Freudian Defense Mechanisms: Part 1

You’ve probably heard the term ‘defense mechanisms’ mentioned some time in your life in some conversation, or at least some the different terms associated with it, such as denial and suppression. Psychoanalysts believe that we use such mechanisms to protect ourselves from previous traumatic experiences. The term got its start from the psychoanalytic theory, which was spearheaded by Sigmund Freud.

Freud

Freud believed that personality is composed of three major components – the id, the ego, and the super ego – and that all behavior is a product of their interaction. The id is the original component of the personality; it is present at birth, and from it the ego and superego eventually develop. The id operates from the pleasure principle- the impulsive, pleasure-seeking aspect of our being – and it seeks immediate gratification of instinctual needs, regardless of the moral or realistic concerns. In contrast, the ego represents the realistic and rational part of the mind. It is influenced by the reality principle – an awareness of the demands of the environment and of the need to adjust behavior to meet these demands. The ego’s decisions are dictated by the realistic considerations rather than by moral judgment.

Moral judgment and moralistic considerations are the domain of the superego. The superego is composed of the conscience, which instills guilt feelings (damn the superego) about engaging in immoral or unethical behavior, and the ego ideal, which rewards altruistic or moral behavior with feelings of pride.

Superego and Id fighting for control over the Ego

The energy system from which the personality operates occurs through the interplay of instincts. Instincts give rise to our thoughts and actions and fuel their expressions – the impetus. Freud recognized sex (Eros) and aggression (Thanatos) as the dominant human instincts because he recognized that the society in which he lived placed strong prohibitions on these drives and that, as a result, people were taught to inhibit them. A profound need to express one’s instincts is often frightening and can lead a person to deny that instinct’s existence. Most impulses are hidden from one’s consciousness, though they none the less determine human actions.

Drives of Eros and Thanatos

This inevitably leads to the pressing question of: what happens when the ego cannot deal with the demands of our desires, the constraints of reality, and the moral justice of our conscience? According to Freud, it leads to neurosis, or anxiety; which is an altogether unpleasant, and more importantly, unhealthy state of being. Anxiety basically acts as a signal to the ego that things are not going right.

Neurotic anxiety: the unconscious worry that we will lose control of the id's urges, resulting in punishment for inappropriate behavior.

Reality anxiety: the fear of real-world events. The cause of this anxiety is usually easily identified. For example, a person might fear receiving a dog bite when they are near a menacing dog. The most common way of reducing this anxiety is to avoid the threatening object.

Moral anxiety involves a fear of violating our own moral principles.

In order to deal with this anxiety, Freud believed that defense mechanisms helped shield the ego from the conflicts created by the id, superego and reality. I’ll be writing about the actual defense mechanisms in part two.