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The projection: criticizing the other, we talk about ourselves

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Criticizing others is a widespread "sport" among many people. We talk about how others dress, how they think, how they behave, how they run their lives ...

But... What is hidden behind a criticism? What mechanisms make many people unable to repress the urge to judge others? Gestalt humanistic psychology driven by Fritz perls in the 1940s he explained this phenomenon through a concept called "projection".

  • Related article: "Gestalt therapy: what is it and on what principles is it based?"

Criticism of others and neurotic mechanisms

As a humanistic therapy, Gestalt is characterized by pursue personal fulfillment to fully develop human potential. One of its pillars is self-knowledge to recognize the relationship between bodily sensations that cause our emotions and link them with our needs to learn to satisfy them.

When the person does not know how to give herself what he really needs, is when neurotic mechanisms appear according to Gestalt, which are all those disturbances both at the level of thought and behavior that arises from the individual's inability to do what he really wants to try to adapt and be accepted by his environment Social. Projection is one more of these mechanisms and is the basis for criticizing others.

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  • Related article: "Humanistic Psychology: history, theory and basic principles"

What happens during the projection?

The one who projects, rejects some aspects of himself and attributes them to others. What one person criticizes of another always has to do with the one who judges; It may be something that you would like to do but is not allowed, or it may be something in your own personality that you dislike.

For example, if someone rejects another person's extreme anger, that anger may not be recognized. as his, because he does not want or can express it, or because he does not like his own anger uncontrolled. When criticizing, you will be right sometimes, but most of the time he will be passing his opinion through the filter of his own experience and he will make serious mistakes judging others. In addition, you will feel powerless to change the situation, since the guilt will always be external.

Therefore, the act of projecting or criticizing is the attribution to something or someone of our own qualities or feelings that we are not prepared to recognize as our own.

The role of dreams according to Gestalt

Another curious fact of the Gestalt paradigm is that according to this dreams are projections too. That is, what we dream of is that part that we do not integrate or that we do not have resolved about ourselves, so the dreams can give us many clues about what we are, what worries us or what we need to solve in each moment.

This perspective on the dream world tells us that behind much of the criticism of others there are mechanisms very deep psychological factors that affect us even when our mind has “disconnected” from the immediate environment of the Present.

Closing the cycle of our needs

Therefore, when we criticize others we are actually talking about ourselves and this instead of becoming something negative and seen from this new point of view, can help us to be more understanding and empathetic with what other people say or think.

On the other hand, it can guide our steps, since instead of remaining in criticism and always seeing the blame for what happens in others, we it can indicate the steps we have to take to avoid going down paths and decisions that do not correspond to us and be consistent with what we sorry.

Gestalt Therapy helps us identify these neurotic mechanisms that prevent us from closing the cycle of our needs and being aware of where we cut our desires, in order to decide if we want to act the same and continue to criticize, or if we want to dare to be ourselves and have no need to do it. One of the important objectives within Gestalt therapy is precisely to assimilate these projections, that is, that we accept as part of our experience what is rejected.

So when we feel the irrepressible temptation to judge others, it is more useful to stop at feel what happens inside us and know how to take advantage of what our emotions tell us and feelings.

  • You may be interested: "Neurosis (neuroticism): causes, symptoms and characteristics"
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