Defensive Mechanisms

Defensive Mechanisms

Defense mechanisms are conflicts between the environment and the inner urges of a person that may create anxiety and/or discomfort. Defense mechanisms were created by Sigmund Freud, who thought that the ego would protect us from threatening id impulses by distorting our own reality and also to try to prevent threatening unconscious material from reaching the conscious level. There are eight different types of defense mechanisms; repression, denial, displacement, projection, regression, sublimation, and rationalization that were discussed in our presentation and short video clip.

The video we chose to show during our presentation was found on Youtube and displayed examples from popular television shows or films. Each of the eight different types of defensive mechanisms had a definition before the film to let our peers have a brief knowledge of the mechanism before the saw each example. The video provided an overview of each of the different aspects that were relevant to each type and allowed an association towards the example and definition.

Each example correlated quite well and it was easy to relate since most of the films and shows have been popular. In the video the example of displacement is shown in the comedy film Anchorman, when a motorists kicks Ron Burgundy's dog off a bridge, this is an example of displacement. Displacement is described as the shifting of actions from a desired target to a substitute target when there is some reason why the first target is not permitted or available. Another example is regression which is defined in the video as "involving the taking of a position of a child in some problematic situation rather than acting in a more adult way." The clip chosen was in the film Step Brothers where Brennen, a 39 year old, told his Mother that he would not call his Step-Father Dad while acting in a very childish way. Projection in the clip is defined