Chas Wakeman

4/21/2015
Psychology
Ms. Donegan
Youre Getting Defensive Again!

Sigmund Freud, known as the father of psychology, his contributions to the science are
undoubtedly responsible for raising our interpretation of human behavior. Although his work has
been tested and criticized over the past century due to the scientific perspective, some concepts
and theories of his work are being more positively viewed today. For instance, Freuds theory on
the ego defense mechanisms which is the psychological weapons that your ego uses to protect
you from your self-created anxiety. (Hock 234) Freud discovered this concept over many years
of experience dealing with psychological problems. His daughter, Anna Freud later summarized
her fathers findings into one book called The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense.
Freud developed this concept of ego defense mechanisms over many years of interactions
with his patients. Therefore this specific concept was a result of a naturalistic observation in the
sense that Freud observed these behaviors and then formed a hypothesis. Thats when Anna
Freud took her fathers work and wrote her book elaborating on the 10 different defense
mechanisms, only 5 of the main mechanisms identified are discussed in this summary:
repression, regression, projection, reaction formation, and sublimation.
Frist, repression seems to be the most basic and common mechanism used by ones self in
defending the ego. Freud believed that repression was the mechanism responsible for defending
the ego against the anxiety of unacceptable thoughts, that the mind rejects these thoughts and

Chas Wakeman
4/21/2015
Psychology
Ms. Donegan
forces them into the unconscious. These thoughts or urges are not fully dissipated, but they
cannot produce anxiety because they are repressed.
Regression is a defense used to protect against anxiety by making a person fall back on
behaviors they experienced in an early stage of development. My interpretation of regression is
when a person pretends to be something theyre not in the sense of fear, safety, or jealousy. For
example the old man that fears growing old so he partakes in activities and rituals that remind
him of when he was younger, maybe as a teen.
Projection as I understand it, is the defense mechanism of the guilty mind or denial.
Meaning a person who is guilty of having wrongful thoughts will project those thoughts onto a
spouse or close friend falsely accusing them of acts that dont exist. For example, in the research
summary a man who is having thoughts of cheating on his wife is experiencing the built up
anxiety caused by these thoughts. In response, he falsely accuses his wife of having affairs even
though there is no evidence of his claims.
Reaction formation is the exact opposite of projection. A person may experience the same
deviant thoughts or impulses, but instead of making accusations they may do things such as spoil
their specific other and become obsessive to neutralize their anxiety. They may also do things to
show hatred to a particular group they belong to if that group is not accepted in society for
example non-heterosexuals.

Chas Wakeman
4/21/2015
Psychology
Ms. Donegan
Lastly, sublimation which Sigmund and Anna Freud claimed to be the most common
defense mechanism. Sigmund believed it was part of a productive, healthy life that we all tend to
take part in based off our impulses and connected to the activities we take part in. For example
someone who has more aggressive impulses they would most likely take part in activities that
involve contact like weight lifting.
I believe these research findings are important because they help us better understand the
human mind. Each mechanism is used differently across a broad scale that helps us deal with
increased levels of anxiety making these concepts not always bad. For example the use of
projection has been found to reduce the level of blood pressure. On the other hand regression, if
used frequently to solve problems, might lead someone to never fully develop strategies to
problem solve inhibiting the development of that person. (Hock 239)
In the text Psychology they refer to Freuds theory of the unconscious mind split into
three parts the preconscious, conscious, and unconscious minds. The unconscious mind dealing
with someones ID, which is pleasure seeking and biologically drives the need for hunger, thirst,
self-preservation and sex. The conscious which acts as the executive director and keeps contact
with the outside world. Then the superego that deals with the preconscious and acts as a middle
man.
In the research article Defense Mechanisms by IG says Freud suggested that there are
three major types of anxiety neurotic anxiety, moral anxiety, and reality anxiety. Neurotic

Chas Wakeman
4/21/2015
Psychology
Ms. Donegan
anxiety is the fear of becoming overwhelmed dealing with the ID. The moral anxiety is the
feeling of guilt or shame, we tend to follow social norms and when we stray from that the guilt
and shame feelings start to take over. Reality anxiety is based on fear of real world events, for
example someone being afraid of a gun because it has the ability to take someones life its a
normal real world fear.
Personally I am able to use the information given in this research summary to better
understand the theories of personality and better understand the minds of other people. Using and
recognizing the different defense mechanisms would be very helpful in the sense of dealing with
different people in the future and understanding the situation. I found Freuds work brilliant and I
feel it opened up the door for psychologists everywhere to better understand and test the theories
he presented so we can further grasp the concept of the complicated human mind.

Chas Wakeman
4/21/2015
Psychology
Ms. Donegan
Works Cited

Ciccarelli, Saundra, and Noland J. White. Psychology. Boston: Pearson, 2013. Print.

Hock, R. Roger. Forty Studies that Changed Psychology. Upper City River, New Jersy: Pearson
Education Inc., 2013

IG, (November 24, 2012). Freud Psychoanalysis: A Revolutionary Approach: Defense

Mechanisms. http://freudpsychoanalysis.com/defense-mechanisms/