Repression - Defence Mechanism

Repression is one of the common forms of defence mechanisms. The ego pushes down painful memories deep into the subconscious or certain unapproved desires are pushed down. The conscious mind is not aware of this but however, what has been repressed stays alive deep within and spurts out as bottled up emotions. Repression is also sometimes called as motivated forgetting. Some of the classical examples of repression are - sexual urge felt by a man towards an elderly female is quickly pushed down; an abused child though does not remember the painful abusive days has suppressed the painful memories deep down whereas at a later stages of adulthood the individual will start facing problems in establishing relationships. Unless and until the unconscious memory that has been repressed is brought out the problem faced by the individual in establishing relationships will not be rectified.

Denial - Defense Mechanism

Denial is one of the common forms of defense mechanisms. The subject refuses to accept the reality because it is too painful to digest. This is a simple form of denial. There are various levels of denial. For example one may refuse to accept the loss of a loved one.

The second type is that the person may accept the factual part of the painful event but not the seriousness of the event. This is minimization.

The third type is the acceptance of the fact and the seriousness of the painful event but refusing to take responsibility. This is transference.

Denial as a defence mechanism is often compared to the behavior of the Ostrich which buries its head under the sand in times of danger and pretends as if the danger does not exist.

Denial is one of the Level 1 type defense mechanisms. This does not help the individual to face and handle the painful aspects of life in a practical way. In its milder forms one can deny one's emotions and feelings. For example, one may deny the fact that he/she is angry with someone who is being a constant source of irritation on daily basis.

Study of Denial as the defense mechanism helps a great deal in handling addiction. It is not only in the case of addiction it can also be seen with various life threatening diseases. For instance the patient who had a mild form of heart attack refuses to accept the medical condition leading to the delay of the required treatment.

Defence Mechanism/Defense Mechanisms

Defense/Defence Mechanism

Defence mechanisms are psychological approaches adapted by human beings human response to coping with various situations of life and to retain one's self image. It is not only an individual's approach. There are defence mechanisms employed by groups and countries at a bigger level. All of us, meaning including normal people too use defence mechanisms to handle life at varying degrees. It becomes pathological only when it is taken to its extremes which affects the physical and mental health of the individual. Theory of Ego Defense Mechanisms was postulated by Sigmund Freud.

According to Freudian Psychoanalytic theory, we operate on the basis of pleasure principle, which seeks to immediate gratification of desires. However, it may not be possible to have all the desires gratified immediately which sometimes may have social implications. For example, one might be urged to have sexual relation with an attractive woman/stranger. However, ones ego tries to fight this urge for various reasons. In the process, the desire is pushed down without coming to the conscious level leading to repression which is one form of defense mechanism.

There are a number of defense mechanisms which can be classified as Level 1, Level 2, Level 3 and Level 4 ego defence mechanisms. However, there is no final consensus on the total number of defense mechanisms and their classification.

Auto Writing

Auto writing or automatic writing is performed by an individual not by his conscious efforts but by invoulantry action. The subject does not control the writing or the thought process involved. The writing resulting from auto writing need not be necessarily be legible or even intelligible. It can be anything ranging from scribbling to coherent words, sentences or even paragraphs. No one knows what exactly controls the output. The fact is that a specific result cannot be desired when it is desired, then it may no longer be classified under auto writing as it becomes voluntary writing.

It is some times used by psychiatrists with their patients to get the frustrations buried deep down in the subconscious.

Further Tips on Handling Stage Fear

In the previous post I discussed about a very simple technique to start working on your stage fear, that is performing before a mirror.

As you might have heard already one of the tips is to regularize your breathing pattern and gain control over it before you get on to the podium. You can use simple breathing techniques. One such is to count 1 to 4 when you inhale and exhale. This has to be done in a rhythmic way leading to regularizing your breathing.

When we are tensed we tend to breath faster and this will further stimulate your hormones that prepare you to fight or flee the situation. So by gaining control over your breathing cycle you can reduce the level of tension.

How to handle stage fear?

Stage fear haunts even those professionals who are highly qualified in their own respective fields and have wide ranging experience. However, when it comes to standing up before a crowd and talking, it is a different story. They become tongue tied, sweat a great deal, use wrong words in the wrong place, make grammatical errors in their sentences, become fidgity and even shiver. All these will vanish with constant effort and regular practice. All the above symptoms are because of the over consciousness about their own self and the preoccupation regarding how well they are performing and what others are thinking about their appearance, speech, mannerisms, dress code, voice etc. One of the easiest exercise for the beginners who aspire to become public speakers or who want to make a presentation is to spend 10 to 15 minutes time everyday reading the newspaper aloud standing in front of a mirror. This way you will learn to break the ice on having to speak aloud before a crowd. When you are reading in front of a mirror you can change you can watch yourself and your posture and make necessary changes to present yourself as a confident speaker. There are lot of techniques and tools one can use just not to over come their stage fear but also can excel as public speakers. I am hoping to share in the coming days, some of the techniques those helped me in the early days.