Question

Choose one close friend OR family member that would be willing to be interviewed. Do NOT use his/her real name. Read him/her the defense mechanisms in the lecture. Ask:

1. After hearing about these defense mechanisms, which one do you tend to do?

2. Does doing this defense mechanism help you in some way? Does it hurt you in some way?

Answer 1

Sigmund Freud in his theory of psychoanalysis proposed the topographical model of the mind. Freud suggested that the human mind functions at three levels of awareness. The conscious mind, subconscious and the unconscious. Every individual goes through stressful situations in life. However, Freud suggested that every individual exercises different defense mechanisms which suit them the best to cope up with those stressful events.

Interview:

'After hearing about the defense mechanisms, which one do you tend to do'; the interviewee confessed that the defense mechanism executed by him is, repression.

'Does doing this defense mechanism help you in some way? Does it hurt you in some way?'; The interviewee agreed on it helping him in many ways. He said that it helps him cope up with day to day stress. For him repression or pushing down the feelings and thoughts that make him feel miserable, makes him forget the stressful events. However, the repressed thoughts, feelings and memories are embedded in the unconscious. Those thoughts or traumatic experiences are not forgotten whereas they are repressed in unconscious which at a later stage interferes with normal functioning of life. He also confessed that the material repressed in the unconscious is the major cause behind him developing an anxiety disorder.