Defense Mechanism Paper

Defense mechanisms is an individual’s way of dealing with unpleasant thoughts, behaviors and feelings (Cramer, 2009). It is a coping technique used to deal with such feelings of hatred, aggression to name a few. According to Burger (2015), the ego has many ways to deal with unpleasant thoughts and desires, which are called defense mechanisms (Burger, 2015). The ego uses defense mechanisms to protect the unconscious mind. In order to deal with conflict and problems that we may face defense mechanisms such as repression, sublimation, displacement, and denial all assist the ego to ward of what is considered to be unpleasant feelings. According to Cramer (2000), states that defense mechanism in psychology began with Freud and further explored

Repression plays a vital role in humans coping with unpleasant feelings. Burger (2015), states that repression is the cornerstone of psychoanalysis and is the most important defense mechanism (Burger, 2015). Repression is the unconscious defense mechanism used by the ego to prevent threatening or disturbing thoughts from reaching an individual’s consciousness. Repression is used to help individuals deal with situations that are traumatizing that they would prefer to forget. Repression helps people to bury painful events in their life, such as witnessing physical abuse of a parent, or being molested as a child. It explains why many times children that have been abused have a hard time remembering the abuse as

One public figure that uses defense mechanisms to deal with issues is President Barack Obama. Denial is a defense mechanism that is used by the President. An example of this is the current immigration problem in the United States. Immigration was an issue when the President took office and it is still an issue now. He doesn’t acknowledge the problem. He refuses to accept reality that it is an issue. Another situation is Whitney’s denial of having a drug problem. Whitney did drugs for years but denied being addicted to drugs. Despite the fact that Whitney had heart disease and a hole in her septum she continued to abuse drugs and alcohol. Repression can be seen in Chris Brown, who observed domestic violence and was abused by his stepfather. According to Miller (2009), in 2007 Chris Brown revealed he had a history with abuse (Miller, 2009). Displacement can be seen at basketball games with LaBron getting angry at a call made by the referee and instead of saying something to the referee he would take his frustration out on the chairs and lash out at his fellow team mates. Another example of displacement is Kanya West disrespecting Taylor Swift at the MTV Awards. Kanya took his frustration out on Taylor, even though he was angry with MTV. Taylor Swift was just the target that West used to vent his frustrations. Sublimation can be seen in Kobe Bryant, Bryant claims he