You’re Getting Defensive Again! Alli Shaft Sigmond Freud is a staple in the foundation of psychology, without his research we would not have the understanding of human behavior that we obtain today. Unlike many psychologist, Freud did not conduct his research through scientific methodology, instead his theories were developed through decades of clinical analysis of his patients. Due to his research methods, Freud’s work received criticism within the last forty years from a scientific perspective.
On e of the most accepted theories of Freud’s is the defense mechanisms. Defense mechanisms can be defined as “weapons that your ego uses to protect you from your own self created anxiety.” Freud discovered defense mechanisms over a course of thirty years, however, the theory does not appear in Freud’s volumes of work. Instead, it appears in his daughter’s work, Anna Freud. Anna Freud released the information in a book called “The Ego and the
Mechanisms of Defense.” According to Freud, the defense mechanisms stem from the three parts of our personality: the ID, the ego, and the superego. ID consists of more primal instincts like hunger, thirst, and sexual impulses. ID is controlled by the “pleasure principle”. This principle demands instant gratification, even when the impulses are dark or dangerous. The reason we do not follow these is impulses is thanks to the ego and the superego. Ego is reliant upon the “reality principle” which is the alertness to consequences of the real world. The superego is where our morals stem from that create our conscience. Our egos are in charge of balancing our urges with our consciences. So how does this tie within our defense mechanisms? Well, when anxiety enters, motivates change with the usage of defense mechanisms. The purpose of defense mechanisms is to prevent forbidden thoughts from entering consciousness. In Anna Freud’s work, she identified the ten defense mechanisms created by her father and five mechanisms commonly used. These are repression, regression, projection, reaction formation, and sublimation. These mechanisms alter reality to protect the mind against anxiety. Regression is the processing of retreating to an earlier, less developed stage in life in order to feel safe. An example of this can be seen in a middle aged man having a mid life crisis. Projection is when your ego is attacked by your ID. The anxiety is externalized and reduces the anxiety within the patients
thoughts. An example of this is a husband believing his wife is cheating due to his own unfaithful thoughts. Reaction formation is when a person avoids ID impulses altogether by doing the opposite task of the anxiety driven thoughts. An example of this is if the husband in the previous example instead showered his wife with love obsessively rather than projecting. Finally, sublimation is find socially acceptable ways to release the energy from the anxiety driven thoughts. An example of this is if an aggressive person released their aggression through sports rather than fighting. Sublimation is needed in order for a society to thrive. Freud’s methods have been controversial due to their difficulty to prove using scientific methodology. An experiment has allowed proof of reaction formation using science. The experiment involved homophobic men and sexual content. The men who viewed the pornography who were homophobic physically showed signs of arousal while the men who were not homophobic did not show signs. Experiments such as these are just the beginning of proving the usage of defense mechanisms. The knowledge of using these mechanisms will allow for huge growth within our society.