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Ego Defense Mechanism: A Psychological Analysis

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Introduction Psychoanalyst and personality theorist, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), described anxiety as a feeling of danger and threat to which the ego must respond. Even though the original threat, emanates from the psychic energy of other parts of the personality, id and superego, nonetheless, a protection or defense must be launched. “The ego must reduce the conflict between the demands of the id and the strictures of society or the superego” (Schultz & Schultz, 2013). It is the ego that decides the best way to satisfy the impulses of the id and superego, choosing one or two defense mechanisms to deploy within its’ behavior. Authors, Schultz and Schultz (2013) describe two such defense mechanisms as: • Rationalization A defense mechanism …show more content…

p 54 Ego Defense Mechanisms A description of a situation in which someone may experience a conflict between the impulses of the id and superego, creating a state of anxiety, includes; a contentious relationship between a mother and daughter. Unconsciously, anxiety triggers feelings of frustration, anger, and aggression in which the daughter believes her mother is at fault for the behavior. This blame occurs whether the triggering event was real or perceived by the daughter, sometimes these feelings have no basis of fact. In this situation, the ego may use a projection defense mechanism against the perceived attack. For example; a woman’s anxiety rises to a point of attacking her mother’s credibility during a family gathering. She projects onto her mother the reasons for the anxiety, even though there was no corresponding event that anyone else could …show more content…

48). These basic instincts manifests from separate parts of the personality into a psychic energy triggering anxiety. Subsequently, the ego’s response, the deployment of defense mechanisms. Therefore, erratic and aggressive behaviors within a personality follow the threat of attack. Furthermore: “All the interests, preferences, and attitudes we display as adults were believed by Freud to be displacements of energy from the original objects that satisfied the instinctual needs” (2013,

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