Freud and Ego Defense Mechanisms
Landis Baxter-Howard
The three parts of the mind
ID
Primitive instincts. Consists of biological parts of the personality. Includes the sex instinct: Eros, and the aggressive instinct: Thanatos (life and death). The id is impulsive, responding to the instincts. A child is born with only an id. With immediate satisfaction, it provides pleasure, and without satisfaction, it provides pain or unsatisfaction. The id is not affected by reality or logic. We are completely unaware of its function as adults. It provides the energy needed for the conscious mind to function and develop.
EGO
Moderator between id and reality. Considers rules, etiquette, reality, and the superego's standards in trying to satisfy the id's desire. Seeks pleasure and avoids pain. Things are not right or wrong, but they are good if they satisfy the id without damaging the id or ego. Weak relative to the id, the best the ego can do is point the id's desires in the right direction. The ego plans, remembers, and evaluates. It is perceived as the self.
SUPEREGO
Ethics. The superego's criticisms and prohibitions create the conscience. Its ideals and aspirations create the idealized self-image. Develops in response to punishment and reward, and internalization of family's and society's morals, (and continues to develop with exposure to role models and a larger society). Violation of the superego's morals creates anxiety, guilt, and a need to repent.
Ego defense mechanisms
In acting as a moderator between the id and superego, the ego has tools it uses to defend itself when it cannot fully satisfy both. If the id is unsatisfied, we feel pain, and if the superego is unsatisfied, we feel guilt, so the ego used these defense mechanisms to prevent this.
Examples of defense mechanisms
1. Denial: believing an anxiety-creating stimulus does not exist. For example, people who feel attracted to others of the same gender may deny that they do (in certain societies).
2. Projection: transferring unacceptable feelings and traits in yourself to someone else. For example, you may believe someone dislikes you, when in fact you strongly dislike them.
3. Rationalization: explaining an unacceptable feeling or behavior in a rational or logical way. For example, if someone's college application is rejected, they might believe that they didn't really want to go there.
4. Regression: reverting to behaviors used earlier in development. People may be fixated in a certain period of early development. For example, someone may sulk when something bad happens.
5. Sublimation: Acting on impulses in a socially acceptable way. For example, someone may become a football player to act out aggressive urges.
Bibliography
Superego. (2014). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com /EBchecked/topic/574274/superego
Ego. (2014). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com /EBchecked/topic/180318/ego
Id. (2014). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com /EBchecked/topic/281641/id
Ego. (2014). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com /EBchecked/topic/180318/ego
Id. (2014). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com /EBchecked/topic/281641/id