Adult Development: Psychological Defense Mechanisms
Human personality, expressed emotions, strivings, and beliefs arise from a conflict between aggressive, pleasure-seeking, biological impulses and the social restraints against their expression (Bee, 2000). This conflict between expression and repression, in ways that bring the achievement of satisfaction without punishment or guilt, drives the development of personality. Understanding an individual means understanding which defense mechanisms their subconscious has chosen and how their defenses work for them. Psychotherapist, Sigmund Freud, based his understanding of psychological defense mechanisms on the conflict between three interacting systems: the id, ego and superego. Freud did not propose a new anatomy, but saw these terms as useful aids to understanding the mind's dynamics (Psychological Self-Help, Available Online). The id is a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that continually seeks to satisfy basic drives to survive, reproduce and aggress. The id operates on the pleasure principle. If unconstrained, it seeks instantaneous gratification (Hales & Hales, 1995). The id is most easily observed in a newborn child who cries out for satisfaction the moment he feels hungry, tired or uncomfortable. The child is un
Freud proposed that the ego protects itself against anxiety with ego defense mechanisms. Denial, distortion, and delusion are the most basic forms of psychological defense (Bee, 2000). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. In addition, not dealing with these events properly has caused the ego to further deceive me by taking me through a period of dissociation. [Review of the book The Wisdom of the Ego]. Because the superego's demands often oppose the id's, the ego struggles to reconcile the two. Consequently, even a child who emerged from the first stage of life with a strong sense of trust may become mistrustful and cynical if betrayed in later social relationships. However, for some there is a fine line between fantasy and reality. Each of these disorders are triggered by, "A life experience or series of experiences that so seriously upsets the balance of the individual that it creates changes in the persons emotional, cognitive or behavioral functioning" (Oster, 1999, slide 24).
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