The Power of Perception

An oldie but a goodie. Nearly forgot I wrote this. Enjoy :)

Buried within the contents of the human psyche, unconscious motivations and triggers lie unrealized to the mind experiencing its consequences. In the circumstance of neglecting the introspection needed to understand how our perception operates, individuals can lie vulnerable to projecting their fears and disillusionment onto reality. Through mindful reflection, the conscious mind can learn to integrate the whole of itself into its own awareness before collapsing into self-undoing. The visual representations found on tarot cards operate off the basis of semiotics or the study of how signs, like images, can convey communication to viewers. Methods of introspective projection, such as reading tarot cards, are effective tools that can convey an in-depth understanding of one’s emotions that can be used for self-knowledge, therapeutic purposes, and activate the brain’s mental capability for perception. By acknowledging the subjective projections elicited from the countless possibilities of interpretation from the cards, clients and therapists alike can gain a more in-depth understanding of emotional struggles and perspectives. Through projective psychological techniques, such as reading tarot cards, individuals can access a better understanding of their own emotions through interpretative imagery and generating their own subjective sense of meaning. 

Tarot cards consist of a set of cards in which images laced with symbolic intent are represented on them. A tarot card deck “is reliably comprised of 78 cards for divination” (Lavin 319). There are various classes and types of cards in which, “16 … are ‘court cards’ (representing people in a querent’s life, personality traits, or approaches to problems), 40 of which are ‘pip cards’ that symbolize the banal actions of an ordinary day, and 22 of which are ‘major arcana cards’” (Lavin, 319). Through a diverse range of representations, tarot cards embody universal archetypes and themes of human experience. The decks used for readings do not rely on verbal linguistics, but rather symbology and interpretative imagery to function. Due to the inclusivity of tarot decks, the nature of the cards is accessible to be subject to anyone’s projected meaning. When a card appears in a reading, an example being the Moon card, it embodies “the mysteries of the subconscious” (Lavin, 319) and encourages the receiver of the card to trust their gut instincts. An individual who receives a card is then free to craft their own subjective interpretation of the card according to how it relates to their life and circumstance. Due to the semiotic nature of tarot cards, the meanings of the cards are up to the individual in question. The ambiguity of assigning meaning to tarot cards allows for their use to be accessible to anyone using them which makes them effective tools for therapy.  

While tarot cards are usually associated with the supernatural, practitioners have incorporated the usage of the cards to be applicable to psychology – specifically psychoanalytic approaches. Through divination, or the translation of meaning from the cards, individuals can do “’self and identity work’, addressing patterns of personality and social structure” (Lavin, 319) that are encountered in their daily lives. Tarot cards are commonly used as tools to instigate psychoanalysis – especially through the spiritualist interpretation of “our ‘shadow’ side [that] refers to our negative traits, or ‘demons’ that we endure or expel. Sometimes these are a result of unresolved trauma” (Lavin, 328). By facing one’s shadow self, clients receiving readings can embark on a personal journey towards empowerment and acceptance over all components of their complex inner world. The relationship between tarot cards and psychoanalytic theory is often connected through Carl Jung’s concept of individuation or “the process by which a person becomes a psychological ‘individual’, that is, a separate, indivisible unity or ‘whole’” (Mackey-Kallis). When people confront the traumas that linger in their subconscious, they can become more aware of self-destructive habits and tendencies that they struggle with. Individuation can enable people to feel in control of their emotional and psychological states – inducing a sense of control through awareness and contemplation.  

While tarot readers can emphasize the discovery and acknowledgement of oneself, they can emphasize the potential of their clients as well. Those who are reading the cards can also “encourage action, agency, and confidence on the part of the client by highlighting their strengths and exploring their current mindsets” (Lavin, 330). Similar to a session of therapy, readings can encourage clients to gain clarity and new perspectives in relation to disturbances and troubles experienced in life. Narrative therapy, a type of therapy that is “based on the idea that people create and tell stories to make sense of and construct meanings about their experiences, relationships, and lives” (Panina-Beard) can enable clients to deconstruct harmful accounts of their personal experiences that no longer serve them. Similarly, tarot cards can encourage individuals to drop pessimistic expectations and ground their perspectives of their life’s circumstance. In narrative therapy sessions, “clients are encouraged to use similar language as they re-tell their stories so that multiple possibilities for preferred stories can arise and their relationship with the problem can change” (Panina-Beard). Tarot cards operate akin to narrative therapy in which fresh narrations of life events can be expressed and used to instigate inspired action. 

