Essay on The Defense Mechanism

Repression is a process of continual re-working on the latent dream-thoughts to distort or unrecognizable forms. During the state of repression, the censorship is relaxed and therefore the wish can be presented free. However the relaxed censorship still has control of the material and the material must submit to certain alterations (166) to satisfy the repression level. The obscurity of dreams is due to the censorship between the unconsciousness and consciousness. That is why repression exists “What is rejected by the censorship is in a state of repression (166)” so dreams can be regarded as undisguised wish fulfillments. In Freud’s hypothesis, there are two thought-constructing agencies in our mind, the first is in the unconscious and the second agency has free access to the consciousness. In between the first and the second agency, there is a censorship, which is a conflicting force opposing each other. It acts as a guard preventing certain repressed emotions or thoughts from coming to the surface. During our sleep the censorship is relaxed for some reasons, thus the repressed material can no longer be held back. Even though the censorship is relaxed, it still exists therefore a compromise between two agencies is established.

Robin Wood, the author of "The American Nightmare: Horror in the 70s" does an extraordinary job in explaining American Horror Films and how it is that they provokes fear to the public. A very important topic in his article is the topic of repression. Wood takes the term repression (a type of holding down) a step further and categorizes it into two different types. One type being basic repression and the second one being surplus repression. Basic repression is described by Wood as "universal, necessary, and inescapable." Robin would argue that basic repression is a process in which all humans have or will go through at some point in their life. Basic repression is what allows us to become distinguishable mammals. It's the ability to remain

Freud established the term defense mechanism, which helps cope with anxiety produced by the ego. People frequently have desires and urges that are deemed unacceptable within society. Cersei Lannister exhibits the use of defense mechanisms such as denial, displacement, and regression.

The Freudian Regression theory states that Psychological repression, “is the psychological attempt made by an individual to repel one's own desires and impulses toward pleasurable instincts by excluding the desire from one's consciousness and holding or subduing it in the unconscious”. Sigmund Freud believed that In order to face problems in life, the ego employs defense mechanisms. These mechanisms function unconsciously to keep away unpleasant feelings. Repression was the first defense mechanism that Freud discovered and is thought to be the most important. Repression is one of the unconscious mechanisms employed by the ego to avoid a disturbing thought from being conscious. Normally the thoughts that are repressed are those of guilt. Freud believed that repression could sometimes have two stages which had to do with the aspects of personality “ego” and “super ego” and the individual’s sense of “good” and “bad”. The first stage of Repression which is called “Primary Repression” is realizing and determining what is good and what is bad The Second stage of repression starts to take place when a person notices that acting on some desires could cause anxiety. Repression is seen in “The Story of an Hour” and in “The Yellow Wallpaper” in different ways. We can see that in “The Yellow Wallpaper” Jane is a depressed woman who can’t handle to be alone

Freud is the psychologist who is credited with the development of psychodynamic perspective. He thought your personality came from id, ego, and superego. Your id is your unconscious drives and where a person’s sexual energy comes from. Your ego is what deals with demands of reality, it tries still bring you pleasure, but under the norms of reality. Your super ego is the harsh internal judge of your behavior. Freud also believed in defense mechanisms, strategies for dealing with anxiety. Defense mechanisms distort reality and protect you from a stressful situation. Denial is a defense mechanism in which the ego refuses to acknowledge a situation. Displacement is directing unacceptable impulses at a less frightening target. Projection is the defense mechanism in which we see in others those impulses that we most fear about ourselves. Freud thought every behavior stemmed from your sexual drive. When you 're a baby it is your oral stage, the pleasure center is the mouth. When you are a toddler it is your anal stage. Children learn they control when they can go to the bathroom. When you are 3-6 it 's your phallic stage.

