Summary:
In the stages of Sigmund Freud's theory, there are unconscious strategies that people use to psychologically change what is reality, into what they would like to believe. These strategies are called defense mechanisms, and in some cases may cause the person to have emotional problems and depressing behaviors. They are used by the ego to defend itself against threatening thoughts and anxiety.
Defense Mechanisms Essay
In the stages of Sigmund Freud's theory, there are unconscious strategies that
people use to psychologically change what is reality, into what they would like to believe.
These strategies are called defense mechanisms, and in some cases may cause the person
to have emotional problems and depressing behaviors. They are used by the go to defend
itself against threatening thoughts and anxiety. Freud described six different types of
defense mechanisms. The first defense mechanism he explained was repression. It is the
blocking away and shutting out of a traumatic event that happened in ones life. Someone
may use repression to forget bad memories for psychological needs. Projection is
attaching one's own undesirable thoughts and feelings onto someone or something else.
If a person did not like someone, they would say that that person did not like them
instead. Displacement is when people redirect their feelings towards something else,
such as objects and other people, and not to the real object of their true emotions. An
angry man might punch a wall after losing his temper. The person or object that the
person takes out his problems on is called a victim.
Reaction formation happens when somebody who wants to change a feeling,
particularly and anxiety, consciously tells themselves the opposite so that they will begin
to think in that certain way. They reverse their feelings. An example might be a
homosexual being homophobic. Regression occurs when one returns to an earlier even of
their life, and begins to repeat similar actions from that time, such as an adult throwing a
childish tantrum, or a college student that becomes completely dependent oh his parents
while returning home for the summer. The last defense mechanism described is Denial. It is when people refuse to accept and admit the truth of what is going on, because it is
disagreeable to what they want to hear. Somebody with a drug addiction may tell others
that they are not addicted and that they are okay. A woman who has gotten her arm
amputated will tell her friends that her arm has been hurting lately.
Repression and regression may be compared because they both deal with earlier
events and stages that have happened in one's life. They both involve events that made an
impact on one's psychological development. However, repression deals with blocking
out bad events, and regression involves taking part in past events and acting according to
how one may have acted at the time.
My favorite defense mechanism is denial. I like denial because it is a very
versatile defense mechanism. By versatile I mean that it can be used in almost any situation.
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