Building the essence of our identity is becoming more complex in an information-overloaded world, where conflicting stimuli and messages are constant.
In order not to be flooded with information, we have a defense mechanism, which is the introjection, is the automatic incorporation of all the information we receive from the environment, without any personal judgment.
- Each person is built little by little every day.
- Our personal identity is like a castle that we build through the feelings.
- Perceptions and representations we have of ourselves and the environment in which we live.
Introjection is something that we are all subject to experience, to some extent necessary, the problem arises when this mechanism takes over.
In our day to day we are constantly exposed to the need to respect rules, laws, behaviors, ideas, beliefs and patterns of behavior, since we were children we have been taught to follow the rules to integrate into society.
In the family sphere we receive messages of all kinds, which still resonate in our minds today, when we do not accept these messages and act differently, we feel guilty.
We integrate all this information without digesting the messages, without assimilating them and without judging our personal judgment.
Messages like “You need to work on something important to be someone in life,” “Men don’t cry,” etc.
These commands tell us what is right and what is wrong, thus conditioning our behavior and shaping our identity.
Introjection is a way of satisfying the people around us, and above all it has an adaptive function to be accepted by society.
When the projection mechanism guides our life, it can be very dangerous for our identity: we lose our essence and our own original way of being.
When we lose ourselves in complacency, taking on the role of “good,” doing everything others expect of us, we lose the ability to discern between our real world (what we want) and what others impose on us.
When we act on the mechanism of introjection we integrate everything that is good for others, their expectations and what they expect from us, the messages we receive are part of your needs, regardless of what we really need.
Thus, we accept the thoughts of others without a doubt, allowing them to be part of our lives and build our destiny.
In this way, we do not develop our essence and our way of being, we are lost by this mechanism of introjection and live to please others.
However, introjection also has a creative aspect, which pushes us to apply this learning in our lives, collecting their positive values and integrating them into our identity.
The adaptive function of introjection serves to take into account the ideas and beliefs of others, learning traditions and popular wisdom.
In order not to let this mechanism govern our lives and build our future on the basis of what others want and believe, we must be aware of it.
It is very important to understand under what circumstances, when and with what type of people we act automatically, without the filter that helps us distinguish what is part of our values and identity.
What messages do we receive from our environment without questioning or analyzing?We need to be vigilant to turn these messages into something useful, think about them, and turn what’s right for us into learning.
When we analyze and challenge everything that comes from outside, we give ourselves the opportunity to make deeper and more consistent decisions about how we think, feel, and understand life.
We will be aware of the type of identity we want to create when we are responsible for the decision whether or not to accept the other person’s messages.
We will be the architects of our own lives, building our future according to our choices and what we learn from everything we experience.
Therefore, it is essential to assimilate and pass through our personal filter everything we learn in life, thus facilitating the development and expression of oneself.