Basic Psychology 1
Elementary Psychological Mechanisms
Neurosis, Projection and Freudian Projection
The Procedural Analysis system was developed with scant reference to conventional psychology which, in light of its current state, might be an advantage. To facilitate its comparison with orthodox thought two mechanisms of paramount importance, neurosis and projection, are defined and discussed.
The definition of neurosis in this system is taken from Pavlov – it is the condition which arises when a single stimulus evokes two or more responses. In response to that single stimulus, neurotic stress is induced.
Neurosis will be better understood if we examine its probable origin. Then two primal neuroses have been defined: the Fundamental Human Neurosis and the Fundamental Female Neurosis.
The Fundamental Human Neurosis derives from the knowledge of impending death. Every organism strives to survive: even a humble fly avoids the rolled-up newspaper descending upon it because any creature which does not partake in the “eternal struggle for life” fails to pass on its genes. It loses its competition with others and its characters disappear forever from the gene pool. Any creature without a stong self-preservation instinct, and/or is too lazy or unmotivated to survive, has long become extinct.
In the same way, humans do not generally welcome their demise. This conflict, that we do not want to die, while at the same time being conscious of its inevitability, is the Fundamental Human Neurosis. It accounts for the inception and persistence of religion, which resolves this basic conflict.
Females are much more sexual than males. Recall that in this system sex is any non-monetary activity: any non-business relationship is sex, and ‘sex,’ ‘physical sex’ and ‘relationships’ can all be regarded as equivalent since their only ultimate purpose is procreation. The primary sexual activity of the female is relationships.
However she still desires physical sex, and probably more often than she cares to admit to males. This is the origin of the Fundamental Female Neurosis. The female, at least sometimes, wants sex, yet her basic strategy relies on raising its value. Sex is the only amenity females can provide which males cannot. Hence all female procedures reduce to raising the value, i.e. raising the cost, of sex. Even though the female may desire sex, she denies it to the male to make it into a scarce resource. Thus its value is raised and her status increases.
2a. Freudian Projection
The following is a collection of definitions of projection from orthodox psychology texts. In this system the distinct mechanism of projecting own unconscious or undesirable characteristics onto another is called Freudian Projection.
2b. (General) Projection
Here projection is assuming that others act or perceive similarly – according to this definition it is not necessary for a projected trait to be undesirable or unconscious. Projection is probably the single most important psychological mechanism. The following are given as examples:
Each of these examples involves an assumption that others exhibit an own trait, but various “defence mechanisms” exist. Counter-strategies for Case 2 include (a) being conscious of a tendency to project and compensating with increased scepticism, testing scientifically, and (b) lying as much as everyone else.
Case 3 could occur if an individual is honest to himself about his character. This is, or should be, the normal case. He may inhibit his tendency to project his traits onto others, applying this as a conscious effort. It may be that meeting an occasion when this now automatic effort is not required assists him in accurately recognising his own traits in another individual.
Case 4 is an interesting scenario left open for discussion.
In Case 5, offensive acts may occur when the projector (which may be an individual or a population), erroneously believing that their opponent is about to do likewise, pre-empts the opponent – making the player of this so-called defence mechanism an aggressor. This illustrates just one of several problems with the orthodox notion of projection.
I hope to have demonstrated that the conventional definition of projection, here called Freudian Projection, merely describes a specific instance of a more general, and important, human mechanism. Projection accounts for a great deal of human behaviour and attitudes, especially when it is combined with features such as denial of latent desires.