We like to believe we see others clearly.
But again and again, our eyes are clouded,
and our glasses are colored,
by our unconscious projections.
The dream figure we take to be him or her
is shaped not only by memory or outer likeness,
but by hidden elements of ourselves
seeking expression.
We fight others
only to realize later
we were fighting parts of ourselves all along.
We condemn and criticize
what we have not dared to face within.
This is why, even in conflict,
there is gold to be mined
if we are willing to ask:
What in me is being stirred?
The psyche, Jung writes, creates a dream like a stage.
The dreamer is the stage,
the actor,
the director,
the critic,
the audience.
Even in waking life,
we often find ourselves watching projections,
not people.
So what then is healing?
To withdraw the projection,
to meet what lives behind it.
To say:
“You are not just a reflection of my pain.”
And to also say:
“What in me cast you into that role?”
This work is difficult.
And beautiful.
Because to understand even one part of ourselves more deeply
is to see others more clearly.
And in that mutual recognition
new chapters are being written
in the story of our becoming.
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