Effects of Excessive Use of Defense Mechanisms

In the essay “When I Woke Up Tuesday Morning It Was Friday” Martha Stout explains how people feel when they experience the trauma of self-dissociation, through the case studies of her patients. In her essay “An Army of One: Me” Jean Twenge discusses about how self-esteem plays a role in the society and how it impacts the society. Both of these authors have woven their texts around the same theme which is ‘self ’. The self-dissociation which Stout illustrates in her essay is one extreme of the self. When people self-dissociate their minds go in one way while their body is still in the place where they were. These people don’t feel like they are in a normal condition. Overly enhanced self-esteem or narcissism, which is the eventual consequence of the overly enhanced self-esteem, is the other extreme of the ‘self’. Highly self-esteemed people think their point is always correct and they always deserve the best. Defense mechanisms are coping techniques used by people to relieve them from psychological trauma they experience when they fail to accomplish something. When people try to use defense mechanism excessively it will most probably lead to a life with severe hardships. Both self-dissociation and overly enhanced self-esteem are results of over usage of defense mechanisms; this will lead them to think their mind is far apart or different from their true selves. It will be difficult for both overly enhanced self-esteemed and self-dissociated people to have a day-to-day life in the society. They will struggle to find their place in the society and interconnect with others, because they are lacking the main component of social building, which is making social ties with others. Thinking that their mind is far apart or different from t...

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...n with others. It will make them vulnerable in building a relationship. Due to their vulnerability in social building these people don’t try to mingle with others and they try to keep everything inside them. They will not try to share any knowledge or resources that they have. It will be difficult for these people to succeed in their life as a person because they lack social interaction but social interaction is an important factor in succeeding in the life. To avoid the deficiency in the social interaction portraying the true self of a person is essential. Through being the person that they are, people can build a good community. Although it may be difficult especially in case of self-dissociation people should believe in themselves and reveal the ability that they have instead of faking their identity. This will create people who can build a society with harmony.