by Ruth Snowden
The ego is seen as being rather weak in comparison with the id, but it is better organized and more logical, so that it usually maintains a tenuous upper hand.
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Insight
Defence mechanisms are unconscious ways of protecting the ego against undesirable effects. They help us to cope with the anxieties of life, and defend our self-image. Sometimes of course they are overdone, and then they can lead to problems. For example we have all met people who are ‘over-defensive’ and end up becoming aggressive.
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Freud explains, somewhat confusingly, that the ego is part of the id that develops in order to cope with threats from the outside world. It is related to the system he refers to as the ‘perceptual-conscious’, which he sees as the most superficial portion of the mental apparatus. This could be described as a kind of protective skin which provides us with external perceptions at the same time as giving information about what is going on in the interior mind. This information is essential for the id because otherwise it would ignore the influence of the outer world and eventually be destroyed in one way or another in its blind pursuit of selfish satisfaction. For example, you need to learn that you can’t just dash across the road to a cake shop without first checking to see if you will get run over by a bus. In other words, the main function of the ego is that of reality testing: it replaces the primitive pleasure principle of the id with a new reality principle, which ultimately promises more certainty and greater success in accomplishing goals.
Freud compares the ego and the id with a rider and his horse. The horse supplies the motor energy, but the rider decides where to go. The ego constantly has to devise little plans to satisfy the id in a controlled way. For example, a child is hungry but learns that it will have to wait until teatime until it gets a slice of cake. The problem-solving and reality-testing activities of the ego, which allow the id to take care of its needs as soon as an appropriate object can be found, are what Freud referred to as secondary process.
The super-ego
Some of Freud’s patients suffered from delusions of being watched. Freud suggests that in a sense they were right, and that in each of us there is an agency that observes our behaviour and threatens to punish us – a sort of inner grown-up. In the delusional patients, this agency could simply have become sharply divided from the ego and mistaken for external reality.
A very young child is amoral and has little sense of inhibition. Any controls over its behaviour are provided by the parents and other carers who look after it. In normal development this state of affairs slowly changes. As the ego struggles to keep the id happy, it constantly meets up with both obstacles and helpers in the external world. It keeps a track record of these, and also of rewards and punishments that it has encountered, particularly from parents and other adults. This is how the super-ego develops: gradually a sort of inner parent evolves and the child develops feelings of guilt and of being watched and controlled. One aspect of this super-ego is what we would call the conscience – the part of ourselves that tells us what is right and what is wrong and judges our behaviour accordingly; but the super-ego also carries out self-observation, which is an essential preliminary to the judging process.
This is the work of the super-ego:
It gives us our sense of right and wrong, pride and guilt.
It often gets us to act in ways that are acceptable to the society, rather than to the individual. For example, it might make a person feel guilty for having extra-marital sex. The super-ego incorporates the teachings of the past and of tradition, imparting a sense of morals.
It monitors behaviour, decides what is acceptable and controls taboo areas, by means of repression. The fact that a person may not be aware of this repression shows that parts of the super-ego can operate unconsciously. In fact, Freud says that large parts of both the ego and the super-ego are normally unconscious.
It allows the ego to measure itself and strive towards ever-greater perfection.
It is rather bossy, always demanding perfection of the ego. In fact, it can be quite severe with the poor ego, humiliating it, ill-treating it and threatening it with dire punishments. Freud observed this sort of thing in his melancholic patients.
The super-ego develops from and gradually takes the place of parental authority – observing, threatening and directing the ego in the same way as the parents did. Oddly, however, it seems to make a one-sided choice here, and seems not to regulate behaviour by means of loving care and encouragement. This is strange, given that the super-ego is all about what Freud calls the ‘higher side’ of human life and the striving towards perfection.
The super-ego develops as the Oedipus complex begins to be resolved, but if the resolution of the Oedipus complex is incomplete, the super-ego will remain stunted in its strength and growth and the child will remain over-identified with its parents. In the normal course of development, as the repression of Oedipal urges begins, the child feels a mixture of love, fear and hostility towards the parents.
The way the super-ego works is in a sense opposite to that of the id: the id just wants to satisfy the needs of the individual, regardless of what society wants. Like the ego, large parts of the super-ego can operate in unconscious ways. Freud acknowledges that the distinctions between id, ego and super-ego are not easy to grasp and that the three are not always sharply separated. If an adult has achieved a reasonably mature, mentally healthy personality, the id, ego and super-ego will be acting in a balanced way.
