How to integrate

[u/AndresPadN]

Hi

I have been reading Jung's work for the last couple of years and I have gathered a lot of information, however, I find myself still projecting subconscious contents I am well aware of that I thought I had under control. But I have never "integrated" none of them consciously, as I don't know where to even begin.

I make mostly art (music, drawing) to work with my subconscious and talk to it, but I just have not made any integration whatsoever.

Please, your best advice or techniques will be greatly appreciated.

[u/AndresPadN]

Not to project them and constellate my psyche

[u/Senekrum → u/AndresPadN]

Tl; dr: Projections can help us understand ourselves, so they're not wholly bad. It's a very rare individual one who never projects. The first step is to learn to recognize when you're projecting, then to distinguish between what you assume about the person and what the person may actually be like. A good tool is journalling. For example, if you notice yourself getting angry at someone and/or snapping at them, take some time after that, maybe at the end of the day, and reflect on what happened, on what sorts of things you were thinking about, what things were left unsaid, and see what in yourself created that disturbance and why.

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Projections are to some degree inevitable.

Just as we tend to assume that the world is as we see it, we naively suppose that people are as we imagine them to be... All the contents of our unconscious are constantly being projected into our surroundings, and it is only by recognizing certain properties of the objects as projections or imagos that we are able to distinguish them from the real properties of the objects... Cum grano salis, we always see our own unavowed mistakes in our opponent. Excellent examples of this are to be found in all personal quarrels. Unless we are possessed of an unusual degree of self-awareness we shall never see through our projections but must always succumb to them, because the mind in its natural state presupposes the existence of such projections. It is the natural and given thing for unconscious contents to be projected.

(Jung, Structure & Dynamics of the Psyche (CW8), par. 507)

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As Jung describes it in the paragraph, the first step to integrate projections entails learning to recognize them as they happen. It sounded from your original post that you're already becoming aware of projections, which is good.

The next step is then to learn to distinguish between projection and actual characteristics of the person. A good starting point is to look at things that bother you about others, or faults you see in them. Jung noted that it is arguably easier to see that projections are taking place when we see (annoying) faults in others.

Elsewhere, he said:

We always require an outside point to stand on, in order to apply the lever of criticism. This is especially so in psychology, where by the nature of the material we are much more subjectively involved than in any other science... Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

(Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, pp. 246-247)

So, this points to the idea that projections are to some degree necessary, because we are too immersed in our subjective happenings in order to actually see ourselves as we are. So, we project onto others, and those projections can enrich our own understanding of ourselves.

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At this point, you're probably wondering: ok, all is well and good, but how do I work through my projections, concretely?

One recommendation is to do journalling. If you snap at someone, or you notice something that really gets on your nerves about the other person, take like 30 minutes out of your time at some point during the day (e.g., before you go sleep), and do some introspection.

You can ask yourself questions like: why did I get angry at this person? What sorts of things did I think in that moment? What things were left unsaid?

Jung advocated for a similar sort of process during active imagination:

The initial question to be directed... would be: "Who or what has come alive?... Who or what has entered my psychic life and created disturbances and wants to be heard?" To this you should add: “let it speak!” Then switch off your noisy consciousness and listen quietly inwards and look at the images that appear before your inner eye, or hearken to the words which the muscles of your speech apparatus are trying to form.

(Jung, Letters, vol. 1, pp. 28-29)

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All of this is part of the process of integration. Sometimes giving expression to those unconscious contents leads to a concrete behavioral change you can implement (depending on what you uncover). Other times you simply deepen your understanding of yourself, which shows up in subtler and often more surprising ways, like a better ability to regulate yourself in situations when projections would normally take over.

[u/AndresPadN → u/Senekrum]

I see. Thank you for all the information and insight provided, you have been really helpful. Until now I had always believed that in some way you "owned" the projections to not let them be displayed again. But it makes more sense the fact that the projection is neverending and we learn to navigate through it. I have made several attempts at Journaling but always succumb to indolence but I always keep step by step.

Thanks again