Symbolic Behavior

What's interesting to me is less iconic/graphical symbols (though I do think they are cool and important) than behavioral symbolism, or symbolic behavior.

For example, when criticism of another person turns into symbolic behavior, or how this behavior can be symbolic of a personality dynamic, or trait.

E.g., when I email someone and they do not email me back, I get pissed off. If I get mad enough, I may say something, or even confront the person and ask, Why didn't you answer my emails. This is a behavior I disdain, I hate, and just makes me judge that person something to the tune of, "How dare you refuse to even acknowledge my communication, my very existence!"

Yet, I am guilty at times for not to replying an email, or responding to a phone call. So, for me to get angry at someone else for doing this very act, I manage to deflect responsibility for my own behavior and project (yes, that term you always hear in Psych books) or deflect it to someone else. Indeed, the intensity of my anger & judgment of that person relates proportionally to the degree to which I own/disown, or am conscious of this train in me.

Thus, the behavior of lashing out and criticizing another person for not responding to my GOD DAMN email symbolizes my own inability to own my own shit. Or, it symbolizes the internal process of projecting outward personality traits of our own we are unable or unwilling to own up to and admit we have. Behavior symbolizes an internal dynamic.