C.G. Jung, On the “Advantage” of Projection

Projection: “Making a real difficulty unreal.”

The “advantage” of projection consists in the fact that one has apparently got rid of the painful conflict once and for all.

Somebody else or external circumstances now have the responsibility.

In the present case, the reactivated father-imago gives rise to a hymn addressed to the deity in his specifically paternal aspect—hence the emphasis on the Father of all things, Creator, etc.

The deity thus takes the place of the human singer; and earthly love is replaced by the heavenly.

Although it cannot be proved from the material available, it is nevertheless highly improbable that Miss Miller was so unaware of the conflicting nature of the situation that the apparently effortless transformation of the erotic impression into feelings of religious exaltation cannot be explained as an act of repression.

If this view is correct, then the picture of the father-god is a projection and the procedure responsible for this a self-deceiving manoeuvre undertaken for the illegitimate purpose of making a real difficulty unreal, that is, of juggling it out of existence.  

 

Collected Works 5

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