Q: Thank you for this talk. I have a question: Around 8:30, Walter mentions projections, but where is the limit of projection? What if projection is also just an idea? Was Hitler evil, or was he just a predatory animal like any other already existing in Nature but with human-kind creativity in killing? Was he evil, or was it just a human projection? And for whom, as for some, he was a savior? And what about Donald Trump, whom you have criticized?
I was born in 1947, in NYC. I think of the past, which has led up to this. We invaded, displaced and destroyed the native population of this country. Building the country on the backs of slavery, we then had a Civil War to challenge that, but then there were years and years of Jim Crow politicis. We interfered with the elections of countries in Central America and the Carribean, leading to destabilizing our nearest neighbors. Then the war in Vietnam. The invasion of Irag by Bush/Cheney, based on a lie, then leads to more destabilization. But, Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that a person like Donald Trump could actually become president of the USA! WTF! And then, that he would easily get away with not conceding defeat and go on to run again as the leader of a major political party! Consider, the elected President Biden would then be hounded by the Republican Party and his legitimacy questioned for his entire term! What is next. Round and round it goes, where it stops nobody knows. Threats of nuclear war by Putin. Great division of all major powers with nuclear capabilities growing worldwide. Don't get me started on Israel! Who knows what will be next. Robert, put this in perspective. Are human beings capable of sanity? In any case we all will die and nothing that has form will last.
I don't quite understand how projection works as a mechanism in various circumstances.
One way is depicted above and it makes sense.
On the other hand, so many people are happily using this idea to make others quiet when they themselves don't like to hear what is being communicated to them about themselves.
Then there are survivors of all kinds of toxic relationships, narcissistic ones included, who hear from their abusers that they are projecting their own wickedness onto them. And so the victims end up being either gaslighted, made to believe that they are the real problem, or penalised when they finally react to the abuse they cannot stand anymore. So-called toxic individuals will trick relatives and friends, or even psychotherapists, into believing their version of the story, which only throws the victims deeper into their hell.
So, once their eyes open to what's happening, how are these victims projecting their own dark sides onto their abusers? My instinct is this is not the case at all, and enough survivors end up blaming themselves for the effects of their abusers' projections anyway.
I was born in 1947, in NYC. I think of the past, which has led up to this. We invaded, displaced and destroyed the native population of this country. Building the country on the backs of slavery, we then had a Civil War to challenge that, but then there were years and years of Jim Crow politicis. We interfered with the elections of countries in Central America and the Carribean, leading to destabilizing our nearest neighbors. Then the war in Vietnam. The invasion of Irag by Bush/Cheney, based on a lie, then leads to more destabilization. But, Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that a person like Donald Trump could actually become president of the USA! WTF! And then, that he would easily get away with not conceding defeat and go on to run again as the leader of a major political party! Consider, the elected President Biden would then be hounded by the Republican Party and his legitimacy questioned for his entire term! What is next. Round and round it goes, where it stops nobody knows. Threats of nuclear war by Putin. Great division of all major powers with nuclear capabilities growing worldwide. Don't get me started on Israel! Who knows what will be next. Robert, put this in perspective. Are human beings capable of sanity? In any case we all will die and nothing that has form will last.
I was born in 1948, and this is the worst I’ve ever seen too, all over the globe.
I don't quite understand how projection works as a mechanism in various circumstances.
One way is depicted above and it makes sense.
On the other hand, so many people are happily using this idea to make others quiet when they themselves don't like to hear what is being communicated to them about themselves.
Then there are survivors of all kinds of toxic relationships, narcissistic ones included, who hear from their abusers that they are projecting their own wickedness onto them. And so the victims end up being either gaslighted, made to believe that they are the real problem, or penalised when they finally react to the abuse they cannot stand anymore. So-called toxic individuals will trick relatives and friends, or even psychotherapists, into believing their version of the story, which only throws the victims deeper into their hell.
So, once their eyes open to what's happening, how are these victims projecting their own dark sides onto their abusers? My instinct is this is not the case at all, and enough survivors end up blaming themselves for the effects of their abusers' projections anyway.