been miniaturized, flattened, rolled up tight and shut in the
darkness inside a steel can, much the same way movies are
stored.^2 At night, when darkness rules the world, often in
dreams, these stored parts of ourselves suddenly appear before
us, huge and bright, as if splashed upon a screen. They are
powerful; they captivate our attention; we cannot look away.
In the “daylight” of rational examination, these same fig-
ures appear as pale, tiny things on thin connecting strips. But
as soon as we sink into “the dark” of our unconscious and
something “ignites a particular light in the rear of our head,”
our psyches become natural projection machines, and these
same figures loom before us wherever we look, even on the
faces of those closest to us.
“A man’s anger, rolled up inside the can for twenty years,
he may see one night on his wife’s face. A wife might see a
hero every night on her husband’s face and then one night sees
a tyrant. Nora in A Doll’s Housesaw the two images in turn.”^3
Of the numerous movies Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s
Houseinspired, perhaps the best is the 1973 version. Watching
it may help you to better understand the dynamics of projection
as you prepare to bring elements of your shadow bag into the
light of consciousness.
Movie Preview:A Doll’s House (1973)
Nora’s life is as close to perfect as she could possibly
want. Her home, her clothes, her social life, and her
marriage to Torvald, her banker husband. Everything
seems perfect. But suddenly, a loan she took out
secretly years ago in order to save Torvald’s life returns
to haunt her. When finally she realizes there is no way
to prevent Torvald from finding out about it, she is
confident his love for her will cause him to stand by her
despite his implacable moral principles which her
borrowing violates. But with his harsh reaction to the
news, Nora learns that her supposed “perfect” marriage
was an empty charade. Previously, she had simply seenSelf-Discovery Through Film Characters — The Self Matrix 149