Freudian Defense Mechanisms

A detailed Summary of Freudian Defense Mechanisms


All people use defense mechanisms, whether they be consciously or unconsciously. Anxiety may arise from an intense situation or even past experience. It is then the ego's job to displace anxiety so as to protect the rest of the mind. Through defense mechanisms such as sublimation, repression, fantasy, compulsive fun-seeking, and negativism, the ego eliminates anxiety caused by surroundings which in effect tries to prevent insanity.

Fantasy is a device used to thwart reality. It involved the imagination of a fantasy life for the individual to crawl into, in essence, to escape reality. It is needed to be utilized by everyone in order to maintain sanity. If the mind were exposed to the realities of live with all it's anxieties at every minute and every second, the person would become completely insane. Fantasy raises self-esteem, brings down anxiety, and often involves the vision of a success-based life. However, if a person lives only in fantasy and never in reality, they become essentially psychotic. This person has no comprehension of reality


and therefore cannot function in it. Fantasy can only function sparingly, allowing conscience control.

Repression is the most unconscious form of defense mechanism. It takes harmful memories or experiences and places them in the unconscious. This way, the conscious does not have access to them and they cannot be remembered often, if at all. However, the downfall is that if these images are resurfaced, the person can be heavily damaged. Reliving the experience or memories further increases the damage originally caused by them. Ways to reach these memories include dream analysis, free association, and simply psychoanalysis.

Negativism is the act of expecting a situation to turn out bad, so as to prevent being let-down. A person will not expect much to come out of a situation so therefore they will risk getting hurt. It is also an attitude of resistance to suggestion, in an attempt to keep the power in a group. The power is kept by demolishing their ideas by being negative about it. However, the negative person eventually puts themselves whe

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Approximate Word count = 708
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Category: Science

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