4 Defense Mechanisms

HSP Journal #1 - Four Defense Mechanisms Defense mechanisms are used when our ego is threatened; when a conflict between the superego and id cause the ego to be contradicted. These defense mechanisms allow us to redirect the negative emotions that stem from these situations, and allow us to escape from our failures. Sigmund Freud identified many defense mechanisms that we use, but the most common four are rationalization, displacement, repression, and projection. Rationalization is the use of excuses to divert our failures away from ourselves and create explanations for them. We deeply believe in these excuses, and they allow us to feel better about our losses. Displacement is the outburst of negative feelings towards a person that is unrelated to those thoughts. It is a way to get rid of built up anger when it is not possible to direct these feelings to the person who caused them. Repression is when negative thoughts or feelings are pushed back into the subconscious mind, to forget and escape from them. These may resurface at a later time, when a situation related to these feelings occurs. Projection is seeing negative traits that we have ourselves, in others. These negative feelings occur when someone else may have traits that you have …show more content…
I believe I will be more aware when I use one of these defense mechanisms, and I will try to avoid thinking in those directions. I think it is very significant to learn about these defense mechanisms, as they allow us to identify many trends in our lives, and how we can be more empathetic by straying from these negative thoughts of others. If we learn more about ourselves, we can also learn to understand others better, and I believe it is very important that common defense mechanisms are taught so everyone can think twice before they use