Defense Mechanisms, Freud

Psychoanalysis created by Sigmund Freud is much like Individual therapy in the sense that it will explore the past and how any past circumstances are effecting the now adult. This therapy will last as long as the client needs the support of the counselor and relies on the client’s full participation. In this form of therapy the counselor will participate in guiding the client thru the unconscious mind to and find how it may be contributing to thoughts and behaviors that are causing the client distress. Like analytical therapy psychoanalysis will cover a variety of issues including psychosexual, compulsive, and depressive disorders. According to Haggerty, J. (2006) “The essence of Freud’s theory is that sexual and aggressive energies originating in the id (or unconscious) are modulated by the ego, which is a set of functions that moderates between the id and external reality. Defense mechanisms are constructions of the ego that operate to minimize pain and to maintain psychic equilibrium. The superego, formed during latency (between age 5 and puberty), operates to control id drives

There are three different theories that are used when talking about how we react to stress through the physiological aspect or the psychological aspect. The first is part of the physiological aspect of stress called the Cannon Fight or Flight theory which was proposed in 1914. Fight or Flight response is a physiological stress response that evolved to help organisms to survive immediate danger. The theory states that when an organism, human being or animal, faces imminent danger (acute stressor) the body arouses quickly and is ready to act via two different systems. They are the sympathetic nervous system and the endocrine system. The sympathetic nervous system stimulates the adrenal medulla which is part of the endocrine system and is the region that produces the hormones such as adrenaline and noradrenaline. These hormones increase heart rate, blood flow, and glucose levels to prepare the body for an emergency. This response from the body suggests that the body knows how to protect itself and reach homeostasis. These two systems work together to either fight against the danger or flight away from the danger. Lord, King and Pfister in 1976 studied the Fight or Flight response in animals through a very unethical study. They administered chemicals on male hooded Wistar rats which inhibited the neurotransmitters from functioning normally. This made it very difficult for the rats to escape an electric shock. The results of the study suggest that the Flight or Fight response

We use these mechanisms to cope with anxiety created by the id, reality, and the superego, so the ego creates these mechanisms (Cherry, n.d. para. 2). Freud’s topographical model consists of conscious, unconscious and preconscious. Conscious is everything your aware of, unconscious is the part of our mind that is very difficult to retrieve and contains everything we are unaware of and our preconscious is everything that is retrievable that you are not currently aware of. Then there is Freud’s structural model which contains the id, ego, and the superego (Fritzley, 2010, p. 10-13).

Defence mechanisms are created by the ego to help manage the Id and super ego, the ego being reality, Id the seeking of pleasure and avoidance of pain, and super ego our morals and values.

put your opinion in e.g. I believe this perspective can help an individual who has a fear or phobia by seeing why the individual is so scared. I also think that the behaviourist perspective can help measure changes of a behaviour. On the other hand I feel that the behaviourist perspective doesn’t take in the biological perspective.

Time allowed  1 hour 30 minutes Instructions  Use black ink or black ball-point pen.  Fill in the boxes at the top of this page.  Answer all questions.  You must answer the questions in the spaces provided. Do not write outside the box around each page or on blank pages.  Do all rough work in this book. Cross

According to Freud repression is a defense mechanism--the removal of some threatening idea or memory from conscious awareness. This article points out the importance of getting more colleges to offer this course because it allows students to learn how valuable laboratory research can be for understanding human behavior and solving real life problems. In addition, this course should be a requirement for student in Law colleges and Universities.

In psychoanalytic thought, conscious thinking is a product of the drives from which our emotions also spring. By nature, we are pleasure seekers and feelers, not thinkers. Thoughts are our personal means of deciding how to gratify our own drives. Defense mechanisms are a result from our need to indirectly manage drives when we become frustrated and negotiate acceptable behaviours with others. The need to manage our drives allows our unconscious mental process to develop. We need to explore all our thoughts and feelings to understand our essential drives.

Sigmund Freud proposed that aggression was an inborn instinct or drive, as compared to later theorists who felt aggression was a reaction or a response to a situation (Meyer, 1996). Freud postulated that all human beings have two basic drives: aggressive and libidinal. The two drives were thought to appear in human behavior in a fused state. The aggressive drive was seen basically as destructive. Thus, it was referred to as thanatos, or the death instinct. This destructive aggression could be directed toward others or could be turned in on the self. If the latter occurred, a person would engage in self-punitive behaviors or suicide. The aggressive drive, Freud felt, could also be diverted into positive channels. Social psychologists disagree with the instinctual theory of aggression primarily on the basis that there is no empirical evidence to substantiate aggression as a drive. The instinctual theory of aggression is also criticized on the basis that if this were a universal trait in all human beings, then all humans would display aggression (Meyer, 1996).

* Psychoanalysis: technique of helping people with emotional problems based on Freud’s theory of the unconscious mind (based on

Differentiate between Freud and Erikson's approach to psychoanalytic theory in this lesson. You will examine and compare developmental stages side by side and have the opportunity to test your knowledge with a quiz at the end.

Pavlov’s theory is to show that there are some things that a dog does not need to learn. When food is shown to the dog, the dog starts to salivate which shows we have got a response, this is an unconditioned response because when he salivates he cannot control it. He then set up an experiment to find out if the dog could be trained to salivate at other stimuli such as ringing a bell when it is time for the dog to eat. When ringing the bell there was no conditioned response from the dog which then led him to ring the bell with the food to see if the dog would still salivate. When ringing the bell with the food the dog then had an unconditioned response and started salivating again. The fourth time he rang the bell and took the food away, which

The Ego Acts as ‘mediator’ between the Id and the super-ego. It is the rational part governed by the ‘reality principle’. Freud Created ‘defence mechanisms’ in an attempt to protect the ‘ego’ from constant threat from the ‘super-ego’. These include ‘Repression’ meaning re-directing negative thoughts to the ‘Unconscious‘. As well as Projection’ this being the shifting of blame or thoughts and feelings onto someone or something less intimidating. ‘’ The idea of psychological defence itself was not problematic; it was a

Psychoanalysis was the name given by Sigmund Freud to a system of interpretation and therapeutic treatment of psychological disorders. (McLeod, 2007) In particular, we present five key concepts on psychoanalytic therapy: structure of personality, psychosexual stages, defense mechanism, anxiety, and the unconscious mind.

These three elements of the mind, according to Freud, are constantly in conflict. “If the external world offers no scope for the satisfaction of the id’s pleasure drives, or, more commonly, if the satisfaction of some or all of these drives would indeed transgress the moral sanctions laid down by the super-ego, then an inner conflict occurs in the mind between its constituent parts or elements- failure to resolve this can lead to later neurosis” (Internet Encyclopedia). These conflicts occur everyday and their outcomes dictate almost all of an individual’s actions. To prevent these conflicts from becoming too dangerous, the mind employs defense mechanisms (Internet Encyclopedia). These include rationalization, repression, projection, displacement, reaction formation, regression, and identification (Weiten 364). Psychoanalysis involves the effort to utilize this understanding of the mind and the conflicts within to treat a patient with neurosis.