Preview

Sigmund Freud Displacement Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
439 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Sigmund Freud Displacement Essay
Sigmund Freud, the first to suggest everyone has a large unconscious, established the concepts of repression, denial, projection, reaction formation, displacement, and sublimation. Listed are the defense mechanisms used by the ego to avoid recognizing ideas that cause anxiety, and can be considered, negative coping strategies for stress. J.K. Rowling stated, “According to Madam Pomfrey, thoughts could leave deeper scars than almost anything else.” Sigmund Freud would support this statement, dissecting the true impact thoughts can leave on a person using his found defense mechanisms. One Freudian defense mechanism, known as displacement, is an example exercising this idea that human thought can bare the greatest impacts on one’s character. …show more content…
This strategy also draws a distinct line between truth and what one may wish to hold true. Denial to Freud was this idea of lying to ourselves in order to avoid anxiety or stress. One may consider this the psychological manipulation of one’s own mind. Furthermore, this idea of tricking our minds or lying to ourselves can leave scars deep rooted within our unconscious. Repression is a defense mechanism exploited by the unconscious known as the pushing of painful thoughts out of the conscience without realizing it. Repression, although it is done unknowingly rather than intentionally, still preserves the idea of separating reality from one’s make-believe reality in order to protect one’s conscience from its dreaded stress factors. This mechanism may be the inauguration of a long term mental illness. If one does not meet these realities head on, their truths will begin to haunt them. Freud’s defense mechanisms are all examples of human tendency to suppress emotions or ideas causing anxiety. If one constantly puts off the truth and ceases to tackle the internal conflict within their mind, the effects can be exceedingly detrimental in the long run. Power of mind is limitless and by utilizing these negative mechanisms, one is using the power in the wrong way. Therefore, one’s mental propensity to hide from its truth can provoke the deepest scars known to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Another aspect I do not agree with in this paper is the many references to Sigmund Freud’s studies. Sigmund Freud, although influential to many concepts, is no longer a credible source for a scholarly paper because of the many inaccuracies in his works. I recommend including the concepts of other theorists and researchers to add to his claims to further support the thesis. There are many recent sources and concepts to include along with the well-known ideas of Sigmund Freud.…

    • 466 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The psychological defense mechanism in which confrontation with a personal problem or with reality is avoided by denying the existence of the problem or reality is called: Denial…

    • 750 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cited: "Introduction to Sigmund Freud, Module on Repression." College of Liberal Arts : Purdue University. 23 Mar. 2009 .…

    • 1229 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    To Freud, the mind was a mechanistic energy system that derived mental energy from the physical functioning of the body and constantly attempted to moderate this physical effort or tension by restoring it to a quiet steady (quiescent) state. This energy is not evenly distributed to all human purpose or functioning, and if blocked from expression will manifest itself as anxiety, which through cathartic release, prescribes a least resistant path of action. Because anxiety is painful, the mind attempts to cope with this state through a range of defence mechanisms that alter reality and supress feelings that stimulate this state. The mind and its energies (derived from drives or…

    • 808 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    One concept that I learned throughout this course is Freud’s defenses against anxiety. These defense mechanisms are:…

    • 343 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Beh 225

    • 873 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, believed our personalities have roots to our unconscious, all the ideas, thoughts, and feelings we are not aware of (Morris, G., & Maisto, A., 2005). According to Freud, our personalities consist of three separate structures: the id, the ego, and the superego. ID is the only structure present at birth, and functions according to the pleasure principle (obtain pleasure to avoid pain). The ego, id’s link to the environment, operates on self and reality principle and controls conscious ideas, thoughts and feelings. The superego’s function is to be the moral guardian and aids in normal function within the environment (Morris, G., & Maisto, A., 2005). Freud’s belief is that if the superego rejects impulses from the ego, anxiety occurs often leading to the use of defense mechanisms to reduce the discomfort produced by anxiety. Freud contends that these defense mechanisms occur unconsciously.…

