Intolerance expressed through projection.

Suppose you had a box into which all the things about yourself that frightened you or you did not like were put. Perhaps you are afraid that you are ugly, that would be an ugly mask in the box. Perhaps you are afraid that you will be a failure at anything new which you may try, that would be a clothes patch in the letter "L" for loser in the box. Perhaps you are afraid of being angry, that would be a burning piece of wood in the box. Perhaps you are afraid of being afraid. That fear may cause you to want someone else to have your box. You then might choose to see certain other people as having those qualities, hoping in that way to push your fears from you.

"Oh look, Pat is the one who is ugly, not me," might be one thought you have and so you would be giving Pat YOUR ugly mask, or, "Chris is such an angry person, I'm not really the angry one, Chris is," and so give Chris YOUR burning piece of wood. Because you may have chosen to be afraid of these qualities in yourself, you would then probably not like Chris or Pat, whether or not they genuinely deserved your dislike. This is called intolerance expressed through projection. This sort of intolerance does not need the other person to be anything like what is being projected onto them. They have been made into a symbol of personal fears, and are then often mistreated.

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