Defense Mechanisms

Different theorists have different categorizations and conceptualizations of defense mechanisms. Large reviews of theories of defense mechanisms are available from Paulhus, Fridhandler and Hayes (1997) and Kramer (1991). The Journal of Personality published a special issue on defense mechanisms (1998).

In the first definitive book on defense mechanisms, The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense (1936), Anna Freud enumerated the ten defense mechanisms that appear in the work of her father, Sigmund Freud, that included: repression, regression, reaction formation, isolation, undoing, projection, introjection, turning against one's own person, reversal into the opposite, and sublimation or displacement.

Sigmund Freud posited that defense mechanisms work by distortimg id impulses into acceptable forms, or by unconscious or conscious blockage of these impulses. Anna Freud considered defense mechanisms as intellectual and motor automisms of various degrees of complexity, that arose in the process of involuntary and voluntary learning.

Anna Freud introduced the concept of signal anxiety; she stated that it was "not directly a conflicted instinctual tension but a signal occuring in the ego of an anticipated instinctual tension." The signaling function of anxiety was thus seen as crucial, and biologically adapted to warn the organism of danger or a threat to its equilibrium. The anxiety is felt as an increase in bodily or mental tension, and the signal that the organism receives in this way allows for the possibility of taking defensive action regarding the perceived danger.

Both Freuds studied defense mechanisms, but Anna spent more of her time and research on five main mechanisms: repression, regression, projection, reaction formation, and sublimation. All defense mechanisms are responses to anxiety and how the consciousness and unconscious manage the stress of a social situation.

Repression: when a feeling is hidden and forced from the consciousness to the unconscious because it is seen as socially unacceptable.
Regression: falling back into an early state of mental/physical development seen as "less demanding and safer."
Projection: possessing a feeling that is deemed as socially unacceptable and instead of facing it, that feeling or "unconscious urge" is seen in the actions of other people.
Reaction formation: acting the opposite way that the unconscious instructs a person to behave, "often exaggerared and obsessive." For example, if a wife is infatuated with a man who is not her husband, reaction formation may cause her to - rather than cheat - become obsessed with showing her husband signs of love and affection.
Sublimation: seen as the most acceptable of the mechanisms, an expression of anxiety in socially acceptable ways.

x--------x

The post is sponsored by Gucci Body Bag.

Comments

How to Create a Richly Imagined World

For someone who likes fantasy and sci-fi fiction, most of the time, a lot of people ask me about how to create a richly imagined world. Fantasy and sci-fi elements rest heavily on how an author weave the setting and the world in which the heroes dwell in, and it helps to make the novel to be imagined vividly in the readers' minds. A convincing world should be relatable, something that we can associate ourselves with. For us to be associated with a world an author created in his mind, and wrote on the pages of a book, this world has to be close to the real thing. It has to be systematic, real and alive, and very convincing. A real world has certain elements, and an author must consider them in writing a vividly imagined world: Cartography - a fantasy or sci-fi world depend heavily on geography and maps, especially if the plot requires war and the belligerents occupy so much space in the plot. A convincing world has the world separated in territories, and every part of the...

Ohm's Law

Ohm's law states that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the voltage across the two points. Introducing the constant of proportionality, the resistance, one arrives at the usual mathematical equation that describes this relationship: I = V / R where I is the current through the conductor, V is the voltage measured across the conductor, and R is the resistance of the conductor. More specifically, Ohm's law states that the R in this relation is constant, independent of the current. If the resistance is not constant, the previous equation cannot be called Ohm's law, but it can still be used as a definition of static / DC resistance. Ohm's law is an emperical relation which accurately describes the conductivity of the vast majority of electically conducive materials over many orders of magnitude of current. However, some materials do not obey Ohm's law; these are called non-ohmic. The law was named after the German physicist...

Horticulture

Horticulture is the art of cultivating plants in gardens to produce food and medicinal ingredients, or for comfort and ornamental purposes. Horticulturists are agriculturists who grow flowers, fruit and nuts, vegetables and herbs, as well as ornamental trees and lawns. The study and practice of horticulture have been traced back thousand of years. Horticulture contributed to the transition from nomadic human communities to sedentary, or semi-sedentary, horticultural communities. Horticulure is divided into several categories which focus on the cultivation and processing of different types of plants and food items for specific purposes. In order to conserve the science of horticulture, multiple organizations worldwide educate, encourage, and promote the advancement of horticulture. Some noble horticulturists include Luca Ghini and Luther Burbank. Horticulture involves plant propagation and cultivation to improve plant growth, yields, quality, nutritional value, and resistance to in...

Search This Blog