    • 873 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Uncanny Analysis

    • 1823 Words
    • 8 Pages

    unconscious mind and the power it has over our minds and fears. Freud maintains that there is…

    • 1823 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This study shows that defence mechanisms formulated by Freud have widespread, if not universal occurrence in human personality processes, irrespective of variations in…

    • 384 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sigmund Freud was referred as being one of the most important thinkers of the last century, according to Time Magazine in 2001. According to an article in Newsweek back in 2006, Sigmund Freud was called “history’s most debunked doctor.” Even though his theories have always been the subject of considerable controversy and debate, his impact on psychology, therapy, and culture is undeniable. (About.com, 2015) Freud believed that when we explain our own behavior to ourselves or others (conscious mental activity) we rarely give a true account of our motivation. This is not because we are deliberately lying. Whilst human beings are great deceivers of others, they are even more adept at self-deception. Our rationalizations of our conduct are therefore disguising the real reasons. Freud’s life work was dominated by his attempts to find ways of penetrating this often subtle and elaborate camouflage that obscures the hidden structure and processes of personality. (Mcleod, 2013) Freud drew heavily upon the emphasis of philosophers such as Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, and Kant. Freud’s theories continue to influence much of modern psychology, and his ideas also resonate throughout philosophy, sociology, and political…

    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    PLR: Acknowledging Anxiety

    • 1154 Words
    • 5 Pages

    As we prefer to see ourselves in ways that are consistent with our self-image, we may usedefense mechanisms like denial or repression in order to feel less threatened by some of what we consider to be our undesirable feelings. A person whose self-concept is incongruent with her or his real feelings and experiences will defend because the truth hurts.…

    • 1154 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Repressed Memories

    • 590 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Today there are different pressured than during Freud’s time. For example, there has been the advent of new recognized conditions, for example PTSD. This is a type of condition that has such a detrimental effect on human behavior that it can even block the “fight or flight” reflex.…

    • 590 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    To deal with conflicts people develop ‘defences’, these include ‘repression’, a form of forgetting, ‘denial’, claiming that something is not upsetting when really it is, and ‘rationalisation’, where a story is created to account for that which feels uncomfortable. ‘Projection’ involves attributing to others characteristics unacceptable to the self, making assumptions about them based on the need to avoid threat. Psychodynamic counselling encourages the client to recognise and accept the troubling attribute, a process called ‘reintrojection’. To engage in…

    • 1123 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sigmund Freud then goes ahead to showcase the society’s effect on the human beings and its psychotic effect on an individual. He purports…

    • 1123 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    n 1984, Ronald Cotton was sentenced to life after found guilty of raping Jennifer Thompson, based on her repressed memory identification of him (OpenStax, 2014). Eleven years later, Cotton was acquitted based on DNA test results that proved his innocence (OpenStax, 2014). This was only one of many incidents that reignited the debates and studies on the Freudian concept of repressed memory in the 1990s. Sigmund Freud pioneered the concept that traumatic memories could be repressed and, for decades, it has been a dominant theme in psychology (OpenStax, 2014). This paper discusses Freud’s repression theory, the controversy it has drawn, and analyses a recent study that debunks the Freudian repression theory that suppressing traumatic memories…

    • 902 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Freud and the Unconscious

    • 1012 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In his essay, “The Unconscious”, Freud introduces a unique perception of human thought, action, interaction and experience. He details a state of dualism that exists in our psychical life in stating, “consciousness includes only a small content, so that the greater part of what we call conscious knowledge must in any case be for very considerable periods of time in a state of latency, that is to say, of being psychically unconscious” (2). He argues that although we are blind to our unconscious mind, it determines a greater part of our behavioural being and participates just as much as psychical activity as our conscious mind. Freud also adds, “In every instance where repression has succeeded in inhibiting the development of affects, we term those affects ‘unconscious’” (7). He states that the unconscious is where repressed desires are stored, ideas that are suppressed from surfacing into the realm of our awareness e.g. we recognise our emotions - we ‘feel’ - because they have moved from amongst the elements of the unconscious mind to the conscious mind.…

    • 1012 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays