Assignment 1
Contemporary psychological studies give the precise evidence that nowadays individuals often respond to the impulses embracing different defense strategies, ranging in their natures, scope, and efficiency. The practice, in its turn, indicates that the most popular tools are denial, regression, and dissociation. This viewpoint is shared by the overwhelming majority of the academic community nowadays, although multiple dissenting opinions regarding the validity of this statement are being advocated as well. In particular, it is suggested that acting out has evolved into a popular defense solution, always used by the business executives and other intellectually advanced members of the community. This part of the paper illustrates the ways these defense concepts are commonly implemented by the different members of the international community.
However primitive the concept of denial may seem to be, it is still widely employed on all levels of modern life. The most illustrative example on the way this technique is used by the high-profile political communities is the trial of the notorious Iraq leader, Saddam Hussein. When the prosecutors of the National Republican Government were interrogating him, he repeatedly stated that all his abusive actions were a political necessity; therefore they were a subject to political immunity rule. No logical explanations or any causation have ever been analyzed or considered by him, vigorously stating that he was innocent.
Regression, or reversion to a previous level of one’s previous stage of development is a commonly used strategy often utilized by the adolescents or adults to handle the problems, which seem to be insurmountable for them. Failure of Recep Erdogan, the prime minister of Turkey, to promote successful reforms to pacify the Curds, resulted in his statement that he didn’t possess enough organizational experience, since previously he served in the military; therefore was more predisposed to the authoritative style of governance.
Dissociation is often referred to the loss of one’s self or particular timeframes and leads to the appearance of multiple selves. However trivial the example may be, the activity of Adolf Hitler is the most illustrative case study here. This actor simultaneously proclaimed himself a military leader, a god, a prominent political figure, etc.
Assignment 2
This situation presents a typical example of family therapy case. The girlfriend’s desire to socialize with her friends is impeded by her boyfriend’s inexplicable demeanor to minimize such contacts. According to the statements of the girlfriend, these actions of the boyfriend are generated by his past negative experience. The majority of the contemporary cognitive behavior analytists converge in their opinion that this technique is rarely successful and often leads to nothing, but marriage or committed relationships breakdown.
This case study represents a typical example of repression defense mechanism, since it is evident that the respondent unconsciously and consciously blocks her feelings and thoughts to ensure achievement of a particular objective, which, in this case, is her desire to suppress her anger, for whatever cost it may be. To be more exact, this type of defense mechanism is indirectly reinforced by the presence of the undoing defense mechanism, i.e. the endeavors of the patient to block the unconscious behavior, which may happen to be hurtful or personally unacceptable for a typical life situation.
As far as repression aspect is concerned, it is necessary to highlight the fact that the lady deliberately decides to curdle her anger and to take whatever attempts possible not to speak out to her boyfriend. In particular, she admitted that in her endeavor not to hurt his feelings exacerbated by the presence of the negative past experience, she decided to be submissive. The practicing psychological community is unanimous in advocating the opinion that this practice is not efficacious as well.
Addressing the undoing aspect, it is primarily represented by the unwillingness of the boyfriend to allow specific behavior of the girlfriend. In other words, he desires to take back his negative previous experience (it is not mentioned what type of negative experience, but assumedly, a negatively one, which resulted in failure of prolonged committed relationships).
Assignment 3
This part of the assignment illustrates the way the concept of denial can be hypothesized. As instructed, the following defense mechanism is observed in this section. Family consulting seems to be the most fertile area, where the most demonstrative triangle of insight can be identified and subjected to our analysis from.
Hypothetically, a husband has been caught red-handed committing adultery with the wife’s best friend. They have been observed by the wife coming out from the friend’s apartment, hand in hand and with lovely smiles on their faces. The tentative evidence is simple, explicit, and sufficient to charge the husband with adultery accusations, seek a divorce and apply other remedies, involving property division and other lawsuit-related repercussion. Exactly the way Eddy Murphy ridiculed in his “Raw” show, which gained incredible popularity in the United States of America and internationally.
The wife, however, behaves herself often in an unpredictable way. A reasonably prudent person is likely to start a scandal, but wishing to preserve her marriage, the lady employs a denial strategy. She merely dissembles this fact, telling to herself that since her husband predominantly stays with her, their matrimony is not endangered. Obviously, she recognizes two dangers menacing the matrimony: the fact that the adultery can be disclosed, and the imminent lawsuit, if the divorce procedure is eventually initiated. Her compromise is painful and socially unacceptable, but nonetheless explicit. She allows her husband to receive sexual and emotional gratification secretly, for the sake of matrimony preservation and prolongation.
Assignment 4
The unchallenged fact remains the postulate that the contribution of Sigmund Freud to the development of contemporary psychology remains more than decisive. In fact, the unanimous opinion of the practicing psychological luminaries in this regard is that all modern ramifications of psychology are directly or indirectly linked to the research conducted by this distinguished professor. His most notable theoretical concepts are psychosexual theory, defense mechanism exploration and analysis, and personality factors theory.
With regard to the analysis of the psychosexual theory, it is necessary to stress the fact that his personal sexual education has been almost blocked by the traditional composition of the German society of his times and parental upbringing rigorous approach, devotedly advocated by his father. Freud is known to experience his first sex with his wife, and he ultimately reached the conclusion that the desire for sexual gratification with the most socially and financially promising partners is the urge of the predominant importance that drives all our daily activities. This observation has been subsequently confirmed by his professional career and personal objectives. Freud innately sought to substantiate his concept practically, and a significant number of interconnected researches. Most importantly, it is necessary to focus on the fact that his personal goals fully converged with his professional career as a psychologist (Pinel, 2010).
The identification of the popular defense mechanisms resulted primarily from his public life. Sigmund Freud is known to be a public figure of considerable social significance, and had ample opportunities to observe his peers and to conclude on the defense solutions they utilized.
The personality factors that have been identified by him (the concepts of ego, super ego, and cathexis) have been deduced by him in the course of his professional career. It is reported nowadays that these concepts have been composed on the basis of social observation of specific cohorts and future research in this field (Hergenhan, 2005).