Freud explains that the child’s super-ego is not really constructed on a model of the parents themselves, but rather of the parents’ super-ego. In this sense it represents handed-down traditions and value judgements and so is a mirror for the workings of society itself. Freud defines a psychological group as a group of people who have introduced the same person into their super-ego and therefore, on the basis of this common element, identify with one another. Mankind never lives fully in the present, but is affected by inherited ideologies that are very slow to change. To understand the super-ego more fully would be to gain insight into many problems in the social behaviour of mankind, such as delinquency. Freud says that there is probably great variation among individuals in the development of the different parts of the psyche. The intention of psychoanalysis is really to strengthen the ego and make it more independent of the super-ego, so that it can widen its scope and take over fresh areas of the id. This is a huge task.
Anxiety
Conflicts between the different aspects of the personality result in anxiety and stress. Only the ego can produce and feel anxiety, which acts as an alarm signal that something is wrong. Anxiety can arise from blocked libido and thus give rise to repression.
Freud identified three types of anxiety:
Realistic anxiety arises from real events in the external world, perceived by the ego. It is associated with increased sensory attention and muscular tension. This is what we would normally call fear.
Neurotic anxiety arises from impulses that are flooding from the id, and often seems enigmatic and unfocused. It is not necessarily connected with external events in the real world. It can be observed in three different conditions:
as free floating, general apprehensiveness – ‘something might happen’
attached to certain ideas in so-called phobias – here the anxiety is exaggerated out of all proportion
in hysteria and other forms of severe neurosis.
Moral anxiety arises from the super-ego – it is the voice of the conscience, telling us when something is ‘improper’. This kind of anxiety involves feelings of shame or guilt, and a fear of punishment.
Anxiety from all three sources feels similar, and in fact anxiety can arise from a mixture of different sources at the same time. Anxiety is closely associated with feelings of guilt; it can also present itself in the form of phobias and hysteria. Hysterical anxiety can come as a very severe attack, which does not necessarily have an obvious source in the external world.
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bsp; Freud says that the commonest cause of anxiety is sexual frustration. This begins in infancy, when the mother is not present, or the infant sees an unfamiliar face. (Remember that Freud says that the child sees the mother as the sex object at this stage – see Chapter 7.) In such circumstances the infant is not able to control his libidinal excitation and therefore converts it into anxiety. In adult life, anxiety shows up in cases of hysteria and other neuroses. Freud says that the process in the child and the adult is similar: in the adult process a portion of libido becomes unavailable, because it is attached to a repressed idea.
Freud observed a highly significant relation between the generation of anxiety and the formation of neurotic symptoms. For example, someone who suffers from agoraphobia (fear in and of open spaces) may begin by having an anxiety attack in the street. He later restricts the functioning of his ego by developing the agoraphobic symptoms, thus avoiding further anxiety attacks.
A particular source of anxiety is attached to each developmental stage. For example, at the phallic stage it is the fear of castration that causes anxiety, and at the latency stage it is a developing fear of the super-ego. As the ego gets stronger and more clearly defined the anxieties weaken, but traces of them usually remain. Neurotics remain infantile in their attitude to danger and consequently suffer a great deal of anxiety.
Defence mechanisms
Defence mechanisms arise in order to protect the ego from too much anxiety. Without them, the anxiety could become a threat to mental health, which would be counterproductive. So, by means of various defence mechanisms the ego blocks impulses, or distorts them into more acceptable and less threatening forms. Defence mechanisms are used unconsciously and within reason they are healthy. However, if they are over-active, they become damaging because they require a lot of mental effort to sustain them and mask issues that really need to be resolved. In fact they become a strategy for hiding from anxiety.
The term ‘defence mechanism’ covers a variety of behaviours observed by analysts, such as repression, forgetting things, and mannerisms such as nervous tics. Freud and others, such as his daughter Anna, identified many different defence mechanisms, some of which we will now have a look at.
REPRESSION
This is one of the most common defence mechanisms and forms the basis for many of Freud’s theories. Undesirable information about a person, a situation, or an event becomes locked away in the unconscious, so repression is really a form of forgetting. The advantage of repression is that we do not have to deal with painful feelings and memories. People can lose whole blocks of time in this way after a traumatic event. Conscious efforts to recall events have no effect. This can apply both to emotional traumas and traumas caused by external events such as war. The disadvantage of repression is that we are denying reality, and this will eventually give rise to behavioural problems and symptoms such as phobias. Repression is often used in combination with other defence mechanisms.
DENIAL
Denial is closely related to repression, but this time the person refuses to accept the reality of a situation. This is sometimes acceptable as a short-term defence, but it becomes dangerous if the situation is never properly dealt with. For example, a person may find a suspicious lump somewhere on their body and, fearing it might be cancer, may forget all about it rather than going to the doctor. Denial may occur by itself or, like repression, in conjunction with other defence mechanisms.
