Defense mechanisms.

Defense mechanisms are really interesting to me, I find myself looking at other people in order to understand which defense mechanism they utilize. I promise, this is my last post today. I just wanted to get this information out there. And what better place to do it then here, where my thoughts are broadcasted for all to see? Here are my thoughts on defense mechanisms. Enjoy!

"Being the humans that we are, our beings naturally come across thoughts and desires that are both acceptable and maybe even some that are considered socially unacceptable. We are aware of what we do with these good thoughts and desires; we act on them daily. But what do we do with the unacceptable half of these? Our bodies and beings react differently to these thoughts and desires, and most employ certain attitudes and actions to attempt to suppress or channel these things. How we deal with our thoughts and desires is widely known as our defense mechanisms. There are many different defense mechanisms, and the use of them differs in variety from person to person.
Three of these defense mechanisms are as follows. First off, there is one known as “sublimation”. Sublimation is the act of channeling these socially unacceptable thoughts and attitudes into acceptable situations or activities that really have hardly anything to do with what we are feeling. For example, a high-school-aged young man may be having trouble at home in that he can never live up to his dad’s high expectations and therefore ends up in constant argument with him. All this pent up frustration and anger is then spent at his high school in football practice and games where he is able to run off this energy and tackle to his heart’s desire. The second of these mechanisms is known as “displacement”. Displacement is when one takes out his or her anger at someone or something on another person or thing not involved in the situation at all. For example, a husband and wife are in constant argument and causing much tension within their household. However, instead of solving the issues with one another, the father begins taking out his anger on his children, yelling at them, and perhaps physically or mentally abusing them. The last of the three defense mechanisms I am going to discuss is known as “denial”. Denial is the defense mechanism that a person may use that means that they will not accept that there is anything going on that should be troubling them, whereas there actually is. They just refuse to acknowledge that there is anything worth recognizing. For example, a man is dating a young woman and is in deeply in love with her. However, the feeling was not entirely mutual and the young woman breaks up with the man. The man is so hurt and so in love that he refuses to accept the fact that their relationship has come to an end that he does not stop calling her, referring to her as his girlfriend, and saying she is only “taking a vacation” to explain her absence. All of these forms of defense mechanisms are so very commonly used, yet some are obviously more drastic than others, as shown in the “denial” form.
A good example of someone dealing with the “displacement” variety of defense mechanisms is shown through the character of Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice (both the film and the classic book). His life has been difficult, and has been drastically stabbed in the back by a close friend of the family—hurting him deeply. As a result of these actions against him, he takes out his anger towards the man to all whom he encounters, especially his love interest, Elizabeth. Even as he begins to fall into love with her, he finds it hard to express the love because of his constant coldness and anger that he exhibits much of the time. Though he is not angry with Elizabeth, his attitudes always come across as such because of other circumstances which feel out of his control.
Defense mechanisms are complicated things that we all employ, mostly on a daily basis. Though we all may utilize different forms of them, we all use them just the same to give the same effect, to “deal with unwanted thoughts and desires”. (Burger, 2008, pg. 48)
References
Burger, J.M. (2008). Personality. 7th ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth."