Healing Within the Blur

In considering the adaptive purpose of complexes, John Perry (1972) suggests complexes in their favorable aspect are “components of development.” They provide an opportunity, through the repetition compulsion, to re-enter the original developmental wound for the purpose of trying again to access an essential missing and still missed component of development. He suggests psyche will persevere until such time we are able to access the teaching, and experience the meaning that solves the puzzle, “in some happy moment.”  

A shift in the dynamics of our work happens whenever we are able to come back to center and be aware in the moment of the participation mystique aspect, what I have identified as the blur. This peculiar sense of being in the room with projections actively seeking to be introjected, allows one to begin to bring enough consciousness to the situation to access the deeper drama being played out. That this drama is highly organized and seemingly responsible for psychic energy influencing others and the environment directly is mind-boggling. Developing a sense of how this works in the service of healing consciousness is a lifetime process. In support for recognizing our projections in the moment for what they are, opportunities for healing, Edinger offers:

“Here is an important idea, that whenever one finds himself in a state of conflict with someone or with a situation, he should entertain the hypothesis that the psyche has propelled him into that situation in order to generate consciousness. That is an almost infallible law. If you entertain that hypothesis you will find it confirmed almost every time. The outer person or event that one is in conflict with is an exteriorization of an inner antagonist, and as one pays attention to that possibility the outer conflict resolves because it has become internalized and one has all he can handle taking care of what is going on inside.” (Edinger, E., Transformation of the God-Image, 1992, pp. 70-71)