The alteration of perspectives through narrative therapy has been shown to be an effective therapeutic practice demonstrating that, through the power of perception, the human mind can have some role in crafting how it experiences reality. Placebo effects are when properties of treatments are not designed to actually provide beneficial effects, yet still provide advantages through the power of faith. The “therapeutic benefits from the placebo effect can be genuine and can be considered an aspect of a treatment’s efficacy” (The Michigan Daily). If an individual places faith in the cards and the perspectives that can be elicited through readings, then “tarot can be combined with evidence-based talk therapy and medication for a holistic approach to mental health” (The Michigan Daily). Tarot cards are great conversation starters that can aid patients in opening up about their mental health and emotional struggles. While clients can sometimes experience difficulty in expressing their gravest hurts and worries to their therapists, “a client’s reaction to a card being pulled during a reading can provide an insight and direction to a therapist’s treatment plan” (The Michigan Daily). Not only are the projective qualities of tarot cards beneficial to clients but they are excellent tools for therapists conducting therapeutic practices. While tarot cards can be useful tools for therapeutic purposes, the mechanics behind how meaning is established is crucial to consider.  

 To understand how tarot cards and projective interpretation work, semiotics and how meaning is established must first be comprehended. Rhetoric of the Image written by Roland Barthes explores how the various classes of messages are all composed within images or signs to dictate meaning. Signs can be images, gestures, or anything that meaning can be derived from. The three classes of messages that Barthes identifies includes linguistic, coded iconic, and non-coded iconic messages. Linguistic messages refer to the written letters or words that are included on signs. The dual nature of linguistic messages is “twofold: denotational and connotational” (Barthes, 153). Denotational meaning correlates to the literal or primary meaning of a word while connotational meaning is elicited from the ideas or feelings that the word suggests. Meanwhile, coded iconic messages generate meaning from the more subtle and subconscious suggestions of an image. Coded iconic messages operate off the intention of the artist and utilize the expectations of its viewers. Cues like colors, lighting, framing, and more dictate meaning. Images can be comprehended even in the deprivation of written language – “If all these signs are removed from the image, we are left with a certain informational matter; deprived of all knowledge, I continue to ‘read’ the image, to ‘understand’ that is assembles in a common space a number of identifiable (nameable) objects, not merely shapes and colors” (Barthes, 154). Non-coded iconic messages rely on the audience’s cultural knowledge base.  Non-coded iconic messages are used as the literal information that an image refers to. In the case of Barthes’s analysis of an advertisement for pasta, the “knowledge is not nil, for we need to know what an image is (children only learn this at about the age of four) and what a tomato, a string-bag, a packet of pasta are, but it is a matter of an almost anthropological knowledge” (Barthes, 154). Once people understand how the mechanics of meaning operate, tarot cards can become easier to interpret.  

By understanding tarot cards from the lens of semiotics, the meanings laced within its imagery are easier to derive. In analyzing the tarot card, Justice, all three of Barthe’s classes of messages are present. The linguistic message of the card would be expressed from its title, Justice. From the linguistic perception, the meaning of the card is related to the word ‘justice’ and the various connotations that can be gained from it. Upon receiving this card, individuals can apply the subjective implication that ‘justice’ means to them and their circumstance. The coded iconic message of the card is represented by the symbolism elicited from various color usage, positioning, and associations with the stimuli present on the card. The figure sitting on the Justice card wears a red robe with green linings holding a sword in one hand and a scale in the other. The red robe establishes a sense of personal power and self-assertion. Red is a color that demands one’s attention and encourages action. Within tarot, red commonly “represents action, passion, inspiration, [and] energy” (Tarot Moon). Meanwhile, green is the complimentary color of red that can balance out the potential drawbacks of the color red. While the themes of red encourage progress, green advocates to be grounded and calm in the face of action. Green within tarot decks shows “life, nature, abundance, and all growth” (Tarot Moon). The scales represent balancing situations, paying off debts, and restoring the peace of a situation. Meanwhile, swords in tarot decks commonly represent advocating and speaking your truth. Swords are associated with the element of air which represents clear communication and organizing one’s thoughts. The non-coded iconic message is understood as the rudimentary knowledge that an individual has that they are working from. In the case of the Justice card, audiences must know what a scale is and its associations in society. The connections that one can drawback from their experiences grounded in society and reality can aid in the understanding of messages. From the basic components viewed in the card, there are a plethora of messages to be found even in one card by itself.  

