Anxiety & Defense Mechanisms
- Describe two situations in which you have used a defense mechanism.
The human psyche is simultaneously strong and delicate tool of cognition and perception (Cariola, 2017). A person’s psyche keeps on developing, changing and adapting to his surrounding, from birth till death. Each person exhibits his own set of defense mechanisms; following are the two situations in which I have used defense mechanisms:
Denial
Denial is a defense mechanism in which a person refuses to accept reality and pretends that nothing has ever happened (Perry, 2014). I experienced this defense mechanism after losing my father. Since my childhood, I was very close to my father. He was the only person whom I used to share my feelings with. He used to listen to my problems and would never get tired. But my life shattered after his dismissal and for a long time after his death I did not talk about him with anyone; even if someone used to ask me if I was finding it difficult to cope with my life after his death, I tried to avoid answering. The Defense Mechanism of Denial certainly helped me out to cope with the pain of loosing my father as it was even more painful to talk about him than to keep silent about the suffering.
Projection
Projection is a defense mechanism in which a person denies existence of an undesirable characteristic in himself and highlight the same characteristic into other persons (Walayat, 2017). I experience that many times during my exams when my friends plan to go for an outing I say to them that they would not want to go because they have to study, but in reality I do not want to go because I have to study. The Defense Mechanism of Projection helps me in this situation because without getting myself accused of cancelling the plan, I get a chance to continue to study in a group.
Hence, it can be said that Defense mechanisms are not always harmful; they can be useful and even desirable at times in life. These may protect a person from the problems he is unable to solve otherwise.
2. Explain a situation in which someone you know was using a defense mechanism.
The pliability of human psyche assures that irrespective of the circumstances, the human psyche persists; however, aiming to defend itself, human psyche introduces a set of defensive mechanisms which ensures that his anxiety, unpleasant thoughts, experiences and feelings remain unperceived. These mechanisms do not only help a person to cope with any challenging or stressful situations, but they also help in creating normal and smooth interactions between a person and the reality (De Klerk, 2017). Following is a situation in which my friend used a defense mechanism.
Rationalization
Rationalization is a common defense mechanism which is used by a person to distort perceived reality in such a manner that it appears less threatening (Knoll & Perry, 2017). My roommate and friend Sarah was always afraid of switching off light at night. Whenever, I tried to switch off light at night, she would stop me emphasizing that the inability to see the surroundings is dangerous and most burglaries take place at night. After asking her several times for about one year, she told me that she was once being molested by her house servant at night during childhood. Then, I realized that by making other excuses she used to rationalize her fear of being molested again.
Thus, when implemented consciously defense mechanisms may help a person to avoid any undesirable situation. Nevertheless, if such mechanisms tend to become automatic and subconscious then they may decrease the quality of life. Hence, it is important that every person should identify and understand his personal mechanism of psychological defense, and get rid of any defense mechanism that has become useless.
References
Cariola, L. (2017). Intellectualization (Defense Mechanism). Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences.
De Klerk, J. J. (2017). Nobody is as blind as those who cannot bear to see: Psychoanalytic perspectives on the management of emotions and moral blindness. Journal of business ethics, 141(4), 745–761.
Knoll, M., Starrs, C. J., & Perry, J. C. (2017). Rationalization (Defense Mechanism). Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences, 1–5
Perry, J. C. (2014). Anomalies and specific functions in the clinical identification of defense mechanisms. Journal of clinical psychology, 70(5), 406–418.
Walayat, S. (2017). Interpersonal Conceptualizations and Intra-Psychic Functions of Defense Mechanisms in Indigenous Perspective. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 8(4).
