There are several reasons why the prime minister’s statements to the House of Commons and to the nation this week were very troubling. The most interesting for me concerns her state of mind.
MPs had “indulged themselves on Europe for too long”, she said, during PMQs after two days of Brexit turmoil. And later, in Downing Street, she declared: “You the public have had enough. You’re tired of the infighting. You’re tired of the political games.” She then told the TV audience: “I am on your side.” While her tirades against fellow politicians were intended to bring pressure on them to support her deal, they were hardly likely to do so. It seems that she needed to give vent to them in an attempt to exonerate herself.
Political leaders normally accept that “the buck stops here”. But a number of MPs and many commentators observed that Theresa May now seems to be blaming everyone but herself for the present chaotic impasse. In doing so, they are pointing to something of major importance regarding her state of mind.
It’s not difficult to understand why someone might try to dodge the blame, either deceitfully (you know you are to blame but can’t handle that, so you accuse others) or self-deceivingly (you do actually believe it was all other people’s fault so you angrily denounce them). Most people would probably not see May as someone given to impulsive lying, so in her case it’s more likely self-deceit, an unconscious reframing of reality that puts her in the clear. No matter that she’s led the process for its duration; its failure so far is nothing to do with her.
In this, she is making extraordinarily heavy use of the psychological defensive process called projection – simply put, seeing in others what you refuse to see in yourself. In minor forms, this process is ubiquitous in everyday life; we all do it at times. However, it is also the basis of seriously disturbed states of mind, as in extreme and disabling phobias and in paranoid delusions.
While not in delusional territory, May’s judgment at present must be considered as at risk. She appears to be strongly projecting a sense of guilt on to others, and to be disowning her dogmatic rigidity by attributing it to her opponents (some of whom, of course, fit the bill, but that’s not the main point here). This is beyond the usual projection-based ritual of exchanging accusations between political parties: the force and range of her projections extends to a condemnation of parliament as a whole.
This may well be occasioned by the immense pressures May has been under. “She does feel a sense of frustration,” said her own foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, on Thursday. “No prime minister in living memory has been tested in the way that she has.” Some of these pressures are of her own making, in her apparent prioritising of the unity of the Conservative party. Others are not down to her, including the nature of the present crisis – which is basically one of national identity. Being a political leader in this context is a very different task from leading a nation through war or through global economic crisis, and in some ways a more complex and difficult one. May appears not to have grasped that resilience and fixity of purpose are not enough.
She has added major fuel to the populist fire that threatens overall public trust in our democratic process, by tapping, as populism does, into our ever-present suspicion of our leaders. May is not using projection to vilify and demonise an external enemy, but an enemy within, namely politicians/the Westminster elite/the political class – call it what you like. In the longer term, the psychological influence of her words this week could be damaging for the public too.
• Barry Richards is professor of political psychology at Bournemouth University
