Defense Mechanisms
This week in English class, we focused on various Freudian concepts, including defense mechanisms. According to Freud, the body would completely shut down when faced with trauma and no way to deal with it. To counteract this, the mind uses various defense mechanisms. Freud came up with two mechanisms on his own, those being repression and sublimation. These are considered to be the two most important defense mechanisms by Freudian psychologists, despite dozens of other mechanisms being discovered since then.
Repression is the when the mind pushes traumatic events into the subconscious. An example of this is how children forget traumatic events, such as witnessing their parents creating their siblings. This is considered to be an unhealthy way of dealing with traumatic events. Repressed memories manifest themselves in different ways during daily life, yet can only be addressed through free association and analyzing dreams.
Sublimation is when negative emotions are channeled into positive outlets. An example of this is how artists will use their emotions to dictate their creations. This is the best way for people to deal with problems, as it acknowledges the source of stress and converts it into something meaningful with no emotional harm to the person.
The contrast of these two types of defense mechanisms is palpable. It is obvious why Freudian psychology is considered to be outdated when you consider that he was only able to identify these two. While they are important, they neglect an entire range of other mechanisms, both healthy and unhealthy. It is amazing to think how a science as philosophical as psychology has completely changed over the course of a century. Ideas from the 1900s are either built upon or refuted, which makes me wonder how it will change over the course of my own lifetime.
It is interesting to ponder the fact that the established and developing ideas of today will one day be refuted and corrected. Just as Freud only discovered a portion of the human mind, perhaps one day even more discoveries will be made concerning the complex human mind and future generations will understand the mind even deeper than today.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Paul that it is interesting that a lot of changes have been made to Freud's work on defense mechanisms. A lot of his other work is outdated as well. His theories on psychosexual development and the oedipal conflict were developed without even considering how they applied to females and his belief that errors in development led to promiscuity and homosexuality are also not acceptable in today's society. As science advances, old theories are proven wrong and who knows what else will be refuted in the future.
ReplyDeleteNice thoughts, Dan! Like Andrew and Paul have already said, I agree that it is strange to think ideas we accept as fact today will likely be disproved and considered to be outdated throughout our lives. It seems like we know so little about the mind but I imagine we will be discovering things for a very long time to come. These defense mechanisms are a very good indication of how complicated our minds are.
ReplyDeleteYou have some very interesting ideas here Dan. I too wonder pyscological ideas will change in our life time, considering how far they've come sinse Freud introduced them over 100 years ago. Although Freud did miss out on hitting the complete psycological scale, Im still very impressed with what he came up with at a time where the study of the mind was practicaly nothing.
ReplyDeleteVery thoughtful thought you had there at the end about the advancement of psychology. It is a relatively young science that seems very open to advancement. I'm sure when I'm older we will look back and laugh at this lesson, just like we laugh at Freud's use of cocaine. Always nice to hear what you have to say Dan. Stay toasty.
ReplyDelete