To begin, the psychodynamic theory is based on Freud’s psychoanalytic theory and primarily focuses on the role of the unconscious mind in the development of personality. The psychodynamic theory includes the idea that people have defense mechanisms. Psychological defense mechanisms are ways of dealing with anxiety through unconsciously distorting one’s perception of reality, such as denial and repression. In addition, sexual impulses play a large role in the psychodynamic theory. According to Freud, part of personality is outside of awareness, unconscious. The unconscious has difficulty retrieving material and is well below the surface of awareness. Also, the past is important in the psychodynamic theory. There are some advantages and disadvantages to this theory. For instance, the advantages are: psychodynamic theory recognizes the importance of childhood; other theorists after Freud have revised the approach to be less controversial, and this theory has been

Sigmund Freud was a well known psychologist whose theories have founded the understanding of the human psyche. Freud’s theory of personality is one of his most known theories. It details that there are three segments of consciousness. The id is desire, immorality and is what drives us to do wrong. The superego exists to counteract and overpower the id, as it is morality, commonly known as our conscious. The ego exists to balance out both extremes and devises a solution to sate each segment. Then there are the defense mechanisms, repression, denial, projection, displacement, regression and sublimation. These are employed by the ego to keep the balance between the id and the superego and to protect the psyche, especially in traumatic times. Last, the Oedipus complex which Freud believed, only exists in children from the ages of 3-5, when they become attracted to

Firstly, the id which is related to the primitive instincts of the body and has a pleasure – pain principle that emphasises immediate gratification. Secondly, the superego which is the ethical component of a person’s personality and is partly conscious and partly unconscious. It reflects society’s moral standards and forms during the Oedipus complex. Lastly, the ego which has a reality principle and is a moderator of conflict between the id and superego that sometimes causes anxiety. To prevent these conflicts within an individual, defence mechanisms are often used, for example, repression which helps the conscious mind to deal with the unresolved conflicts (cited in Ian Fairholm, 2012). Furthermore, Freud also believed that there were three levels to the mind which are known as the conscious, preconscious and unconscious.

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.

Psychoanalytic criticism originated in the work of Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who pioneered the technique of psychoanalysis. Freud developed a language that described, a model that explained, and a theory that encompassed human psychology. His theories are directly and indirectly concerned with the nature of the unconscious mind. Through his multiple case studies, Freud managed to find convincing evidence that most of our actions are motivated by psychological forces over which we have very limited control (Guerin 127). One of Freud’s most important contributions to the study of the psyche is his theory of repression: the unconscious mind is a repository of repressed desires,

Freud metaphor says that in order to be human you must be a split subject-id, ego and superego, the mind experiences a constant battle of emotions, desires and thoughts all of these that happen in the sub-conscious so what we have to do is supress and repress them so that we can be able to socialise proper. This

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

In 1935 Anna became the director of the Vienna Psychoanalytical Training Institute and the following year she published another book, which was a very influential study of the “ways and means by which the ego wards off unpleasure and anxiety”, called The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense. This book was different from the “traditional bases of psychoanalytical through in the drives: it became a founding work of ego psychology and established her reputation as a pioneering theoretician” (“Anna Freud - Life," n.d.).

According to Freud, there are three kinds of anxiety – reality, moral and neurotic. Reality anxiety is experienced when there is an actual danger coming from the external world. Moral anxiety arises when there is a conflict between one’s behavior and what the superego is demanding one to do. Finally, neurotic anxiety is felt when the ego feels incapable of controlling the id and the urges hiding in it. The tools people use to get rid of anxiety is what psychoanalysts call “Defense Mechanisms” (Schultz and Schultz, 2009). Defense mechanisms are different behavioral patterns, some of them are considered mature (for example humor) and some immature but what is important for this paper is that in psychoanalytic therapy, defense mechanisms are identified and the goal of the therapy is to overcome them and access the unconscious conflicts which are according to the Freudians the root of any mental problem. Moreover, all problems’ origin can be found in childhood - most often in a faulty relationship with one of the primary caregivers (Hough,

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.