Why does the thief judge by his condition?

The phrase “the thief judges by his condition” refers to a defense mechanism where someone attributes to another what actually applies to himself. Let’s delve into it.

Nobody is more unfaithful that a jealous. You can even be unfaithful only in desire, without actually putting it into practice. But the truth is that the idea of fidelity does not fit in his mind and that is why he questions his partner, even if there are no reasons. By actions and thought patterns like this, the thief is said to judge by his condition.

It doesn’t just apply to the jealous. The thief judges by his condition every time someone assigns to another what really applies for himself. Or, in other words, when he sees others as if he were looking in a mirror. Then, he notices characteristics in them that are actually in himself. He attributes his own defects or virtues to others.

“The way we treat ourselves is also the way we treat others”.

-Miguel Ruiz-

When we talk about the thief judging by his condition, we are actually talking about an unconscious defense mechanism. Such a mechanism is called “projection.”. It consists precisely of seeing in others what we do not want to admit in ourselves.

Defense mechanisms

Defense mechanisms are largely unconscious strategies. Its purpose is to protect the conscience thoughts or emotions that are unpleasant or intolerable. It is as if there were a button that was activated automatically. That button makes a veil fall over what we do not want to see. And so we stop seeing it, even though it is there.

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We all have defense mechanisms. Some are formed at a very early age and others later. They help us maintain balance and are not in themselves bad or good. There are those who are more aware of the defense mechanisms they use, while others have a hard time recognizing them.

Projection is one of these defense mechanisms. It saves us discomfort of having to take charge of personal realities that we consciously reject. Therefore, we involuntarily put those realities outside. We assign them to someone else. That’s when the thief judges by his condition.

Projection, which Anna Freud also called outward displacement, is the reverse of turning against oneself. It is the propensity to see our unacceptable desires in others. That is, the desires are still there, however, they are no longer ours, but someone else’s. For example, we may hate someone, but our superego tells us that those feelings are unacceptable. So, we resolve this dissonance by believing that it is others who hate us.

How the thief judges by his condition

In one way or another, we are all constantly projecting. We see the world our way. We make a particular reading of reality, no matter how objective we pretend to be. We see some aspects and fail to see others. We emphasize some details and not others. When we talk about the world, we are largely talking about ourselves.

The projection mechanism operates in different ways. These are some examples:

Affective projection. We say that someone hates us, although in reality we are the ones who hate that someone. The same thing happens with love and all feelings.emotional projection. When we say that the moon is romantic or that the sea is silent. Actually the moon is a satellite that has no feelings in itself. The same thing happens with the sea. It is we who see them that way, who give them a different connotation.Projection of a need. It’s a little harder to detect. It happens when, for example, a person gives advice to everyone, without being asked. You’re probably looking for someone to give you guidance.Projection of personal traits. It happens when we recriminate other people’s behavior that we also engage in. Like the smoking father calls his children “vicious” when he sees them with the cigarette in their mouths. It is the typical case that he applies when the thief judges by his condition.

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The projection does not remain only in isolated events. Sometimes we build true theories that only bring to light very particular features. This is what happened to egocentric humanity that could not accept that it was the Earth that revolved around the Sun.

Make projections aware

If you become aware of your projections, your self-knowledge significantly increases.. To achieve this, the most effective thing is to take a certain distance and try to observe yourself unawares. The idea is to capture what it really feels like.

When you spontaneously pass judgment on someone, try to pause. Examine what the content of that judgment is and what you experience about it. Evaluate the reasons you have for judging another in that way.. Try to decipher what the negative feelings are that accompany that reasoning.

It is very possible that by doing this little exercise you will begin to realize the way you project. You begin to understand what it means that the thief judges by his condition. You find in yourself the traces of what seems unbearable in others.