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In Freud's psychoanalytic theory, the ego employs defence mechanisms to cope with the conflicting demands of the other two parts of the personality: the id and the superego.
Sigmund Freud first mentioned the concept of defence mechanisms in his 1894 essay, 'The Neuro-Psychoses of Defence'. Freudian psychoanalysis theory defines them as internal drives that emanate from our minds when facing conflict situations.
The ego regulates conflicting demands between the id and the superego through a defence mechanism.
Defence mechanisms are psychological tactics of the unconscious mind that protect us from fear, unpleasant or overwhelming thoughts and feelings, such as coping with trauma and difficult situations.
However, this process involves distorting reality to cope with these situations. Relying on specific mechanisms too often can lead to unhealthy and undesirable psychological problems.
Ego defence mechanisms are natural and normal. However, if used frequently, the person may develop neuroses such as anxiety, phobias, compulsions, or hysteria.
The ego can mediate between the functioning of the drives of the id and superego. The ego can shift from passive to active and thus cope with the anxiety associated with passive feelings of inadequacy and weakness.
In early life experiences, the ego helps the child build a perception of security that makes him feel in control of himself and overwhelming circumstances. At first, it serves as a building block of the ego, and later it becomes a flexible defence mechanism that functions throughout life.
The passive mechanism's role is to support conflicted feelings and manage developmental fears. It can also be called a discrete defence mechanism.
The defence mechanism is the distortion of reality, and it extends to many levels. Let us take a look at some of them.
Denial is the refusal to accept reality. It occurs when the conscious mind confronts an imposed stressful memory, such as traumatic or painful memories. It is considered a narcissistic and immature defence because its functioning rejects reality.
A wife refuses to see that her husband is no longer interested in sharing his life with her and that it is time for her to divorce him.
Repression happens when a traumatic memory is forced outside of conscious awareness into the subconscious, i.e., forgetting it. It is considered a fear defence because even though the feelings are not exposed, they create fear.
A child has no memory of an event where his father verbally abused him.
Another example of repression would be when a child is going through his psychosexual development at the stage of the Oedipus complex. The boy develops aggressive ideas about his father, and these feelings are repressed or forced into the subconscious.
When we have a certain feeling about someone and cannot express it, we transfer it to another person or even animals or objects. Displacement is also considered a defence mechanism against anxiety. The ego does not know how to resolve the uncertainty between the id and the superego, thus transferring the energy to a more acceptable target.
'My mother was angry at my father and started yelling at me for no reason.'
Unlike denial and the repression of reality, sublimation accepts reality. Sublimation is more like repression, but instead of destructively repressing overwhelming feelings, it transforms the feelings into constructive channels for behaviour, emotion, or action. It channels unacceptable impulsive behaviour into constructive behaviour that is acceptable. It is considered a healthy and mature defence.
For example, you are angry with your mother and instead of starting a heated argument, you decide to go outside and exercise to channel the anger into something else.
Regression happens when the ego regresses to earlier stages of development in response to a stressful situation. Regression is a form of refuge. The person reverts to a moment in the past when they felt safe.
Anna Freud proposed the notion of projection. It involves the thoughts, feelings and motives that we project into someone else. Projection happens when we see our undesirable qualities in other people. Here is an example.
Suppose you say: 'I do not like it when people talk loudly, and I know that girl talks loudly'. You could then project your own thoughts onto her: 'This girl does not like me, I just know it'.
Repression, denial and displacement.
Defence mechanisms are psychological tactics of the unconscious mind that protect us from fear, unpleasant or overwhelming thoughts and feelings, such as coping with trauma and difficult situations.
Freudian psychoanalysis theory defines them as internal drives that emanate from our minds when facing conflict situations. The ego employs defence mechanisms to cope with the conflicting demands of the other two parts of the personality: the id and the superego.
Projection refers to the thoughts, feelings, and motives we project onto someone else. Let us assume that it is a fact that we see our undesirable thoughts and behaviours in other people to confront them in our lives. Unfortunately, the person doing it is usually unaware that they are doing it.
Some examples of defence mechanisms are:
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