Projection

The last post was on Active Information. This one is on projection which is the basic principle of cinema - projecting images onto a white screen. It is also used on a metaphoric sense for the way a patient "projects" material from the unconscious on the bank screen of the "non-judgemental listner" - the analyst. This a patient may become aware of feeling of anger, or love towards the therapist and the therapist can then address those feelings.

Of course we tend to project into those around us but most of them do no act as blank screens because then exhibit a "persona". This was the name for the mask used in Greek theatre. Similarly a person may wear a mast in their professional life or in their dealing with colleagues - it may be the mask of the "helpful friend", "unflappable expert", "professional teacher", "sympathetic doctor" and so this may act to interfer with our projections.

But what if a person has no persona? This was the case in the film Being There, Seller pays a man who has no persona, no public mask. He is a total blank onto which people can project anything they like and so he soon becomes the expert businessman, the astute politician and at the end of the film his colleagues have even chosen him as the next president.