PSYC 3140 Lecture 68: PSYC 3140 Lecture 68
9 May 2018
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PSYC 3140
Lecture 68
1. Ego Defense mechanisms
a. To deal with neurotic and moral anxiety, the ego must use
processes that Freud called the ego defense mechanisms.
b. all ego defense mechanisms distort reality, and operate on the
unconscious level—that is, a person is unaware of the fact that he
or she is using one.
c. Types of Ego Defense mechanisms
i. Repression is the fundamental ego defense mechanism because it
is involved in all other defense mechanisms.
1. Repressed ideas enter consciousness only when they
are disguised enough that they do not cause anxiety.
2. Modified repressed ideas show up in dreams, in
humor, in physical symptoms, during free association,
and in parapraxes.
ii. displacement is another very important defense mechanism
because it is found almost everywhere in psychoanalytic theory,
1. In general, displacement involves replacing an object
or goal that provokes anxiety with one that does not.
iii. Sublimation is a process that occurs when a displacement involves
substituting a nonsexual goal for a sexual one. Freud considered
sublimation to be the basis of civilization.
