Communication and Projection

All communication is Projection

In the New Insights training we take the concept a bit further. In fact we go so far as to state that all communication is a form of Projection and that Projection can manifest as both positive and negative.

To understand why we say this you have to deconstruct the concept of communication, which is the way in which we humans share information with each other.

Communication – an exchange of information

At its most basic level communication is simply an exchange of information between two or more people.

Every communication involves a sending party and a receiving party. And every communication begins with a thought in the mind of the sender. When the decision is taken to share the thought it can be said that the sender has a communications intent.

The perfect communication takes place when the receiver ‘decodes’ the communication in exactly the way it was intended by the sender. In other words, the receiver receives the exact information that the sender intended him or her to.

Distorting influences

Of course, as we know, that does not always happen and very often misunderstandings can come about. This is due to the many potentially distorting influences that are brought to bear on the communication between the ‘encoding and decoding’ thereof.

What I want to focus on here are the those influences that happen in the mind of the sender – because this is the source of Projection.

We’re all unique

Every person is unique. Just as we all have a different DNA makeup and different fingerprints, we all have very different sets of values and different belief systems.

The reason for that is that each of us is exposed to a different upbringing, a different education, different events, experiences and outcomes. Added to that, we each have different creative abilities and imaginations.

Internal maps

What I’m getting at here is that each and every one of us has a uniquely different perspective on the world we live in. You could say that each of us navigates the world we live in with our own unique ‘internal map’. Put another way, each of us sees the world through a unique lens.

With this in mind perhaps you can appreciate that we naturally tend to ‘project’ our own internal maps onto others when we communicate with them.

In effect then, all communication is a form of Projection.

So when we talk or gossip about others, judge them, or see things in them that we either like or dislike, we are basing those perceptions on subjective criteria that derive from how we feel about ourselves and our relationship with the outside world.

At New Insights we like to say: “Whatever you see in someone else is actually in you!”

If you think carefully about it you’ll realise that you cannot ascribe an attribute, characteristic or ‘label’ to someone if you don’t have, within you, some experience or understanding of what that means.

Positive and negative

I said earlier that Projection can manifest in both a positive and negative way.

From the perspective of your personal growth and development, once you understand and accept the concept, it is the careful consideration of the effect of Projection in its negative form and your ability to accept responsibility for your own Projection, that is most enlightening.

A coach projects his values

One Saturday morning, not long ago, I was watching two school soccer teams play. The difference in style of the two opposing team coaches fascinated me. One remained cool headed throughout the ding dong battle on the field. The other stood on the sidelines berating the referee for his ‘appalling decisions’ every time the play went against his team.

When it finally became clear that his side was heading for a loss, the second coach’s demeanour towards the referee became steadily more demonstrative and his language more abusive. As his losing team trouped off the field at the final whistle I heard the coach muttering unsavoury comments about the referee’s values. Integrity – in his opinion – was certainly not one of them!

I saw this verbal assault on the poor referee for what it was – a clear case of Projection. That is the transference or attribution of one’s own disliked personal characteristics, unacceptable thoughts or negative emotions on to another or others.

A self defence mechanism

Projection, in the negative sense, is a form of self defence mechanism. It allows a person to criticise someone else for a trait or behaviour that they, themselves, possess but that they don’t like and/or don’t wish to own up to.

In so doing they can (in their own mind at least) conveniently deflect ownership for the problem to another or others.

Misguided though it may be, it saves face, keeps the ego content and allows them to feel better … at least in the short-term!

Ring a bell, anyone?