Utilizing the message classes that Barthes provides to comprehend imagery and symbolism, individuals can craft significance from the cards themselves as well. C.S. Pierce, the philosopher who introduced the field of semiotics, provided another relevant perspective on how signs operate. According to Pierce, signs are composed of three interrelated parts that must all be present for a sign to generate meaning. The sign, object, and interpretant all operate in sync simultaneously when conveying communication. Signs are anything that can be considered a sign and “conveys to a mind an idea about a thing” (Pierce, 2). Next, the object represents what the sign means or refers to – similarly, it can be regarded as what is signified by the sign. Lastly, the interpretant is what mediates the sign to the object – it represents all possible interpretations that can exist. Due to the broad nature of the interpretant, the signification introduced through signs is expansive and defined by its potentiality. When reading tarot cards, individuals are engaging in semiotic thought that drives the birth of meaning. Due to the potential that the interpretant emphasizes and embraces, tarot cards can generate meanings that are subjective yet limitless to the individual which make them an effective tool for introspection and self-engagement. Pierce introduces three distinct states of mind that occur when contemplating the phenomena of signs. Feeling, reaction, and thinking describe the cognitive process that individuals engage in when interacting with the stimuli of signs. When feeling, individuals are experiencing the stimuli head-on – it is said to be “a state of mind in which something is present, without compulsion and without reason” (Pierce, 1). Next, reaction describes when two feelings clash and the individual is aware of the competing experience of feelings – both their awareness of the subject and what reaction that entails. There is “a sense of acting and being acted upon, which is our sense of the reality of things” (Pierce, 1). Lastly, thinking describes when individuals realize that the phenomena being experienced is governed by a sort of rule or logic that can be understood. Thinking incorporates “this third state of mind, or thought, is a sense of learning, and learning is the means by which we pass from ignorance to knowledge”  
(Pierce, 2). Reading tarot cards incorporates the process and comprehension of signs as well as their inherent structure. By understanding Pierce’s semiology, reading tarot cards can be easier to experience. 

Pierce’s mechanics of semiotics through the presence of signs, objects, and interpretants are heavily prevalent in the process of interpretating projective material, such as tarot cards. The sign, being the cards themselves, are signified by the object, or the references that are inherent in each unique card. Most significantly, the interpretant represents the subjective interpretations that can be derived from each card. Interpretants are defined by their potential, or all the possible ways in which phenomena present signification. The presence of the interpretant in the usage of signs is critical regarding tarot cards as it supplies them with their power – the power of perception. The diverse themes associated and expressed within each card, signified through the object, can aid in the process of the interpretant’s messages and understanding. The three interrelated parts all work together at the same time to birth meaning. By conjoining the symbology of tarot cards as well as an understanding of philosophy, the ability to read tarot cards can be made easier to achieve. Through the limitless interpretations and expansive signification that can be derived from tarot cards, they are accessible in their usage to anyone. The creative process of supplying meaning and messages to the cards is an effective way in allowing an individual to express their emotions without feeling limited in their scope.  

Regarding the flexibility of assigning meaning to tarot cards, some argue that projective interpretation techniques are not compatible with contemporary psychology practices. Projective techniques use “assessment methods in which unstructured stimuli (e.g., inkblots; pictures) are presented to individuals who are then expected to respond...” (Miller, 73). The process of interpreting tarot cards would be considered a method of interpretative projection. However, psychologists argue that “these techniques are in contrast to more objective, behaviorally based assessment methods” (Miller, 74). Projective techniques are criticized for their ambiguous properties and lack of reliability. Modern-day psychology embraces empirical means of deriving information – after all, projective activities do not exhibit the complete psychological make up of an individual. Contemporary psychology operates off of observation and discovering the cause and effect of phenomena. Opposed to the ambiguous nature of projective techniques, psychologists want information that can be replicated and proven. Interpretative stimuli provides responses which are then analyzed from “the subjective nature of evaluating responses” (Miller, 74). Psychologists would rather assess individuals from a footing that can produce replicated and reliable results which can then provide an accurate portrait of a person and their behaviors. While the objectivity of modern-day methods used in contemporary psychology are indispensable and crucial to consider, contemporary psychologists are misinterpreting the uses of projective techniques themselves.  

