Dancing With Shadows: Eliminating Psychological Blind Spots

Ken Wilber’s simple method to reclaim sovereignty of mind

“Thus, the problem is not to get rid of any symptom, but rather to deliberately and consciously try to increase that symptom, to deliberately and consciously experience it fully!” — Ken Wilber, Meeting the Shadow

Meeting the Shadow — Psychological Blind Spots

Are you master in your own house? Do you fall into a mood or does the mood fall into you? Why do you see the speck in your friend’s eye and not the log in your own?

Oftentimes, we don’t just observe the world, but we are affected by the world. The two are quite different. When the environment merely informs us, we don’t project any of ourselves onto the world; if it affects us, we are possibly a victim of our own projections.

What is a projection? A projection “occurs when we attribute an element of our personality, which resides in our unconscious, to another person or group. We can project both negative and positive characteristics, however, there is a greater tendency to project the former rather than the latter.”

The term “projection” was originally popularized by Sigmund Freud, who believed that projection was a type of defence mechanism, to avoid the anxiety of having to claim one’s faults as their own.

We all have blind spots. Traits and tendencies that we refuse to accept and cast into the world as a projection. The projection of negative emotions and qualities onto others is common in our society and can have sinister consequences, both personally and collectively.

“Projection is one of the commonest psychic phenomena…Everything that is unconscious in ourselves we discover in our neighbour, and we treat him accordingly.” (Carl Jung, Archaic Man)

Carl Jung, a former mentee of Freud, believed projection was a necessary component of psychological development. It allows us to gain awareness of unconscious parts of ourselves that reside in the Shadow.

Jung stressed that the healthy approach to projection is to recognize its subjective origin and to withdraw it from the external world. In becoming aware of our own weaknesses and destructive tendencies, we gain greater conscious insight into our psyche.

The easiest way to understand your Shadow projections is to ask yourself, “What qualities in other people do you dislike the most?” “What strongly affects you that you see in others?” When someone or something strongly affects us (rather than just informing us), a projection is likely taking place.

The first step in taking back our projections is to recognize them and take responsibility for them. In reclaiming the negative qualities we have projected, we reintegrate parts of ourselves that were previously alienated (or cast into the Shadow).

Those who have alienated parts of themselves often rely too much on projection to shield themselves from the truth. These types of people will typically hold a high opinion of themselves and require a scapegoat to hold their faults for them. This commonly happens among friends and family, but at the collective level, mass projections can lead to fearmongering, conflicts among different societal groups, and in some cases, war.

“. . .modern people…are ignorant of what they really are. We have simply forgotten what a human being really is, so we have men like Nietzsche and Freud and Adler, who tell us what we are, quite mercilessly. We have to discover our shadow. Otherwise we are driven into a world war in order to see what beasts we are.” — Carl Jung

Jung believed that the greatest danger to human civilisation did not lay in the weapons we had at our disposal, but in the inability to understand our own minds. Reclaiming our psychological blind spots is therefore essential in remedying our destructive nature.

So how can we become more conscious of our blind spots? The American philosopher and author Ken Wilber provides the roadmap for how to reclaim our projections…

Sovereignty of Mind — Stop Pinching Yourself!

“Nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so” — Shakespeare, Hamlet

We always want to avoid suffering. Whether we are sad, depressed, angry, or anxious, we wish for these symptoms to alleviate themselves. To want for your symptoms to depart, however, is to have committed the first mistake — we have not realised the subjective origin of our projections.

“The first step, the primary step, is always to realize that what we thought the environment was mechanically doing to us is really something we are doing to ourselves — we are responsible.” — Ken Wilber

Wilber suggests that instead, we should ask ourselves “How can I experience this symptom/pain/experience even more?” “How can I be deliberately tenser, angrier, guiltier?” “How could I, hypothetically, make this worse?”

In asking ourselves this, we acknowledge that firstly, part of our suffering is self-inflicted, and secondly, we reverse the direction of our projections — instead of the environment doing something to me, I now see the role that I play in my own felt experiences.

This approach seems counterintuitive, perhaps even cruel. But Wilber points out that this is where the solution is found, for in thinking of ways you could make it worse, the person should instantly think “Why would I do any of that? That’s silly. Why would I make it worse for myself?”

But that is exactly the point. Thinking of ways you could make the experience worse (such as jealousy of someone, feelings of guilt or frustration) is have reclaimed the projection and understood that it ultimately came from you. Every time you think it is the other person or the environment that is bothering you, it is actually you bothering you — the other person is merely holding the projection for you.

In a way, it is as if you were constantly pinching and prodding yourself, but pretending that you weren’t. In beginning to ask this question, we become a conscious observer of our inner life — we stop being passive victims of our own projections and understand that we can contribute to both making the symptom(s) better or worse.

“Thus, if I am feeling anxiety, I would usually claim that I am a helpless victim of this tension, that people or situations in the environment are causing me to become anxious. The first step is to become fully aware of anxiety… realize that I am responsible, that I am tensing.” — Ken Wilber, Meeting the Shadow

Reclaiming sovereignty of mind is about recognizing that you are pinching yourself. Do not externalise the problem, but instead be more observant of what the symptom is telling you. What have we disowned? What can we not yet confront? Be master in your own house.

“Hence to ask, ‘How can I get rid of this symptom?’ is to goof immediately, for that implies that it is not you who are producing it! It is tantamount to asking, “How can I stop pinching myself?” — Ken Wilber, Meeting the Shadow

To want to be rid of jealousy, anger, or guilt is to have projected these qualities out onto the world, instead of realising that they ultimately started within you. We have to reclaim the projections and then embrace them completely.

In choosing to pinch ourselves, but pretending that we aren’t, we have not owned the subjective nature of our projections. If we choose to ignore this simple fact, it ultimately implies that (at some level) we want our symptom or suffering to continue, just as much as we want it to depart. A lack of self-awareness can lead to psychological sabotage.

This is why Wilber suggests turning the problem on its head — deliberately and consciously trying to increase the symptom, to experience it fully. In confronting the Shadow (unconscious) for the first time, you can become aware of your secret desire to keep and maintain your symptoms, to carry on pinching yourself.

“The easiest way to ‘un-tense’ a person is to challenge him to be as tense as he possibly can” — Ken Wilber, Meeting the Shadow

As a personal experiment ask yourself, “How could I consciously experience this symptom even more?” and see what happens. If you can become aware that you are pinching yourself, and are (oftentimes) contributing to the symptom, you have made the first step in reclaiming sovereignty of mind — you have given the Shadow its day. Lean into discomfort, and comfort will surely find you again.