The Surprising Psychology of Projection as a Pathway to the Realisation of the True Self (Carl Jung)

[@theokirkley]

I notice what I judge in others is often the same problem I have and it's usually a major blindspot.

[@DrFlorianKleinau]

That’s right ! I think realising that is a gateway to grow your relationships and yourself

[@Hopeful_One]

There's a lot of that going around, lately.
Fortunately, there is much self-reflection, as well.

[@DrFlorianKleinau]

@@Hopeful_One I hope there is much self-reflection going on !

[@MasoudJohnAzizi]

Excellent! Indeed, whatever we hate about another is that which we have not recognized and accepted about our own selves. Accordingly, Carl Jung referred to the source of all human conflicts as "shadow projection".

[@DrFlorianKleinau]

I think it’s a valuable insight for everyday life !

[@pliorius]

The thing with any concept is that it gets its context set through social functioning, so whatever is unconscious is an unresolved conflict between what is socialised and what is not (yet). The archetype is not some past untimely unity, but an ever changing social phantasy. It's not that humans were less conscious and archetype is animal residue, but that constant/consistent failure of socialization produces conflict, we are as animal as our old ghosts.
The conflict also calls for projection as a need for socialization, and it can never be a simple existing split between our civilized self and animal residue, but the inherent movement of socialization and both lack and over abundance of affect over language as main social mechanism.
So, neighbor I might hate, but not exclusively because I have what they have and fail to socialise it, also because I envy what I imaginw they have as social capital, and I lack it in that form.
The conflict is between lack and imaginary plenitude, between social as capital and social as just a phantasy, possibility.
To project then also assumes reject, eject, abject, object, subject, it's a call signaling of conflict within body social/political.
Archetype is thus the energy of unresolvable(once and for all) production of sociality.
Outside major anachronisticallity of jungian concepts (that have an affect of story, of phantasy in itself), the meat of their work is salvageable, just have to accept that there's no reconciliation between conflict of sociality as identity, term, being and sociality as other, freedom, becoming.

[@pliorius]

Now what is horrifyingly tragic is that we can socialize almost anything, the expanding grouping, belonging, acceptance of (human) otherness, but not the drive itself, and so the socialization as becoming conscious is nevertheless limited in respect to life, which is to say that you make a video, I make comment, s1 extends it elsewhere, etc etc, and what it does, it burns the planet at a increasing rate. And so, the drive to become conscious, to master the unconscious, to become enlightened is only possible at the expense of a body to live in. And in this sense, to be an animal, as structuraly outside this conscious human, paradoxically is to be way more conscious just because it doesn't result in a death of what makes it possible in a first sense.
Psychosciences in this situation are nothing else but veiled forms of unconscious drive to socialize the limited, the finite, the necessary minimal conflict among beings as nonsense of differential codes (of evolution), of chance, of accident, anarcheatype of absurd.

[@DrFlorianKleinau]

Thanks a lot for your comment ! Really appreciated.
From what I understand, you argue that concepts, including archetypes, are formed through social dynamics and represent ongoing social conflicts rather than static, ancient symbols. The unconscious is seen as unresolved tension between what has been socialized and what hasn't. Archetypes are not remnants of a less conscious, animalistic past but are continually evolving social fantasies driven by the constant failure of complete socialization. This leads to projection, a necessary aspect of socialization, which involves a complex interplay of identification and rejection.
I would have two remarks: First, the continuation of the development of the archetypes depends on the willingness of those participating in them to contribute to the realm, which is predicated on the engagement in, but I will call the participation of the collective conscious. This means the deep engagement, with products of the psyche of the past, and then the production of new products of the psyche and the present. This requires a certain openness for what I would call negative judgment - essentially the encounter with something other than oneself driving us to sacrifice aspects of ourselves. This sacrifice is the starting point of new material trickling down into the collective (unconscious).
I believe that Social Media prevents precisely this act of negative judgement and moves us away from this sacrificial attitude.
In August and September I have some more videos coming up on both, this process of sacrifice and on social media - It would be really cool to hear your input on them.
I also wrote a book on social media and am coming out with a second part of the book where I go into this in much more detail.. If this is interesting for you, let me know and I can send you a copy!

