ASSIGNMENT OF LITERARY THEORY AND PRACTICE

ASSIGNMENT ON FREUDIAN DEFENSES WITH EXAMPLES

SUBMITTED TO SIR ZAKIRULLAH SB
SUBMITTED BY SHAKEELA BIBI
ROLL NO. : 193015
SEMESTER: 7TH
DISCPLINE: BS ENGLISH
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND FOERIGN LANGUAGES
UNIVERSITY OF SWAT
Sigmund Freud: “Defense mechanism”
INTRODUCTION
Sigmund Freud, commonly referred to as the father of psychoanalysis, proposed the concept of
defense mechanism, these are the techniques made to reduce internal conflict, anxiety and other
unpleasant emotions, feelings and thoughts. He developed the idea of defense mechanism as a
way to understand human behavior, said that these are ways for the mind to cope with stress or
unpleasant feelings/emotions and to avoid uncomfortable situations. Sometimes a person uses
these unconscious mechanisms without realizing it. This mechanism protects the individual from
painful emotions, ideas and drives.
Freud postulated that personality is composed of three basic components i.e., Id, Ego and
Superego. The Id represent all the primitive untamed desires, the ego represent the reality
principle of logic, reason and safety while the superego represent the moral components of the
personality. It is the ego’s responsibility to mediate between the Id and superego, which often
results in stress.
Consequently, the ego finds itself negotiating self-control of the Id, at the same time inducing the
more flexible approach to implement a variety of means to handle its discomfort in the form of
defense mechanism.
If ego argues that I am perfect and someone finds a flaw somewhere then this unconscious
defense mechanism responds to validate its argument by providing justifications.
All defense mechanisms are the subconscious psychological reactions to the unpleasant emotions
and conflict. It is like denying or distort reality. Human beings use these defense mechanisms in
order to lower their stress and anxiety. There are two types of defense mechanisms i.e., positive
and negative defense mechanism.
Positive defense mechanism means that if human beings use such defenses so it is beneficial for
them, while negative defense mechanism means that there is a chance of stress and anxiety.
Freud discussed different defense mechanisms throughout his work, but here are the five main
types of defense mechanism i.e., projection, denial, repression, displacement and sublimation.
DISCUSSION
1. Projection
Psychological projection is a defense mechanism that involves attributing one’s own feelings,
traits, desires or qualities to other people. It involves projecting the undesirable feelings or
emotion onto someone else, rather admitting or dealing with it. They accuse others of having the
same feelings they themselves were demonstrating.
For instance; a man who has been unfaithful to his wife but accuses his wife of cheating on him,
here the man is projecting his trait of being unfaithful to his wife.
Projection can be harmful in relationships because it creates a great deal of confusion and
misunderstanding between partners.
 Projection fails in some areas, e.g.
Many people consider themselves as good while others as bad, so here projection fails. Police
officers themselves are not killers and thieves but they look at every person as potential killer
and a thief. Police officer is a protector and he should project unto people that all the people are
protectors.
In the novel “cracking India”, the child character Lennie, if she had not projected her innocence
unto the mob then she would have not made mistake but she projected her innocence unto all the
people so it had caused trouble.
The interplay between Torvald and Nora in the novel A Doll’s House, both are projecting their
personality traits unto one another, so it had made things complicated for them and it resulted in
catastrophe.
 In some cases, projection is identical; e.g.
Characterless person will recognize the characterless people, so in that case it is identical. Here
the person is not acknowledging threatening traits in themselves and seeing them in other people
instead, because of this they protect their self-concept.
Every person looks and finds himself in others. A person who realizes that they are being
aggressive during an argument may accuse the other person of aggression.
Projection can be harmful, as it may stop someone from accepting and taking responsibility for
their own thoughts or behavior. Projection is the biggest problem of all human beings, because of
the complications, as unconsciously people are seeing personal feelings in all those who
encounter. This is the process of unconscious that it is regulating our conscious.
2. Denial
Refusing to admit yourself that something is real. It refers to the person refusal to acknowledge
certain facts about a particular situation or the denial of existence traits, feelings, thoughts and
perceptions. For instance; not believing the doctor when he/she tells you some particularly bad
news about your health.
Most of the time there are psychological issues that you are not aware of, so your unconscious
defense mechanism is urging and compelling you not to admit it even if others find these issues
in you. Not doing this admission and confession leads to psychological complication.
For instance; if someone is jealous of someone, and he is not admitting and not confessing and
constantly denying it that no I am not jealous, but within the person something is going on in the
unconscious and it is causing a big trouble. Because of the libido is there and it is infinite and it
provide an unlimited excuse for the denial. Because of somehow infinity of libido unlimited
excuses are coming and they are logical.
