Abnormal psychology: Defence Mechanisms

essay by cheryl yow




Question:
Psychoanalytic model of psychopathology views phobia as a
symbolic outward expression of internal anxiety.

Using the concept of defence mechanisms, one of their
important contributions, discuss the possible defences
being used by Rhea. Explain what these defence mechanisms
are and what behaviours in Rhea express their use.


Scenario:
Rhea, 26 years old has a phobia of the dark. She was
transferred to Singapore one month back. She hesitated
coming here as she had never lived on her own but the
lure of her dream job was strong. Today, after a month,
she resigned. When questioned by the office counsellor,
she replied it involved travelling back from office at
9pm: 'I could not concentrate on the job after 6pm in
fear that I have to go home alone in the dark’. She did
not want to tell anyone why she was leaving as she
‘knows’ people do not understand that she is only being
sensible in not putting herself in dangerous situations.


When she informed her parents, her mother
sympathized with her and understood her fears
as she has been fearful of being alone especially
at night since childhood. She remembers never
allowing her to go on school camps or night out
with friends as Rhea was unable to sleep without
the lights turned on and somebody looking out for
her. The mother always had to reassure her that
that her door was open to hear if Rhea ever
needed her. The mother remembers her own
childhood when she would be afraid of
the buggy man.


Rhea’s father, on the other hand, tried to
reason with her saying how safe Singapore is and
how there is enough traffic at night for her to be
not alone and not fearful. This infuriates Rhea
as, ‘he always suggests something but then does
not really do anything about it, at least my mother
will offer help like she can come and stay with me.’
When asked to elaborate she explained how her
mother and father do not have a very warm
relationship. He is a workaholic and her mother
takes all decisions in the running of the home. She
calls him a ‘weak man’ who does not have a
‘backbone’.


Her memory of her childhood is of a protective
mother ‘I am my mother’s doll. With her in my life,
I don’t have to worry about anything. She takes
care of my every need.’When questioned if she
missed not having any siblings, she replied, ‘Well,
I had one brother who, I don’t know how, died
when I was 4. But nobody talks of him so I
really don’t know what it means to have a sibling.’







Psychoanalytic perspective, Sigmund Freud’s
influential model in psychopathology, focuses on
the unconscious mind and its significant impact
on psychological disorders. Psychoanalytic model
establishes the structure of the mind: Id, ego and superego.
The conflicts between these three theoretical constructs
are referred as intra-psychic conflicts, they are
constantly in conflict. These complex unconscious mental
conflicts give rise to neurotic symptoms that hamper
mental functioning. Although it is difficult to study the
premises of psychoanalytic theory scientifically, many
insights from psychoanalysis help us to understand our
unconscious urges. Defence mechaniisms, an important
contribution of psychoanalysis- are the psyche way to
help us deal with our anxiety. We will look into the
 nature of phobia and the causes of Rhea’s
nyctophobia; then we will examine the dynamics of
Id, ego and superego including Rhea’s use of specific
defence mechanisms to deal with her fears and insecurity.




Anxiety helps an individual escape an anticipated
threatening situation that has no immediate threat to
his well-being. Everyone experiences a variety of normal
anxieties. Having some anxieties is helpful,; it can
prepare people in handling unsetting and challenging
situations. Only when an anxiety persists that it becomes
a phobia- an extreme, severe, persistent fear of an object
or a situation that severely limited one’s life. Anxiety is
a fear of ‘nothing’ (no immediate threat) and phobia is a
fear of something (symbolic). Phobia is a symbolic outward
expression of internal anxiety. Nyctophobia is a frenzied
fear of darkness, usually started from childhood. It is
triggered by the mind’s flawed perceptivity of what could
happen in the dark or what darkness symbolizes . The
Darkness phobia is usually associated with security: the
fear of the loss of a personal connection and separation
from loved ones or fear of being left alone and unable to
find a person when needed or fear of abandonment.



In Rhea’s case, her phobia is probably caused by four
factors. Firstly, her mother’s fear of the buggy man
(an imaginary being) and also the her own fear of being
alone at night might have influenced Rhea. Secondly, her
mother considers Rhea’s father a ‘weak man with no backbone’
and this leads to the unconscious internalization of her
mother’s values. As a result, Rhea describes her father
as a passive, undemonstrative man who ‘always suggest
something and does not really do anything about it’ when
she informed him of her fears. This further highlights the
fact that the father is unable to protect her from her
phobia. Thirdly, Rhea’s parents did not have a warm
relationship. Her father is a workaholic and he might not
be too involved with the home and certainly lacked deep
bonding with Rhea during her childhood. This could
contribute to Rhea’s insecurity – loss of a personal
connection with her father (father represents the
protector of the family) and the unconscious fear of
‘mental’ abandonment (by her father). Lastly, and the
most significant factor is the death of her brother when
she was four; this triggers her fear of separation from
loved ones. Rhea family’s avoidance from the painful
reality of her brother’s death is obvious as no one talk
about his death even when Rhea is already an adult. Without
an outlet for the proper grief of the death of her brother,
that pain is forever trapped within her mind. Her mother
has unknowingly contributed and extended Rhea’s phobia
by not seeking treatment for her phobia.



Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic theory categorizes human
personality into three essential parts: Id, Ego and
Superego. Personality, according to Freud is the conflict
between biological impulses and social restraints that are
internalized. Id is the dark, negative part of our
personality which leads to the construction of neurotic
symptoms. It begins at birth and it is the repository mass
of inherited instinctive impulses (food, water) and drives
(primitive, sexual, aggressive). Id, the animalistic nature
operates within the pleasure principle demands instant
self-gratification. Id is often egocentric, illogical,
irrational and amoral. Ego operates differently, it is the
conscious mind that develops when the child understands
reality and acts realistically. Ego is logical, rational
and realistic. Ego is the defensive operator, composed of
forces that opposes oppose id’s drives. Superego, the
ethical element, emerges once the child learns about moral
values instilled by one’s parents and culture (society's
norms, taboos). Superego’s idealism is the conscience based
on values, guilt and shame. It abides by moral principles
and strives to act in a socially appropriate manner.