[@petalsm9937]

From the 16:00 mark, realizing what you said and combining it with how I usually feel, felt like I entered a different dimension. This isn’t a video I would usually watch, I passed twice and was lead back to it. I try sometimes to ignore getting lost in my mind because it feels unreal in some cases. And I start to detach myself, after watching your video I now feel maybe my detachment is a deep deep understanding of everything at the smallest level because of my perspective, because of my thoughts I projected so deeply I couldn’t feel anything but there was another feeling and I think it’s being connected at the same time while feeling detached. Because it feels so familiar yet being aware makes it feel surreal at the same time. It’s like I’m in my head so much that when I realize that’s what’s in my head and my reality is one (being in the now) it freaks me out but it feels comforting at the same time like wow I’m actually here. And the weird part is I see that I’m here, I know that I’m here but not here at the same time and I’m seeing something that isn’t me but is me for what ever experience but I just can’t remember why. It’s like having a dream and you’re aware that you’re dreaming so you can do whatever. That’s how I feel sometimes, like I can be so invincible that I can control the people around me because it’s a dream, I can spread infinite kindness or I can disrupt the work environment if I wanted to do it. And when I do test it, it works. Then sometimes I get doubtful and I start to reanlyze each person to see if what I felt was my control was really true, then I get into a frenzy of weird analysis and read each people, then all of a sudden I’m back in my zone feeling like I controlled the environment. I now see it’s all my projections, wow and I think it’s beautiful because when I feel like I’m controlling the environment I’m really not, it seems like I study my environment so deeply including people, that in some weird way I know how to feel their world and treat them carefully to know their weakness and strengths. Then sometimes by combining the 2, in a weird way I connect to them more, they can be their weird self with no judgement. This is a blessing and a curse. A blessing because I can see the happiness someone has, their sadness and I can help them see both and show them that it’s okay to be and experience anything because it gets better. It’s a form of manipulation that I am blessed with because I do not like seeing people hurt so I’m happy I’m not too bad to use it for selfish reasons. The curse is when I can tell someone is pretending just to be accepted and also seeing that the ones who has the power of approval treat these performers just like that, a performer for their attention. The human psyche is amazing and it’s scary when you’re not sure how to analyze your environment. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, this was a great video.

[@DrFlorianKleinau]

I really appreciate your reflections. Thanks a lot for the comment.

[@marcco44]

Enjoying your channel Dr.!👌 I was wondering if you could do a series on your take on Jung's idea of the Active Imagination and how it works? To me it sounds almost identical to the Many Worlds/Multiple Realities theories that science talks about now. One's the inner world, one's the outer, and both infinite.

[@DrFlorianKleinau]

That’s a great idea - I’ll record something later this week! Thanks a lot for sticking around

[@marcco44]

@@DrFlorianKleinau Delighted

[@alien7184]

He is so cute 🧚‍♂️

[@DrFlorianKleinau]

Glad you enjoyed it.

[@marcco44]

also then is the goal for your life not to project at all into the outer world? is projection then a bad thing? sounds a bit like Buddhism. or do you let things play out and see where it goes? for now in my life i do what is needed and TRY to detatch myself from being invested in the outcome

[@DrFlorianKleinau]

I don’t think that’s the goal. I think you can’t avoid projecting - there’s no way around it. But there’s something to learn in this projection - you can learn more about yourself and the archetypal background that’s involved

[@jonmustang]

@@DrFlorianKleinau I'm glad I found your video! Projection is really the key to understanding everything we experience.
I would actually say that, if we take it far enough, we could indeed stop projecting altogether but then the mind would pretty much refute itself and the sense of separate-self and world would cease. We'd realize permanent samadhi or enlightenment. For the eastern mystics, that is indeed the goal. To realize that the subject (eternal witnessing Self or pure awareness) is actually the only unchanging reality, and what the mind took to be a world of objects and people and our own personal self was all a complex set of projections.
Jung himself was said to have had a dream where he was encouraged by a meditating yogi to wake up and realize that he was just a character in the yogi's mind... though Jung at times also said he felt the western psyche wasn't meant for ego annihilation and that that was more of an eastern path. Food for thought!

[@DrFlorianKleinau]

@@jonmustang Thanks for this perspective. I think I will make a video contrasting Buddhist ideas with Jungian ideas - this may be fruitful and I think some aspects of your comments can be clarified there. Cheers!

[@jonmustang]

@@DrFlorianKleinau That would be great! I would love to hear a more in-depth understanding of Jung's view on eastern descriptions of moksha, no-mind, nirvana, etc and if he felt it was incompatible with his own theories. I know he was incredibly well-read on it.
I'd be particularly interested to hear about if Jungian analytics can be said to be compatible with eastern transcendence of mind. If archetypes are in the mind, for instance, what happens to them when there is no mind?

[@marinejulien5949]

@@DrFlorianKleinau Looking forward for this video, thanks in advance

[@ShellyBellyBeans]

This was really interesting

[@DrFlorianKleinau]

I’m glad you enjoyed it.