Sigmund Freud Id Ego Defense Essay

Freud stated an individual has three levels of awareness: the id, ego, and superego. The id is concerned with fulfilling a person’s needs and wants. Additionally, the ego, then tries to satisfy the id’s impulses and decrease tension. Id impulses are normally unacceptable and can be threatening, so the ego’s job is to keep id impulses in the unconscious. Lastly, the superego works with the ego to suppress those impulses and helps the ego perform ethically. The basic idea regarding “ego-defense” is for the ego to take care of undesirable thoughts and actions. The ego’s duty is to protect itself from unacceptable and threatening impulses. By the ego making an effort to keep this threatening material out of the consciousness ultimately the ego …show more content…
Thirdly, moral anxiety takes place when there is a threat to the superego. Anxiety can be conscious or unconscious. With these points in mind, a defense mechanism can be seen as the ego’s strategies and techniques to keep unacceptable and threatening matter out of the consciousness. Also, there are two basic characteristics that all defense mechanisms share in common. Firstly, they function unconsciously because the individual is not alert that he/she is using a defense mechanism. Secondly, they are able to alter or falsify reality (Ego-Defense Mechanisms, p. 35). In my opinion, the ability to distort reality (to fool yourself) can be an adaptive and maladaptive human trait. I think it depends on how often someone may use it and how old the person is that is using that defense mechanism. For example, I think if a defensive mechanism is used past a suitable age it can be a maladaptive human trait. Such as denial, you see most younger children use denial because they do not know how to use more sophisticated defense mechanisms, but an older adult should not rely heavily on denial because they are able to use more sophisticated defense