Freudian Defense Mechanisms
This was an assignment for our OT 151 class.
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I would probably be in purgatory by now if not for defense mechanisms. Really, how much heaps of anxiety can my poor ego take? Thanks a lot id and superego. Defense mechanisms, lots of them, are what kept me sane and alive all these years, especially in the unforgivable extremely torturous, and radical academic arena so distinctive of UP education.
Even before I entered college, during those times when Freudian defense mechanisms were as alien and as distant as the Andromeda Galaxy to my juvenile mind, I was already using defense mechanisms to cope with the stressing life of a preschooler. No kidding. And as I progress into what I call the education bureaucracy (uhm, I mean hierarchy) the intensity and frequency of my desperate calls to defense mechanisms' intervention to my anxiety-laden academic life had dramatically increased. No, I'm not a neurotic. But let's face it, in the Philippine context of education, the more anxious a student is, the more normal he is regarded. Every student I knew was (and is) just as harassed as I am; save for those born geniuses who knew by heart Shakespeare's works and the Theory of Relativity while swimming in their mothers' wombs. So, for a typical student like me, I guess nothing to worry about except wrinkles invasion even before I graduate from college.
When I entered in UP I realized that one or two defense mechanisms wouldn't last my sanity long enough. I might have used all those defense mechanisms for all I care. But I have my set of Hall of Famers, those that I often use and those that are easy to use (whatever that means.) The top spot goes to Denial. Wow. As if this is not overrated. Denial is the most famous of them all and I'm part of that huge Denial cult. I am in denial that I have attitude problems, particularly time management. I've been denying to my parents and to myself that my procrastination and mañana habits are becoming alarming as my stay in CAMP is getting longer. Probably because I refuse to seek help or I just don't want to confront it. I hate confrontations anyway. Well now I'm finally admitting it. So I guess that would make denial void from my hall of fame.
Coming in close second place is Displacement. I'm pretty aware that if I vent my anger onto the professor that caused it I'll be in big trouble. So I just take out my anger onto other people who are not as harmful as my professors like family and friends. I also throw my books away, stomp over my notebooks, and tear down my handouts. After my explosive episode with anger, I would form my handouts again like reconstructing a 3000 pieces puzzle while cursng myself for doing something stupid.
In the third spot, which I'm quite proud that I'm using it, is Sublimation. When everything is overwhelmingly out of control, as if the heavens are conspiring against me, Lady Luck decides to file a leave of absence, and I want to scream until my lungs rip off, run somebody over with a bulldozer, or set the College of Art and Sciences on fire (especially when departmental exams in chemistry, physics, and algebra are scheduled a minute after the other) ... I read. I read until my eyes threaten to walkout on me. I also post entries in my blogs (like I said in one of my blogs, writing is my catharsis, my virtual and less expensive psychiatric couch.) My entries' incomprehensibility mirrors my messed-up emotions. I think that an unreadable essay and bloodshot eyes are better than being jailed for arson and murder.
Fourth place goes to Rationalization. Rationalization always pays me a visit after an exam that I'm "very prepared" of. After seeing a grade lower than the Marianas Trench or a mark saying "Study Harder!" in bloody red ink, my ego automatically prepares a very long list of rationalizations: the calculator's batteries ran out in the middle of a physics problem, my chemistry module was vacuumed by an alien spaceship, there's no more space in my brain to memorize 2386 and 1/4 Arabic and Jewish terms, the OT handouts were stolen by the Mafia, I can't distinguish a gluteus maximus from a masseter, and so on. I cannot possibly blame myself that on the eve of the exam I was out partying with friends. That would not be fair. Really.
Sometimes, I also use Regression. I don't know what early developmental stage I am fixated but I always end up crying and sulking when I had a really, really, really bad day. Yes, even worse than the Pearl Harbor. This doesn't concern academics though but more of relationship problems with people that leave me emotionally drained and stressed.
One way or the other I might have used other defense mechanisms, and other defense mechanisms I made up like using humor and avoidance, in my daily battle in life (and also the daily raging war among my id, superego, and ego.) I know it's not healthy to always call one defense mechanism to be my lifeline. I know that I'm distorting reality and though it temporarily offers me escape I know one day all those anxieties that I've ran away from will come crashing in front of me.
Defense mechanism is innate human nature. We are born with it. But it took a genius like Freud to discover its immense capabilities in helping the ego cope with the demands of id and the conscience of the superego. But something will go really wrong if we rely too much on defense mechanisms that we will forget how to face reality and confront the evils and anxieties that are inevitable in our mundane existence.
Balance. Balancing reality and escapism will help us get through life without being doomed in a psychiatric hospital. I wouldn't mind using defense mechanisms to buy me another day away from purgatory. It's all a matter of learning the art of using defense mechanisms and believing in the power of the Big Loving Man up there in heaven.
