being in his place" also includes the conscious use of this defense, if it is understood that this is only an assumption. But even in this case, if you remove the element of understanding the assumption, situations arise “to judge by yourself”. This is a common situation in cases of suspicion and in personal relationships.
The same applies psychological protection also in relation to the characteristics of their own individuality. He separates from himself not only impulses, but even the physical parts of himself, the organs in which these impulses arise, endowing them with an objective, in some form, existence. They become responsible for the difficulties and help to ignore that these are parts of the person himself. For example, hunger can be explained by the peculiarities of the work of the stomach, and not by one's own natural desire. The projecting subject appears to be a passive object of circumstance rather than an active one. actor life of one's own individuality.
Thus, in the projection, the line between the intrapersonal and the rest of the world shifts in favor of one's own benefit, which makes it possible to remove responsibility, denying the belonging of aspects of individuality that are perceived as unattractive, offensive.
Projection is a consequence of causing introjects in a person a feeling of contempt and a desire for alienation. A person who wants love but avoids close relationships because they believe others will betray is a classic example of projection. In everyday speech, psychological defense is manifested in wordings when the behavior of others causes indignation and condemnation, the replacement of the pronoun "I" with the pronoun "you\he\she\them". That "white coat". And the stronger the impulse pressure, the more aggressive external attacks.
- this is a more conscious projection, since a person already includes himself in the system of relationship with the projection. Psychological protection underlies the ability to personify inanimate objects (children are "friends" with toys), or animals, communication with which is built on an emotional level.
“They think bad things about me!”, “They don’t like me!”, “You’re angry with me!” - all these thoughts are a defense mechanism, which psychologists have dubbed projection. The psychology of shielding yourself from other personalities is a topical issue.
Projection is nothing more than qualities and desires, attributing them to other people. What is she for? The answer is simple: people need to justify themselves.
“I lied because everyone is lying!”, “I did not fulfill the order because no one fulfilled it,” and so on, and countless people on Earth often visit similar thoughts. Although we endow others, we not only bad traits but also its positive qualities.
This method of protection works most often in vulnerable people. These are people who cannot calmly take criticism, answer to the offender, or, being prone to dishonesty, stigmatize others. Projection has its downsides.
Isn't it true that you can often hear how prominent politicians tell from the sofa how to rule the country? Or, while waiting in line at the clinic, will you find yourself next to the “luminary of medicine”, who will immediately tell the diagnosis, along the way cursing all the doctors? There are a million examples.
“They stole money and built palaces for themselves!” – relevant words, right? After all, you can’t earn a lot in an honest way, it’s easier to think that way, right? “He is cheating on me and looking at other girls!” – meanwhile, she looks at her neighbor.
To justify oneself, one's failures and inability to act is what people need projection for. Such people envy a lot and condemn those who are more fortunate, in their opinion.
Ways to protect the individual
This term, like many aspects of the issue under consideration, was introduced and illuminated. He believed that a vulnerable person begins to seek protection when pressure is exerted on her. Intended to protect, projection distorts reality, making it less painful for the individual. Freud also identified ways that protect us from external influences that are unpleasant to us from the outside world:
- Negation.
- Suppression.
- Crowding out.
- Irony.
- Dreams.
- Dream.
- Transfer.
We have already said that projection is a mechanism. Let's now talk about how this very mechanism works. Let's analyze all its stages:
- You become overwhelmed with an insane experience. This experience is removed from consciousness - why do you need a snowball of bad thoughts and feelings in your head, which only interferes?
- Gradually, this same experience is transferred to another object (personality). Why worry now, these are not your thoughts, but his!
- Now let's stay away from him. Why stand next to this? With his thoughts and feelings!
We all have this protection. Some to a greater extent, some to a lesser extent, but everyone uses it without exception! It happens unconsciously.
The artist also projects for his paintings. Writers live by the fact that they imagine themselves in the place of heroes, but how else, because you won’t write well in another way!
A caveat is needed here. The writer and artist are not neurotics. They know perfectly well where their heroes begin and where they themselves begin. It is important to be able to draw a clear line between yourself and them.
The neurotic does not know and does not understand this. He becomes passive to everything that happens around him. He is a victim - all around are tormentors, those because of whom he has to suffer.
In projection, we erase the usual "normal" boundary between ourselves and the outside world, drawing a new one. And it will be shifted in our favor. Now the responsibility for everything falls not on us.
Empathy and intuition
In psychology, projection is the basis. Psychologists consider this ability to be the norm. Empathy is empathy with another person by projecting one's own personal experience.
Have you wondered more than once how your mother can feel your condition at a distance? How can a person, being thousands of kilometers away, know what is happening in your soul? The connection of souls in love can also be explained. They feel each other as if they are one whole - amazing, right?
Projection is our psychological defense. It has positive features, there are also negative ones. We hope that the article helped you understand yourself. Author: Vera Ivanova
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