All three meanings are relevant here. First, the movie is
projected on a white screen; then, everyone who watches these
images projects a different meaning on what he or she sees.
How and what we project depends on our view of the world,
our history, and our personality.
Psychology uses the concept of projection in different
ways. In the more orthodox texts it is seen as a mechanism
of projecting our own unconscious or undesirable character-
istics onto others. In psychoanalytic theory, for example,
projection is seen as a defense mechanism in which various
forbidden thoughts and impulses are attributed to another
person rather than the self, thus warding off anxiety (e.g., “I
hate you” becomes “You hate me”). This way we project our
unpleasant feelings onto somebody else and blame them for
thoughts that we really have. I call this the “narrow defini-
tion” of projection.
Getting to know our disowned parts prevents us from act-
ing out in an involuntary and undesired way. Becoming con-
scious and accepting these “shadow” qualities can help us
become more authentic and whole human beings and even
access our hidden potential. Understanding our projections
guides us to more emotional healing and inner freedom.
If we strongly dislike certain movie characters or their
behavior, we need to consider that we might be projecting our
own not yet fully conscious shortcomings onto them. These
characters seem different from how we see ourselves.
Becoming consciously aware of them can help us start access-
ing parts of our psyche that we weren’t aware of. We learn that
the negative traits we see in the characters or their behavior
could be part of our own repressed “shadow” self.
For our further exploration in this context I find a more
general definition of “projection” useful. We may also proj-
ect our disowned positive qualities onto a film character, as
we admire or idealize them. Admiring a character and his or
her actions may point to qualities that are hidden from our
full awareness. Therefore, I also find it useful to explore the128 E-Motion Picture Magic