FREE ESSAY ON FREUDIAN DEFENSE MECHANISMS

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.

Sublimation is the only truly positive defense mechanism. It takes negative energy and
utilizes it into something positive. For example, a person has a fetish with guns and is
a violent person. Through sublimation, they will either join a police squad or work as a
bouncer in a bad part of town. In the end, society benefits. However, sometimes the
negative energy will emerge in this positive action. A policeman could fatally wound a
petty thief, or a bouncer will break both legs on a pushy adolescent. Despite these
downfalls, it is the most effective form of harnessing inappropriate of harmful energy
into benefitting society.
Compulsive fun-seekers are essentially just that. They look for things to amuse them like
t.v. and video games to spend their time with, other than accomplishing something
productive like homework or a project. It is used to again thwart reality by focusing on
something enjoyable. However, because they are only having fun, nothing productive is
getting done. With students, bad grades could be a result or even being dropped from a
class. Reality then hits the person in the face. 
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 where they lose more
power. So, they only temporarily win power. Because the person does not expect anything
good to come out of a situation, they are never satisfied. Thus, anxiety retains instead
of being thwarted. 
Defense mechanisms are used to redistribute anxiety into another form that is more
manageable. It is utilized by the ego, that distorts, denies, or rejects reality. It is a
very normal and necessary function of the human psyche in functioning correctly or well
within a society. Although defense mechanisms are mandatory, they no not completely
destroy anxiety and can have lasting repercussions. Fantasizing may leave the individual
free from comprehending reality while sublimation could, in some cases, be only another
channel for negative energy. Repressing a memory does not mean it cannot be resurfaced,
and compulsive fun-seekers do not accomplish anything productive because they live in a
world of pastime. Being negative makes the individual a social outcast and irreproachable
with anything positive. Although defense mechanisms transfer anxiety for a period of
time, they are not permanant and can cause further anxiety with their constant use.