Freudian Defence Mechanisms Flashcards
Defense mechanisms
They are Psychological strategies that are unconsciously used to protect oneself from anxiety that is caused by unacceptable thoughts Or feelings.
It involves distortion of reality to cope with a situation.
Denial (anna freud)
It involves not being able to accept reality, and blocking events from awareness by refusing to perceive it.
It is a primitive and dangerous defence.
Denial is supported by other subtle mechanisms.
Examples of denial
Refusing to perceive signs of infidelity of a spouse.
Student not acknowledging lack of preparedness for an exam.
Repression
Just like denial, which blocks external events, repression is used by the ego to block internal feeling and thoughts that are disturbing, threatening or socially unacceptable.
- motivated forgetting.
- freudian slips.
Motivated forgetting
Another term for repression according to anna freud
Not being able to recall traumatic or threatening situations, people or events. These thoughts are repressed to the point of experiencing guilt from the super ego.
Freudian slips
Repressed memories or thoughts may appear subconsciously through dreams, or slip of tongues. It happens while intending to say or express one thing but winding up saying something entirely different in its place.
Examples of repression
An adult suffers a nasty spider bite as a child and develops an intense phobia of spiders later in life without any recollection of the experience as a child.
Projection (anna freud)
The person associate or attributes unwanted feelings, thoughts and desires onto another person. Through this defence, although you still have them, you make sure they aren’t consciously yours.
-Displacement outward
Displacement outward
It is the complete opposite of turning against oneself because it involves perceiving one’s own unacceptable feelings or motives in other people instead in your self.
Example of projection
When you hate someone and your superego is in conflict, you deal with it by believing the person hates you.
Displacement
Displacement is a destructive defense mechanism because it involves redirection of aggression onto a powerless substitute target.
The person picks up a substitute target because their id wants something that their superego would allow. Hence, its the release of psychic energy.
-turning against the self
Turning against the self
Its a form of displacement where the person becomes their own substitute target. Feelings of anger amd frustration are internalised and result in low self esteem, guilt and depression.
It is the idea that depression is caused by anger that we refuse to accept.
Example of displacement
A person being harassed by their superior might abuse a family member at home.
Regression
Anna freud
The ego reverts to an earlier stage of development to cope with stressful situations.
The person feels the need to retreat, and go back to a time when they felt safe.
Example of regression
Our behaviour or reactions may become childish or primitive while experiencing a frightening situation.
Sublimation
Sublimation is the constructive alternative to displacement. Its when a person process unacceptable or painful emotions into productive or socially acceptable behaviours.
Freud believes arts and sciences are all sublimated sexuality. To him, sublimation is the cornerstone of civilization.
Examples of sublimation
Art, music and sports enable a person to displace aggression or disturbing feelings into constructive behaviour.
Rationalization
Anna freud
A person might distort facts to justify, or come up with excuses to make certain feelings or events less disturbing by attempting logical reasoning.
It is commonly used on a conscious level on a daily basis by most people.
Example of rationalization
When a person cannot accept a painful experience, they might chalk it up to it all being “gods will”.
Reaction formation
It is essentially believing the opposite.
The person starts to behave in the opposite way to which they truly feel and think. It is beyond denial.
They compensate for the anxiety their socially unacceptable feelings cause them by exaggerated behaviour.
Using this mechanism the id is satisfied and the ego if unaware or true intentions.
The person might get angry when someone disagrees with what they strongly believe.
Example of reaction formation
According to freud, people who are prejudiced against homosexuals are homosexuals themselves, and that they use this attitude to convince themselves that they are heterosexual.
Introjection
Its also called identification.
The person adopts personality characteristics of another person to deal with emotional issues.
According to freudian theory this is how we form our superegos.
Examples of Introjection
A neglected child might try to emulate the role of a parent to lessen her feelings of abandonment.
Teenagers often imitate their favourite stars to form their identity.
Identification with the aggressor
Proposed my sandor ferenczi and developed by anna freud.
A victim might adopt the behaviour of their aggressor who is more powerful than them.
They might internalise the aggressor’s behaviour hoping to avoid abuse which might lead to the aggressor feeling emotional connection with their victim.
Examples of identification with aggressor.
When you are afraid of someone you can partially conquer that fear by becoming more like them
-stockholm syndrome (hostage and captor bonding )
