Two Articles on the Mind and Defense Mechanisms and Coping Method

Traumatic events often threaten the effectiveness of the brain’s ability to function correctly in everyday life. Events of the sort can become harmful to the brain, which, in turn, negatively affects the body. Trauma can be defined as a deeply distressing, upsetting, or disturbing experience (Collins English Dictionary). At least 70 percent of Americans have suffered through a traumatic event in their lifetime, although, around only 20 percent of them have developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), in which a person suffers in response to a traumatic event for a prolonged period (“Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Fact Sheet”). This paper will address the longevity of these effects on the brain as well as the effects on the physical well-being of the body and seeking to which aspect proves to be more harmful overall.

Even though our bodies are in one place, our minds may be in another. In Martha Stout’s essay “When I Woke Up Tuesday Morning, It Was Friday,” the author introduces us to the idea of dissociation. Dissociation is when one’s mind is away from the body and he or she does not know what is going on in the physical world. Those that have traumatic histories may experience this. But because of dissociation, victims may not know if they had a traumatic past because a memory of it never really formed. Stout also finds that individuals may use dissociation as a way to protect themselves from trauma. Sometimes the slightest and smallest piece of a traumatic memory may bring into play the dissociation. When these individuals experience dissociation

Many people make an assumption they are not blind to life itself whether ignorance plays a part or pride. In Cathedral by Raymond Carver, it describes a few myths that society has portrayed and opinions of the visual impaired. The main focus is getting to know the person before drawing a conclusion. Its not fair to anyone to be neglected whether you are visual impaired or have the functionality of what is considered to be a normal human being.

Van der Kolk (1987) notes that human responses to trauma are relatively constant across various types of traumatic stimuli, where individuals have poor tolerance to arousal stimuli and may experience social and emotional withdrawal. These changes in the body’s arousal and perception prevent the continuance of “normal” life, and require help.

People are exposed to struggles in life on a daily basis, although some individuals’ experiences are more traumatic than others’. The way people react to their challenges differs with trauma as well. In Daniel Gilbert’s Immune to Reality, Gilbert describes the psychological immune system, which is a defense mechanism of the mind. The psychological immune system is recognized as a way for the brain to find ways to deal with the harsh realities of life. Contrastingly, Martha Stout in When I Woke Up Tuesday Morning, It Was Friday focuses on dissociation, which is common in people who have experienced trauma. It is similar to Gilbert’s psychological immune system, as they are both mental systems of defense, but instead of helping an individual cope with hard times, dissociation causes complete separation of the mind from the body as an escape from reality. Dissociation from non-traumatic events is harmful to people’s psychological well-being because it makes

The psychological trauma experienced by Larry and Karen (n.d.) in the sudden, unexpected death of their one-year-old son is enough to threaten their sense of security, make them feel vulnerable to dangers in life and can cause them to lose all sense of direction in their life. Karen experienced a dissociative disorder known as dissociative amnesia (APA, 1994). The sudden onset of her son’s death was an extremely traumatic event that caused her to experience a temporary amnesia of the events of the previous week including the death of her son. The extent of the emotional trauma results in temporary impairment but it can be

Unfortunately, many people find themselves as victims of bygone eras. People who have experienced traumatic events often exhibit symptoms of mental damaged, long after the catalyst is removed.Therefore, many of the victims find solace in differing coping mechanisms. Others drink themselves to oblivion, some gamble their fortunes away and a select few lose a desire to communicate.

Precious dissociated from her traumatic daily life by absconding into daydreams. Perry defines dissociation as “the mental process of disengaging from the stimuli in the external environment and attending to inner stimuli” (Perry, 2003). Perry describes dissociation as “a graded mental process that ranges from normative daydreaming to pathological disturbances that may include exclusive focus on an inner

Through hypnosis, Stout was able to conclude that her patient was a victim of child abuse. When the abuse began, Julia would “go somewhere else” (Stout 426) and “not be there” (Stout 426); this was Julia’s way of escaping through dissociation and an

In Martha Stout’s essay “When I Woke Up Tuesday Morning, It Was Friday”, she discusses how a person who has suffered a traumatic experience is most likely to dissociate their individual self from that situation and block it from their mind completely. This form of a solution allows the person to forget the experience and not feel the pain. In “Immune to Reality” Daniel Gilbert describes how every human being contains a psychological immune system, which works to shield us from horrible experiences that threaten our happiness. When experiencing a traumatic event, the psychological immune system responds by “cooking up the facts”, meaning taking the facts of the situation and turning the negative aspects of it into positive views. At first

In the face on impending danger, the human brain resorts to primitive instinct to seek salvation. Instincts that drive humans to run from fires, fight off attackers, and hide from their worst nightmares. When those nightmares live deep inside their own minds rather than outside the body, the only way to escape them is through dissociation. Dissociation, the process of disconnecting one’s conscious awareness from his or her physical being to achieve a state of being “away” from reality, provides average humans with a relief from the brutalities of everyday life and victims and witnesses of serious traumas a way to avoid their memories.

Children who dissociate themselves for an extended period of time, may use this coping mechanism in response to stressful situations throughout their lives.

Hardiness/resilience is a personality characteristic originally identified by Suzanne Kobasa (1979) and redefined in further studies by Kobasa, Maddi, and Kahn (1982), and many others, as cited in (Schafer, 2000; Morris & Maisto, 2005). It was established in these studies, that participants who displayed the

Others, though, may not be able to cope; their experience may be more haunting or terrifying than others. Each individual expresses situations in different forms; some of us are weaker and unable to control the vivid intrusive memories of the incident. The impression appears at any time, apparently unprovoked, and they interfere with their daily

Defense mechanisms are the way someone distances themselves from a full awareness of unpleasant thoughts, feeling, and behaviors. Many defense mechanisms are unconscious, meaning most of us don’t know we’re using them at all. They are learned behaviors that we learn when we are children. The way one defenses their self says a lot about a person, whether it’s physically or emotionally. We learn how to defense ourselves at childhood. So no matter if you grew up with the most loving family in the world or you didn’t have a family at all, defense mechanisms change the we act around people. For example, say that you born up bouncing for foster homes, you may change the way you act around new people depending on what has happened to you.