WHY DO I RESPOND TO THE PROBLEMS OR WHERE DO THE INJURIES COME FROM?

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Have you noticed that sometimes people react to the same unpleasant event in completely different ways?

This is especially noticeable in large teams. For example, having learned about the impending mass dismissal, one person quietly continues to do his job, as if nothing had happened, another scolds the worthless leaders, although yesterday he admired the policy of the leadership, the third walks with a beaming face and broadcasts to everyone and everything that everything that doesn't happen is for the best.

How can this be explained?

Individual characteristics are too general an explanation. It would be more accurate to say in this case that each person cited in the example has his own individual way to cope with the problem that has arisen. In other words, each person protects himself from the problem as best he can.

Life presents us with surprises and problems every day. These surprises are often so unexpected and independent of our actions and thoughts that they do not fit into the constructed life plans at all. Plans are crumbling, and with them the usual safe and comfortable world. A person remains on the verge of his psychological ability to survive.

If a person did not have the opportunity to experience such surprises, then his life would end much earlier than old age.

Therefore, the human psyche is formed in such a way that special PSYCHOLOGICAL PROTECTIONS are created for experiencing unpleasant surprises.

On the one side,

psychological defenses are nothing more than global, healthy, regular, adaptive ways of experiencing this unstable, sometimes sudden, unplanned and independent world, i.e. objective reality

The phenomena that are called psychological defenses, in this case, rather conditionally, have many useful functions. They manifest as healthy, creative adaptations and continue to function throughout life. Thanks to them, the psyche can more flexibly experience life disappointments and dissatisfaction.

On the other hand, psychological defenses are especially vividly manifested and exposed when protecting one's own “I” from any threat.

“A person whose behavior is defensive in nature unconsciously seeks to perform one or both of the following tasks:

1. Avoid or master some powerful threatening feeling - anxiety, sometimes extreme grief or other disorganizing emotional experiences;
2. Maintain self-esteem. " (Nancy McWilliams)

Over the years, each person individually invents his own psychological defenses. There can be several of them, they can change over the years. But still, some of them become loved ones, the chosen ones. And it is they who determine the character of a person - how he reacts in situations.

“The preferred automatic use of a particular protection or set of protections is the result of a complex interplay of at least four factors:

1. Congenital temperament.
2. The nature of early childhood stress;
3. Defenses for which parents or other significant figures were the models (and sometimes conscientious teachers);
4. Experimentally assimilated the consequences of the use of individual protections”. (Nancy McWilliams)

In the example of dismissal given at the beginning of the article, the first person used such protection as denial, the second - isolation, the third - depreciation.

The defenses are conventionally divided into two levels - immature (primitive) and mature defenses. It is assumed that with growing up, the more primitive defenses that were available for overcoming displeasure in childhood are replaced by more mature defenses that are already available to an adult developed person. However, it also happens that many primitive defenses are used by many adults throughout their lives.

To primitive defenses include those that deal with the boundaries between their own "I" and the outside world. Since they were formed in childhood at the pre-verbal stage of development, they have two qualities - they have insufficient connection with the principle of reality and insufficient consideration of the constancy and separation of objects outside their own "I".

Thus, primitive defenses are used by children and adults who have constant problems with boundaries - both their own and in relation to other people, and problems with the perception of reality - it is more convenient for them to live in a world of fantasies, imaginary reality, imaginary relationships.

These are such defense mechanisms as isolation, denial, omnipotent control, primitive idealization and devaluation, projective and introjective identification, splitting of the ego.

Towards mature defenses include those that work with internal boundaries - between the Ego, the super-ego and the id, or between the observing and experiencing parts of the ego.

In other words, people who use mature defenses experience conflicts in cases where very strict internal rules, restrictions and prohibitions are formed, and internal true desires cannot be released and be realized in a norm acceptable for a given social environment and culture.

Mature defenses include: the queen of defenses - repression, regression, isolation, intellectualization, rationalization, moralization, reactive education, identification, sublimation, etc.

For a simpler understanding, let us consider the formation of the primary mechanisms of psychological defenses.

In infancy, a child, when overexcited or does not get what he wants, even through crying, falls asleep, isolating himself from the problem. This is the harbinger of the first psychological defense - isolation.

Further, growing up in order to somehow cope with the troubles, the child can deny these troubles. "No!" - he says, implying that if he does not admit these troubles, then it did not happen. And this protection is called so - negation.

In early childhood, a child can experience states when he can influence the world around him - after all, in childhood everything is subordinated to his needs and he remembers this as I CAN EVERYTHING. He thinks that he can influence and manage situations and everything will happen the way he wants - protection is called that. almighty control.

Over the years, the child begins to believe that some kind of omnipotent force - maternal or paternal - can protect him from all troubles - and this forms idealization with her faithful companion - depreciation.

Over the years, newer mature psychological defenses are formed, some are transformed into others, but the essence of protection always remains the same -

give an opportunity to survive a problematic crisis situation

In other words, if the psychological defense is developed and used correctly, then the problem situation is not experienced critically for a person, and life goes on more or less calmly and evenly.

“Everything that is not done is for the better,” the person from the above example says confidently, looking for a new job, finding it and using his strategy further in life.

The real problem arises when, for living and experiencing a "life surprise", all psychological defenses in a person's arsenal do not work, do not fulfill their function - to protect the psyche from traumatic experiences.

Freud said in this regard: “ Such excitements from the outside, which are strong enough to break the defense against irritation, we call traumatic. I believe that the concept of trauma includes the concept of impairment of protection against irritation. "

Analytical therapy enables people who experience suffering and difficulties in experiencing critical life situations and traumatic experiences to understand all aspects of their own “I”, including psychological defenses used but not productive in this situation, and to expand the horizon of their psychological capabilities.

In the following articles, I will try to consider the main defense mechanisms in more detail using examples from therapeutic practice.

Best wishes, Svetlana Ripka.