Steve asked yesterday why I was blogging about these psychological defense mechanisms. Well, it had been my intention to delve deeper into them, once I had established precisely what they were. Tip of the hat to Wikipedia for the definitions.
When I see projection in others and myself, I'm disgusted. As the Wikipedia states, it is a primitive defense mechanism, but it's also so vile, so based in willful self-deceit, that it can only be deemed evil--when it is given expression either in word or deed. Aesop knew that the grapes were sweet and nourishing. But the fox, unable to get across the stream, despite his wiles, to taste them, was sure that the grapes were sour.
When we do this with people--then it's ugly, depraved and evil. Projection was the grease between the gears of the Holocaust. When people don't do what we want them to do, when they won't give us what we need, or when we make ourselves feel better by denigrating someone else, then we are projecting--and it's heinous. It's primitive, disgusting and vile--animalistic and brutish. It's pernicious because it's so unconscious, and I must be on guard.
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