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I would probably be in purgatory by now if not for defense mechanisms. Really, how much heaps of anxiety can my poor ego take? Thanks a lot id and superego. Defense mechanisms, lots of them, are what kept me sane and alive all these years, especially in the unforgivable extremely torturous, and radical academic arena so distinctive of UP education.
Even before I entered college, during those times when Freudian defense mechanisms were as alien and as distant as the Andromeda Galaxy to my juvenile mind, I was already using defense mechanisms to cope with the stressing life of a preschooler. No kidding. And as I progress into what I call the education bureaucracy (uhm, I mean hierarchy) the intensity and frequency of my desperate calls to defense mechanisms' intervention to my anxiety-laden academic life had dramatically increased. No, I'm not a neurotic. But let's face it, in the Philippine context of education, the more anxious a student is, the more normal he is regarded. Every student I knew was (and is) just as harassed as I am; save for those born geniuses who knew by heart Shakespeare's works and the Theory of Relativity while swimming in their mothers' wombs. So, for a typical student like me, I guess nothing to worry about except wrinkles invasion even before I graduate from college.
When I entered in UP I realized that one or two defense mechanisms wouldn't last my sanity long enough. I might have used all those defense mechanisms for all I care. But I have my set of Hall of Famers, those that I often use and those that are easy to use (whatever that means.) The top spot goes to Denial. Wow. As if this is not overrated. Denial is the most famous of them all and I'm part of that huge Denial cult. I am in denial that I have attitude problems, particularly time management. I've been denying to my parents and to myself that my procrastination and mañana habits are becoming alarming as my stay in CAMP is getting longer. Probably because I refuse to seek help or I just don't want to confront it. I hate confrontations anyway. Well now I'm finally admitting it. So I guess that would make denial void from my hall of fame.
Coming in close second place is Displacement. I'm pretty aware that if I vent my anger onto the professor that caused it I'll be in big trouble. So I just take out my anger onto other people who are not as harmful as my professors like family and friends. I also throw my books away, stomp over my notebooks, and tear down my handouts. After my explosive episode with anger, I would form my handouts again like reconstructing a 3000 pieces puzzle while cursng myself for doing something stupid.
In the third spot, which I'm quite proud that I'm using it, is Sublimation. When everything is overwhelmingly out of control, as if the heavens are conspiring against me, Lady Luck decides to file a leave of absence, and I want to scream until my lungs rip off, run somebody over with a bulldozer, or set the College of Art and Sciences on fire (especially when departmental exams in chemistry, physics, and algebra are scheduled a minute after the other) ... I read. I read until my eyes threaten to walkout on me. I also post entries in my blogs (like I said in one of my blogs, writing is my catharsis, my virtual and less expensive psychiatric couch.) My entries' incomprehensibility mirrors my messed-up emotions. I think that an unreadable essay and bloodshot eyes are better than being jailed for arson and murder.
Fourth place goes to Rationalization. Rationalization always pays me a visit after an exam that I'm "very prepared" of. After seeing a grade lower than the Marianas Trench or a mark saying "Study Harder!" in bloody red ink, my ego automatically prepares a very long list of rationalizations: the calculator's batteries ran out in the middle of a physics problem, my chemistry module was vacuumed by an alien spaceship, there's no more space in my brain to memorize 2386 and 1/4 Arabic and Jewish terms, the OT handouts were stolen by the Mafia, I can't distinguish a gluteus maximus from a masseter, and so on. I cannot possibly blame myself that on the eve of the exam I was out partying with friends. That would not be fair. Really.
Sometimes, I also use Regression. I don't know what early developmental stage I am fixated but I always end up crying and sulking when I had a really, really, really bad day. Yes, even worse than the Pearl Harbor. This doesn't concern academics though but more of relationship problems with people that leave me emotionally drained and stressed.
One way or the other I might have used other defense mechanisms, and other defense mechanisms I made up like using humor and avoidance, in my daily battle in life (and also the daily raging war among my id, superego, and ego.) I know it's not healthy to always call one defense mechanism to be my lifeline. I know that I'm distorting reality and though it temporarily offers me escape I know one day all those anxieties that I've ran away from will come crashing in front of me.
Defense mechanism is innate human nature. We are born with it. But it took a genius like Freud to discover its immense capabilities in helping the ego cope with the demands of id and the conscience of the superego. But something will go really wrong if we rely too much on defense mechanisms that we will forget how to face reality and confront the evils and anxieties that are inevitable in our mundane existence.
Balance. Balancing reality and escapism will help us get through life without being doomed in a psychiatric hospital. I wouldn't mind using defense mechanisms to buy me another day away from purgatory. It's all a matter of learning the art of using defense mechanisms and believing in the power of the Big Loving Man up there in heaven.
posted by Flordeline Precious Lao at
1:27 AM
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