In the pursuit of achieving an objective analysis of an individual’s psychological portrait, interpretative projection is not an effective means of extracting information. However, while tarot cards and inkblots are not objective, that does not mean that they do not contain invaluable uses. Interpretative stimuli and projection are not to be used as a means of an objective analysis, but as a therapeutic tool that can enable psychologists to develop a more nuanced individual portrait of clients. Contemporary psychologists, while leaning on their reliable and duplicative methods of evaluation, can utilize tarot cards as ways to encourage their clients to emotionally open to them. If psychologists merely treat their clients as subjects to be objectively understood and assessed, then they run the risk of misunderstanding their clients. While the current models used to psychologically evaluate an individual hold significance, the labels of diagnoses often result in misdiagnoses and misrepresentation among patients.  

Regarding the objective logic used in the assessments of modern-day psychology, such practices can lead to misdiagnosing clients – an issue being witnessed across the world. In the purely objective pursuit of contemporary psychology and psychiatry, “false positive diagnoses that mistakenly classify normal intense reactions to stress as mental disorders became a major challenge to the validity of psychiatric diagnosis” (Wakefield, 1). Psychiatrists, who evaluate mental disorders and abnormal behaviors similarly to psychologists, have the power to provide prescriptions to patients that they deem are “mentally ill”. However, such assumptions run the risk of being false and causing traumatic harm to clients through the misuse of prescription drugs. For example, “Yet in psychiatry, for lack of a better term, we say, for example, that normal grief may contain many of the same ‘symptoms’ as depressive disorder” (Wakefield, 2). While contemporary psychologists praise objective methods of evaluation, such practices have led to “misdiagnosis rates [reaching] 65.9% for major depressive disorder, 92.7% for bipolar disorder, 85.8% for panic disorder, 71.0% for generalized anxiety disorder, and 97.8% for social anxiety disorder” out of the 840 patients who were assessed (Vermani). While tarot cards and projective techniques are certainly not methods that should be used for objective evaluation of mental illness, the failings of misdiagnosing patients encourage psychologists to view their practice through both objective and subjective perceptions. 

Utilizing projective interpretation techniques for therapeutic practices can bring advantages in the realm of therapy and psychiatry. While purely objective means of obtaining data can lead psychologists and psychiatrists astray, learning to comprehend another individual through a subjective lens can lead to a more in-depth understanding of a patient. Projective tests enable individuals to express themselves without being constrained to a limiting questionnaire that fails to capture the complexity of their psyche. When tests produce results, such information can lead to heuristics or labels that are generalizations of an individual’s condition and experience. If subjectivity is not considered in psychological practices and considerations, “there can be a blind faith in science. Reducing everything to logic and objectivity can miss much of the human experience” (The Michigan Daily). Meanwhile, when using projective tools, “people are able to express themselves more freely by giving responses to ambiguous stimuli... which can help them understand problems of a more personal and sensitive nature” (Sociology Group). When individuals read tarot cards, they are allowing themselves to explore their emotional nature through their perceptions derived from their interpretations. The ambiguity of projection can allow for people to express themselves authentically without being labeled – while contemporary psychologists frown upon methods that are not objective, it is critical to remember how ambiguous the nature of being human is.  

Psychology as a field is divided into various categories and methods of understanding the human psyche. Psychology contains many methods of being understood due to the complexity of human nature. Subfields such as behavioral, biological, intrapsychic, developmental, cross-cultural, and more exist as means to understand the complete breadth of the human psyche - “because human behavior is so varied, the number of subfields in psychology is also constantly growing and evolving” (Very Well Mind). The very nature of psychology requires a multitude of perspectives that enable an understanding of the complete picture. If contemporary psychology does away with projective techniques, then it is risking losing another critical perspective necessary to further understand an individual. Subjectivity, although ambiguous and non-empirical, is a natural part of being human and needs to be embraced in psychology. While the nature of being non-empirical contradicts science as a practice, 9 

