Month: February 2020

Sigmund Freud is famous for being the founder of psychoanalysis and introducing multiple new psychology theories, the most enduring of which was the notion that the human psyche is composed of 3 parts. This theory is commonly depicted as a devil and angel on someone’s shoulder, signifying a bad side and a good side, with the person in the middle to manage the two. This is the premise of Freud’s theory, every person’s psyche consists of an id, ego and superego, and each one contributes to decisions made by the said person.

Firstly, the id is the primitive and impulsive part of our psyche, and responds directly to needs and desires. When humans are first born, they only possess and id, later on they develop an ego and a superego. The id is not in touch with reality or logic, it simply compels a person to do what they want, regardless of consequences or repercussions. In the example of a devil and angel on someone’s shoulder, the id is represented by the devil due to its reckless and disregarding nature.

Secondly, the superego is the inherent good in a person that has been instilled or molded by figures such as parents, teachers and society. The superego is a direct counter to the id, for example if someone decides to give into the id and do something wrong, the superego will respond through guilt or shame. The superego is responsible for compelling people to make the morally right decision based on society’s and other’s expectations. In the example of the devil and angel, the superego is represented by the angel, due to the “ideal self” that it promotes.

Finally, the ego, or the self. The ego is the middle ground between the id and the superego, and is represented by the person who’s shoulders the angel and devil are standing on. The ego is responsible for compromising between the reckless id and the over idealistic superego. Like the id, the ego prioritizes obtaining the pleasure it desires. Unlike the id, and like the superego, the ego takes into account societal norms and morality. Unlike the superego, the ego is logical and realistic when processing a course of action. Essentially, without the ego and superego, we are all children. without the id and ego, we are all unrealistic. Without the id and superego, we have no desire or morals. All 3 components are critical, and without them, humans would not be the way are they.

Life is obviously full of sad events, angering situations, and times of stress. Sometimes, these bad components blur together and it becomes too much for people to keep their stability without implementing subconscious mental defense mechanism to cope. There are too many mental defense mechanism to talk about in this blog alone, so instead I will focus on the 3 that I deem most common, interesting and used by myself.

First, and the most common, is denial. Most people have heard the phrase, “You’re in denial”, and that is because most people use this mechanism to cope with troubling times. The premise of denial is simple, don’t think about what is troubling you. For example, if a family members passes away, instead of thinking about memories spent with them, people will attempt to remove them from memory as this may be less painful than thinking about them only to realize they are gone. This is the reason some people may choose to skip a funeral of a family member, as this tradition may legitimize the fact that the person is no longer living, thus amplifying the pain of the grieving.

Second, and to me the most interesting is displacement. Displacement is when someone redirects their sadness, anger or stress towards another person. I find this defense mechanism strange because it provides no relief to the person. For example, if a student is angry about getting a poor grade on their exam, they may go back to their dorm and take out this anger on their roomate. Small things that are usually not an issue may result in an argument. My roommate did this to me once as he came back from Pollock testing center to find a few of my notebooks on his desk. Normally, this would be no big deal but the result of his exam caused him to shift his anger from his to grade towards me. However, unlike denial, displacement did not provide emotional protection from his grade, nor did it help him restore a sense of calmness like the next mechanism, sublimation.

Sublimation is the mental defense mechanism I find myself subconsciously implementing most often. Sublimation is redirecting emotions into an activity that is comfortable and safe. I find that this usually helps restore confidence and allows me to clear my head before I determine how I want to proceed with the problem. For an example, if someone has gone through a break up, a person using denial would attempt to erase them from memory, a person using displacement would become resentful towards their friends, a person using sublimation would engage in activities they enjoy to help stabilize themselves adjust to the change happening in their life. I personally think this is best method as it is a positive mechanic, using consistent activities to cope with a changing life unlike negative mechanics such as denial and displacement. So, next time you are feeling sad, angry or stressed, think about doing things you enjoy to clear your head before you decide how to proceed with handling a situation as opposed to going into denial or taking out your emotions on others, your friends, family and mind will thank you for it.

 

 

During the Nuremberg Trials, the primary defense of Nazi war criminals were that they were following orders from their superiors. Their reasoning to judges was that they knew what they were doing was wrong, but they exercised obedience to their commanding officers for fear of retaliation. Years after the a Trials in 1963, Yale phycologist Stanley Milgram decided that he wanted to test the Nazis’ court defense and determine where humans draw the line between morality and obedience. In order to do this, Milgram took out an ad in a newspaper asking for calling for males only, to replicate the mindset of Nazi soldiers, to participate in a study of learning. Participants were not told the parameters of the study, and were paid $4.50 to show up. Participants were paired with another person who was not actually another participant, they were actors hired by Milgram but the real participant was not aware of this. Then, the participant and actor would draw straws to see who would be the teacher and who would be the learner. The draw was rigged to make the participant the teacher, and the actor the learner. Next, the learner was strapped to a chair with electrodes ranging from a slight shock to a severe shock. The shocks were actually fake but the participants did not know this. The teacher was given a list of words to read to the learner, and the learner would have to select the matching word from a 4 different options. If the learner got the question wrong, which the actors often did on purpose, the teacher was instructed to give them an electric shock, with shocks increasing in velocity for each wrong answer. Once the fake shocks started to get to a dangerous level, a few participants refused to continue increasing the voltage for fear of “harming” their “partner”. If a teacher refused, they were met with one, or all four of these prods spoken by Milgram:

Prod 1: Please continue.

Prod 2: The experiment requires you to continue.

Prod 3: It is absolutely essential that you continue.

Prod 4: You have no other choice but to continue.

After receiving these prods, 65% of participants continued to the highest shock voltage available. In Milgram’s mind, this proved his theory that the Nazi soldiers were being truthful when they said they knew what they were doing was wrong, but decided to be obedient to their superior officers. The experiment was replicated 18 times, and each time yielded similar results that supported the conclusion that obedience is more powerful than morality.

Works Consulted :

Mcleod, Saul. “The Milgram Experiment.” Milgram Experiment | Simply Psychology, Simply Psychology, 5 Feb. 2017, www.simplypsychology.org/milgram.html.