Projection, Narcissism and Reality.

The current media presentations concerning the war in the Ukraine, brought to my mind the media in the Arab world, several decades ago, and how it reported on the conflict with Israel then. It hit me in the guts: how could people know -and pretend that they do not know-that they are exposed to such a bunch  of lies and  hang on to it ‘as if they wanted the media to communicate  what they wanted to hear and not what they should know’? Few years later than the Egyptian Media sugar coating facts about the Egyptian\Israeli conflict I found the answer in a Freudian quote: “ ‘in projection’ an internal perception is suppressed, and , instead, its content, after undergoing a certain kind of distortion, enters consciousness in the form of an external perception. In delusions of persecution the distortion consists in a transformation of affect; what should have been felt internally as love is perceived externally as hate”(Freud, SE. Vol. X11, P.66). This remark that was made in 1911 depicted the psychodynamics of the media in the middle east then, and it still does today about the war in the Ukraine: lying to people and using projection to distort reality to the detriment of the Ukrainians more than their supporters. On the one hand the media shows the Russians as ‘whatever’ to allow projection to perceive something in them as inhumane and criminal, as in the same news they glorify the Ukrainian successes against that enemy. So, projection in the media is baffling: hate them or pity them; but which is the right feeling to engender!

There is another different aspect of “projection” that is likely to be missed if not mentioned. A dream is the projection of a wish on a dream screen creating the scene which we remember after the end of the sleep. Projection in that sense is changing a wish into an event. Putting those two points to gathered we find something about projection that explains several psychoanalytic issues (concepts like transference which without acting it out in a relationship with the analyst will-at best- remain a memory). I chose the issue of the internal vs. the external as the two major elements in projection. The internal (the intrapsychic) is always unconscious but -as Freud said- to enter consciousness it has to take the form of a perception, i.e., get projected and conceived of as if it is an externally created matter, i.e., reality.  In its way to consciousness, after being exteriorized, its credibility is rarely questioned. In dreaming we never wake up from a dream questioning its credibility but only after interpreting it we get a chance to question the wish (Freud in the Erma’s dream might have said: I cannot believe that I am such an arrogant person).

Projection is a psychodynamic mechanism that turns an internal condition into a perception or a conception that occupies consciousness as ‘reality’. That new real that replaces the external reality, which is frustrating, is turned into a  wish: I wish the Ukrainians teach the Russians a lesson despite the implausibility of that wish. It does not need an expert to know that the difference in all the elements of military power between Russia and the Ukraine is beyond a naïve comparison. Yet, a smug gesture, in the West, by the incompetent and self-serving politicians, advocates getting “more weapons” to solve the problem of an obvious uneven war: more weapons for the Ukraine to end the war or to keep it going longer till they win? A psychotic plea no doubt that reflects two contradictory projections: win by getting more weapons as if the problem is disparity in effectiveness, when the original situation was the Ukraine's need for protection. 

The media is trying to balance two objectives: depict the Ukrainians as the miserable weak side that is attacked by a mighty power, but at the same time the strong able side that Russia is two weak to defeat. This attitude is domed to create a disastrous confusion: there is no way to talk about the Ukrainians in that impasse without admitting that  War was imposed on then not from the enemy but from the friends. They are involved in this unequal and useless war by the same force that is supposed to protect them, NATO. So, there are two subjects for projection: NATO the cause of the catastrophe and NATO the solution for the war.  The first projection is of the nation that wants and deserves joining the Elite of the world (Western Europe). The other projection is of a nation that is too humble to join the other class of neighbors: two realities and two fantasies that are supposed to create one and the same projection. This is not just a difficult task for one and the same projection to introduce to consciousness; it is a contradiction in its Narcissistic core: ‘we are good enough to be in the European Union but also not good enough to be protected by NATO. In both cases the narcissistic dilemma has no apparent solution. To deserve joining the prestigious status of a European Country  is for sure not in the reality of any possible current Projection. The Ukrainian country has to be European enough to join the private club of NATO but has to be member of the NATO club first to be European enough. So!!!! We are dealing with Political Narcissism in its old European philosophy of manipulating it huge empires just less than seventy years ago

Political Narcissism.

If there is something to call political narcissism it will be conveyed in the psychology of some political leaders who sound as if they are just expressing the wish-of-the people. The fact of the matter-as many historical events from the time of  Alexander the great to Adolf Hitler-is that political leaders create in their people narcissistic needs, or an external aspiration that is transformed into an internal demand that cannot but submit to. Mind you, this could only succeed if the individuals have nothing to project (exteriorize) and gives them a sense of psychological life. After the first World war the German had a psychological life that corresponded to his social life, i.e.,  nothing to project and exteriorize. The Nazi movement revived some old aspirations and people started to feel psychologically alive again. Narcissism, personal and social, becomes a new compass of comparisons and feeds on comparisons with other nations and the politicians exploit it to give themselves a sense of being needed.

Since the end of the last war there were some limited and short wars that exploited the results of the previous World war. But lately (last 10-15 years) the narcissistic map reflected more political maturity and the division of Communism vs. Capitalism started to disappear. Political narcissism began to lose impetus. That was a problem for politicians in countries that breathed political narcissism for the last few centuries. The USA was not the…anymore. Europe lost the distinctions between its eastern and western cultures. Asia has four great cultural entities (Political narcissistic formations), so does  Africa and south America. The old masters are no more ‘above’ others.

What happened lately in the Ukraine is a pathetic attempt by few silly quasi-politicians of the old civilized, free, democratic, developed, etc. societies trying to maintain their political narcissistic delusions. They,   wanted to divide Europe once again into NATO\WARSAW Pacts. Few Minutes ago (April 21) President  Biden gave a speech as the leader of the pact of the free nations regarding rebuilding the Ukraine. Maybe because of his age or the bad company he keeps he forgot that Russia is freer from political narcissism, thus less stupid than many others.

A.   Narcissism and Aggression:

Aggression, like hate is basic in the psychology of the human subject. The immediate thing to mention in that regard is that narcissism is routed in the duality of I (internal, subjective, imagined, etc.) and Me the objective (External, Object, out there, etc.). The stability and reality of the subjective I is in the proofs and proves of its existence. Thus, narcissism is a field of an I that is always in  danger of annihilation if there is no solid well established me to support its presence. I think it is clear that narcissism is one aspect of the psychological life of the subject were a great deal of anxiety and aggression could be instigated. It is also a psychological condition that depends heavily on projection because projection is the natural screen on which the subject reflects his I .

What is happening now in the Ukraine is two (maybe more) narcissistic junior European politicians let their narcissism project a sense of omnipotence that blinded them of the fact that Putin is not a politician but a trained administrator of  a very serious job which requires practical viewpoints to work. Moreover, the West, Civilized, Free, Democratic and the old Natural ruler of the world is now one of four or five groups of countries that share with it the same globe. So, those two technocrats and  without consultation- ignored that their narcissism has led them astray. Ukraine now is bearing the outcome of those two inexperienced  political functionaries. I am very leery that the present situation will result in something good or bad. But maybe it is a wakeup call. 

War is an act of aggression, facing aggression with aggression never create piece. The present notion of arming the Ukraine to face Russia could be called many things but the most descriptive of it is psychotic. Because projection reveals repressed consciousness the consciousness that is not a product of a process of projection should be examined because it could be simply a psychotic sate of mind.  Hitler's statements were not megalomania or projection of frustrations. They were genuine conscious beliefs, i.e., they were ideas and not projections of ideas.  We should examine the calls for arming the Ukrainians to war with Russia to make sure that they are not psychotic ideas.