Each individual person on Earth consists of uniquely differing life experiences, upbringings, neurology, and ways of psychologically operating. Subjectivity in psychology, “does not represent just another concept of psychology, but a new ontological definition of human phenomena” (Rey, 503). If contemporary psychology can embrace the ambiguity of subjectivity, it might just be what sheds the most accurate light on the psyche of individuals. The use of “subjectivity emerges as a new qualitative human phenomenon defined as the unit between symbolic processes and emotions” (Rey, 503). Symbols are the key to understanding the subjectivity of human nature. As subjectivity cannot be evaluated objectively, the most effective method of deriving comprehension of subjectivity is through the freedom that projection allows. The process of generating meaning through the interpretation of symbols allows for psychologists to understand the human psyche “as a system in action [and] as an open and dynamic system” (Rey, 506). Similarly, Barthes described signs as enabling communication through non-verbal linguistics. Semiology, when applying the use of signs and interpretation of symbols, generates meaning through its contact with the subconscious mind’s expectations and knowledge.  

By utilizing the tool of semiotics, practices of projective interpretation can bestow an expansive and limitless array of signification that can aid healing practices. If therapy can utilize tools like tarot cards to generate meaning and emotional understanding, then heuristics or misleading diagnoses can be avoided. Tarot cards and other methods of projection may just help therapists understand the complex diversity of their patients and the subjectivity found within psychological practices. Through the use of tarot cards, therapists and clients can gain a more in-depth understanding of patients that can embrace the complexity of the mind and avoid misinterpreting it.  

Works Cited: 

Mackey-Kallis, Susan. “Jungian Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious.” Salem Press Encyclopedia of Health, 2021. EBSCOhost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=ers&AN=93872068&site=eds-live&scope=site.  

Lavin, Melissa F. “On Spiritualist Workers: Healing and Divining through Tarot and the Metaphysical.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, vol. 50, no. 3, June 2021, pp. 317–40. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241620964951.  

Barthes, Roland (1977), “The Rhetoric of the Image” in Heath, Stephen (Trans) Image, Music, Text. New York: Hill and Wang. pp. 32-51  

Panina-Beard, Natalia, RCC, and Jennifer A. Vadeboncoeur PhD. “Narrative Therapy.” Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2022. EBSCOhost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=ers&AN=89677594&site=eds-live&scope=site. 

Miller, David N., and Amanda B. Nickerson. “Projective Assessment and School Psychology: Contemporary Validity Issues and Implications for Practice.” California School Psychologist, vol. 11, Jan. 2006, pp. 73–84. EBSCOhost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=eric&AN=EJ902521&site=eds-live&scope=site. 

Wakefield, Jerome C. “Misdiagnosing Normality: Psychiatry’s Failure to Address the Problem of False Positive Diagnoses of Mental Disorder in a Changing Professional Environment.” Journal of Mental Health, vol. 19, no. 4, Aug. 2010, pp. 337–51. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.3109/09638237.2010.492418. 

Vermani, Monica et al. “Rates of detection of mood and anxiety disorders in primary care: a descriptive, cross-sectional study.” The primary care companion for CNS disorders vol. 13,2 (2011): PCC.10m01013. doi:10.4088/PCC.10m01013 

“Meanings of Colours in Tarot Card Images.” Tarot Moon, https://tarotmoon.com/colour-meanings-on-tarot-cards/. 

Kalive, P. (2021, July 22). Projective techniques/tests: Types, Pros, Cons & Examples. Sociology Group: Sociology and Other Social Sciences Blog.  https://www.sociologygroup.com/projective-techniques-tests/#:~:text=Advantages%20of%20Projective%20Tests&text=When%20people%20are%20able%20to,more%20personal%20or%20sensitive%20nature. 

Cherry, K. (2022, February 9). How different branches of psychology study the brain and behavior. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/major-branches-of-psychology-4139786 

González Rey, Fernando. “The Topic of Subjectivity in Psychology: Contradictions, Paths and New Alternatives.” Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, vol. 47, no. 4, Dec. 2017, pp. 502–21. EBSCOhost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=phl&AN=PHL2367623&site=eds-live&scope=site. 

Davis, Benjamin. “‘Witchcraft," Once Looked down upon by Science and Religion Alike, Is Back.” The Michigan Daily, 10 Mar. 2022, https://www.michigandaily.com/opinion/dont-hate-on-the-occult/. 

Pierce, C.S. The Art of Reasoning, Chapter II, “What is a sign?”,  

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