Intra-psychic conflicts arise when the emotional Id ruled by
the pleasure principle demands instant self-gratification
while Ego driven by the reality principle is logical and
rational whereas Superego abide by the moral principle is
concerned with conscience. Due to their conflicting
objectives, they tend to stand in opposition to each
other’s values and desires. Ego controls Id impulses by
being realistic and Superego seek to inhibit Id’s desires
and convince ego of more moral goals rather than realistic
ones. An interesting example would be: Mr Davies
walks into a café and sees an attractive lady who
smiles at him and his Id thinks ‘I like to walk up to
her and kiss her in the middle of the café’. The ego
would say ‘You can’t just goa nd kiss any attractive
woman that you don’t know publicly. You should
get to know her first’. Superego moralises and
snaps ‘You can’t do that, you are married!’ Id
represents instinctual biological impulses (sexuality,
aggression). The Id’s impulse to kiss an unknown
woman publicly conflicts with Ego’s rationality as well
as the ideals of Superego. These conflicts invoke
anxiety and Ego, the mediator, would then try to pacify
and compromise both Id and Superego. To reduce
anxiety Ego would use defense mechanisms. Defence
mechanisms are used unconsciously to reduce tension
by covering up our threatening impulses.



In Freudian psychoanalytic theory, defense mechanisms are
psychological strategies to cope with reality and to
maintain self-image. Defence mechanisms provide a refuge
and protect us (our ego) from social sanctions and
anxieties. Everyone uses defence mechanisms. Defence
mechanisms only become pathological when its persistent
use leads to maladaptive behavior that adversely impair an
individual’s mental and physical functioning. Ego employs
defence mechanisms when anxiety (feelings of guilt, shame,
embarrassment) becomes overwhelming to protect the
individual; taking defensive action towards the perceived
danger. All defence mechanisms unconsciously block impulses
by distorting, transforming or falsify reality. In
distorting reality, there is a change in perception which
reduces tension and lessens anxiety. Through defense
mechanisms, the ego tries to eliminate anxiety.


In Rhea’s case, she is using some defence mechanisms known
as denial, regression, projection as well as introjection.
Denial is the refusal to accept external reality by not
acknowledging its existence or occurrence because it is too t
hreatening or too painful.. Rhea is unconsciously denying pain
from the death of her brother because she and her family
could not accept the reality of it; that is why nobody talks
about it and she does not even know how her brother died
(implicitly denying its occurrence). Repression blocks
disturbing thoughts or experiences from conscious
awareness. An unacceptable fear is repressed into the
subconscious mind which then search for a substitute- for
something symbolic to which the original feelings of
anxiety and fear can be transferred into. Rhea must have
repressed the unacceptable fear of her brother’s death and
the lack of her father’s presence and protection. Thus the
subject of her phobia- darkness actually masks her real
fear of insecurity and abandonment by loved ones.




Projection: falsely attributes own unacceptable feelings,
impulses or thoughts to another individual or object. Rhea
has projected her fear and perhaps guilt into something
symbolic – darkness. Introjection – the process of
unconscious appropriation of an external happening or
assimilation of the characteristics of a person into
one's psyche. Rhea has certainly assimilated her mother’s
fear of being alone at night, her mother’ s belief – of her
weak and not protective father and her parents’ attitude
of her brother’s death.




The purpose of psychoanalysis was to bring repressed
memories, fears and thoughts back to conscious
awareness. Relaxation techniques are helpful:
visualization (of floating on a cloud) and deep breathing.
With proper child therapy, usually involving play therapy
in the dark (for darkness phobia), Rhea could have
recovered. The key to resolving phobias is to overcome
them. Therapeutic experiences of realization are used
to show how these mechanisms are no longer appropriate.
When a patient fully understands the repressed feelings,
the fear will become manageable or will disappear.



Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist, wrote about the shadow
aspect of our psychology : every person has a shadow, which
is made up of anything unconscious, repressed, denied or
undeveloped. (Carl Junghttp://en.wikipedia.org /wiki
/Carl_Jung) However, he also claims that this shadow also
contains light - our undeveloped potential and tremendous
creativity. The shadow is therefore an aspect of ourselves
that we should get to know instead of avoiding it. With
proper therapy the phobic individual like Rhea will be
able to resolve her fears in her shadow of darkness that
had impaired her life and activities for too long and
instead unleash her hidden creative potential.


(1503 words)




Reference

Barlow, D.H., & Durand, V.M. (2009, 2005). Abnormal psychology: An integrative approach (5th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.


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Berryhill, K. Three Major Concepts of Psychoanalytic Theory - A Brief Summarization. Retrieved 28 February 2009 http://ezinearticles.com/?Three-Major-Concepts-of-Psychoanalytic-Theory---A-Brief-Summarization&id=1394331

Psychoanalysis: psychopathology ( Mental Disturbances). Retrieved 28 February 2009 http://www.psychotherapy.ro/resources/psychotherapies/psychoanalysis-psychopathology-mental-disturbances/


Cadena, C. (2007). Underlying Cause & Origin of Darkness Phobia in Children. Retrieved 28 February 2009
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/446913/underlying_cause_origin_of_darkness_pg2.html?cat=25


Carl Jung. Retrieved 28 february 2009
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Jung