If a person is receiving various negative feedback about his inability to communicate
empathetically with others, since the person believes that he communicates very effectively,
he/she refuses and dismisses these negative comments using several arguments. For this he
provides a lot of arguments and excuses and blame others as well.
Denial can be helpful in certain situation that are beyond a person’s control such as staying
optimistic can help a person to overcome a serious illness.
On the other hand, denial can stop a person from dealing with situation that require their
attention. For instance; it may be easier to ignore the negative effects of excessive drinking that it
is to cut down on alcohol.
3. Repression
Repression describes the mechanism whereby a person pushes unpleasant and unacceptable
feelings, memories and urges into the unconscious mind. Covering up feelings or emotions
instead of coming to deal with them. It is repressing things or facts that may be threatening to
them. By repressing memory, feeling, thought or traits, these things are no longer accessible to
the person’s consciousness. It involves avoiding thinking about something to block out painful or
uncomfortable feelings or emotion and impulses. It is a motivated forgetting such as the memory
does not disappear entirely, they may influence behavior and impact future relationship. It is the
unconscious process and the person is unaware that they are doing it.
Example; being unable to recall the details of a car crash you were involved in, the brain
sometimes purposely loses these memories to help you cope.
A person unconsciously represses a painful or difficult memory, but the memory remains there.
One cannot remember painful memories as a child. To protect himself, he unconsciously
represses these memories from his consciousness. Instead, he displays anxious behaviors towards
other items that he associates with these original painful memories.
A person who experienced a traumatic event may not be able to recall the details or memories of
that event.
It is difficult to differentiate between denial and repression because they seem very similar. In
denial the person expresses it but repression is passive denial, it means that is ignored even if
other people are talking about the issues and the one who has issues are trying to avoid and not to
participating in that particular discourse. So, they are not denying it but trying to repress it and
not letting people know.
There are some personality traits such as weakness and strength. Denial directly denies particular
traits or behavior but repression is avoiding and ignoring the presence of that specific traits.
4. Displacement
It is a redirection of an impulse unto a substitute target, shifting your true emotions/feelings and
actions from the actual/original target to a substitute target that is less harmful.
It involves a person feeling that they can express a negative emotion towards a particular person,
so they direct those negative emotions towards someone else.
A person deals with the tension or anxiety associated with negative feelings, such as fear or
anger, by releasing them on a non-threatening target. It is an unconscious defense mechanism;
the person may not realize that they are doing it.
For instance;
A person who is angry at their boss of being unfair towards him but also fear of being fired if
they complain or express anger so may take out their anger and transfer these emotions to
someone who is less threatening such as on a family member by shouting at them.
A teacher release anger at students and being angry at the family member.
When one had a bad day at work and later getting angry at child or spouse. So, he/she is angry at
one person and release his anger on another person, it is more destructive one and has negative
consequences for an individual and the people around them.
Displacement has a positive as well as negative consequences for a person such as it allows a
person to process stress and anxiety, in ways that are less threatening and more socially
acceptable than confronting the head on, for example shouting back at their boss but it also may
affect a person’s life and relationship due to negative experience at work and later shouting at
their partner over a minor mistake when get home.
5. Sublimation
It is a mature type of defense mechanism, which transform negative impulses into behaviors that
are not only less damaging but sometimes productive in nature. It is an unconscious
psychological defense that reduces the anxiety that may result from unacceptable urges or
harmful stimuli.
APA defines sublimation as ‘a defense mechanism in which unacceptable drives are
unconsciously channeled into socially acceptable modes of expression and redirected into new,
learned behavior, which indirectly provide some satisfaction for the original drives’.
When someone knows that they are doing something wrong but still doing that action.
Acceptance is there but it is sublimated, it is not wrong but is something sublime. Usually
socially unacceptable impulses are unconsciously transformed into socially acceptable actions or
behavior.
Example;
Sometime, people participate in sports and play competitive sports to satisfy their impulse to
dominate and win rather than acting on an unacceptable urge to be physically aggressive with
others.
A person become distraught at the end of a relationship. To deal with these negative emotions,
he/she begin writing poetry and able to transform emotional aspect into a creative activity.
So, sublimation is usually considered a healthy and a mature way of dealing with urges that may
be undesirable or unacceptable. Rather than act out in ways that could cause us or other harm,
sublimation allows us to channel that energy into things that are beneficial. Thus, it has a positive
effect on one’s health.
Conclusion
To conclude, we can argue that defense mechanisms are unconscious psychological processes
and strategies that people use to manage their feelings, thoughts and behavior and to deals with
conflicts and anxiety. It may has a positive and as well as a negative consequences upon people.
Defense mechanism can be helpful in short term, but if overused, become problematic when they
interfere with a person’s ability to cope with life challenges and to from a healthy relationship or
if they limit their ability to grow and change.