Denial is often used by children, for example, a small child may come into the room with chocolate all round his mouth and adamantly deny having touched the birthday cake on the kitchen table. A closely related defence mechanism is denial in fantasy, which is also common in children and occurs when they turn the undesirable reality into something they can cope with, for example an aggressive father may be seen as a cuddly teddy bear.
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Insight
Denial is a defence mechanism that everyone is familiar with. For example we talk about someone being ‘in denial’ when they have recently been bereaved and are not ready to accept the reality of the situation. This is another example of how Freud’s ideas have become absorbed into everyday understanding.
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DISPLACEMENT
Displacement is another common defence mechanism that arises as a result of repression. Because a person cannot release a basic feeling such as anger, it builds up and is then directed towards another person, animal or object that has nothing to do with the original situation. For example, a man may have a bad day at work and, rather than confront the boss, will go home and kick the dog or shout at the wife. In this way, the original impulse is directed onto a substitute target, which is seen as being safer in some way.
This can happen with love as well as anger; for example, someone who is unable to have a normal relationship with another human being may lavish all his affection on a pet. Sexual desire for a particular person may find a substitute object in a fetish.
Displacement can also appear passively, where the person constantly complains and demands attention. The mystifying, inscrutable silence conveying the unspoken message that one has ‘done something’ can be another of its unpleasant passive variations.
There is also a special form of displacement called ‘turning against the self’. In this case, the substitute target is the self. Unfortunately, this usually happens with negative feelings that we refuse to acknowledge, such as hatred, contempt, anger and aggression. It gives rise to feelings of self-hatred, depression and inferiority. In more extreme cases this may lead to physical self-abuse.
PROJECTION
Projection is almost a combination of denial and displacement. It is once again a result of repression and is almost the opposite of turning against the self. This time the person is unable to recognize the reality of their own behaviour or feelings. The result is that taboo urges or faults are projected outwards onto another person. For example, the bossiest member of the household covers up by accusing one of the others of being bossy.
Projection.
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Insight
Projection is a particularly interesting (and irritating!) defence mechanism whereby taboo urges or faults are attributed to someone else. It is often used as a means of sneakily shifting the blame.
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Sometimes, when somebody complains frequently about a trait that they despise in other people it will be strongly present in their own psyche. So, the desires or faults are present in that person but can be denied because they have been identified in someone else. This can happen with group psychology as well as with individuals.
Closely related to projection is ‘altruistic surrender’, where a person tries to fulfil their needs vicariously, through other people. In extreme cases, most commonly in women, the person may lead their whole life putting other’s needs before their own.
INTROJECTION
Also called ‘identification’, introjection involves absorbing someone else’s personality characteristics into your own personality to compensate for some emotional shortfall. We have already met this mechanism, because it is actually the mechanism by which the super-ego develops. It is seen in small children who tell their cuddly animals not to be afraid of the dark. During the teenage years, this behaviour becomes very common when people identify with their favourite film stars or pop idols.
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Insight
People whose ego boundaries are weak or as yet undefined (in other words their sense of self is poor) are more likely to use introjection as a defence mechanism.
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A related mechanism – ‘identification with the aggressor’ – is a version of introjection that focuses on negative or feared traits. For example, a child may cope with growing up with an abusive father by covering up its fear and imitating the aggressive behaviour. An extreme example of this is Stockholm syndrome, named after a hostage crisis in Sweden when the hostages became very sympathetic towards their captors, rather than being angry at what they
had done to them.
FANTASY
Most people indulge in a certain amount of fantasy and daydreaming in order to make life more bearable. This is perfectly normal and can actually be quite positive – for example, dreaming of that holiday in Spain might motivate you to work a little harder. It is only harmful when a person can no longer separate fantasy from reality. When this happens a person may spend so much psychic energy on fantasy that they do not address things that are blocking progress in real life.
RATIONALIZATION
Here a person finds an excuse for their behaviour that is more acceptable to the ego than the real reason. For example, the driver of a car might say: ‘I took the wrong turning there because I was so busy trying to avoid that wretched cyclist who was all over the road.’ This conveniently covers up the fact that actually they were not paying attention to where they were going in the first place. Some people can invent volumes of lies that neatly let them off the hook and allow them to avoid responsibility and guilt.
REGRESSION
Regression is another defence mechanism that we have already met. Here the person reverts back to an earlier behaviour or developmental stage that feels safe or comforting. We all tend to do it if we feel ill or upset. It is very common in children who want more attention, perhaps because of a new baby, or because their parents are getting divorced. Adults sometimes go into a severe regression after a ghastly trauma, and may even curl up into a foetal position.