Defense Mechanisms at Work

Defense Mechanisms at Work

According to Nevid (2009) defense mechanisms can be defined as the reality-distorting strategies of the ego to prevent awareness or anxiety-evoking or troubling ideas or impulses. In laments terms this means that if a person, place, action or thing causes us to feel mad, depressed, uncomfortable, or troubled in any way, there are several types of defense mechanisms that our ego creates in an attempt to help us from continuing to feel negatively. These major defense mechanisms that are apart of Freud's Psychodynamic Theory are repression, regression, displacement, denial, reaction formation, rationalization, projection, and sublimation.

When contemplating this assignment and how to apply these defense mechanisms to myself, I found it pretty difficult. I think I was overcome with a sense of denial because I had never thought of myself to be the type of person to use any of them. I've heard of some of these devices before but I always associated them with people that had a lot more, or generally more significant problems than my own. I really had to reevaluate my ways of thinking and question my past actions and experiences. I came to the surprising conclusion that I've used or witnessed almost all of them. With the exception of projection because I could only speculate on the experiences I might've had with this mechanism and couldn't convince myself of their validity. Though I could think of many things to write about, I chose repression because it was the most significant defense mechanism I think I've unwillingly utilized to date.

My experiences with repression began close to a year ago when my best friend told me that she was going to go to college at St. Andrew's University. I said, "Cool! ...Where is that?" Because the only people that had heard of the institution at that time had been following the tabloid headlines about the Royal Wedding. When she answered, Scotland, it took everything in me not to shake her and ask how she could go to a school that far away from me. I couldn't even muster up a half smile. International, Scotland, airplane; all of these terms reverberated through my head like I was in some sort of dream.

She noticed my blank expression and asked me to say something. All I could come up with was, "I hope that's the best decision for you and is what makes you most happy." Because it was true, all I've ever wanted since we became inseparable at the age of 12 was for her to be happy. I vividly remember her immediate defensiveness and her asking me to at least pretend to be happy for her but I couldn't even do that. Who can pretend to be excited for their best friend leaving the country, living across the ocean, in Europe, on another continent, with a six hour time difference for close to nine months out of the year? I wasn't going to lie to her, because