Anna And Sigmund Freud: Defense Mechanisms: Ending Anxiety

Defense mechanisms are unconscious procedures aimed at reducing anxiety that arises from different scenarios involving the social environment, conflicts with others, and conflicts with superego values and beliefs. They were first discovered by Sigmund Freud as part of his psychoanalytic theory, and further developed by his daughter, Anna Freud. They discovered unconscious mechanisms, which are part of the mind that contains repressed anxieties, and they are able to protect an individual from psychological pain or anxiety. While such mechanisms may be helpful in the short term they can easily become a substitute for addressing the underlying cause and lead to additional problems. Anna Freud continued her work on defense mechanisms and found out that they work by “changing unacceptable impulses into acceptable forms, or by unconsciously blocking such impulses, thus reducing anxiety” (Freud, Anna). Both Anna and Sigmund Freud state that defense mechanisms are invented to deal with conflicts and problems in life driven by the ego to ward off anxiety or make good things feel

Anna Freud described denial as, “anything the subject says or does that appears to disprove the interpreter’s theory is explained as evidence of the subject being ‘in denial.’” If some situation is too much to handle, the person just refuses to experience it. People can apply this to any bad habit they wish to distance themselves from including excessive substance abuse or alcohol. Denial can be used as a beneficial, protective response, and be used by victims of disasters and other traumas. This is one mechanism that works well with others, and doesn’t result in an unhealthy manner. Denial is proven to be one of the most popular, and most proven to accomplish the purpose of defense