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The Ego and Its Defenses

Sometimes overwhelmed by threats it is unable to control, the ego becomes flooded with anxiety and takes extreme measures to relieve the pressure so that it can continue functioning. These measures, called defense mechanisms, operate unconsciously and deny, falsify, or distort reality. Defense mechanisms include repression, regression, rationalization, projection, displacement, reaction formation, and sublimation. The most frequently used and most powerful defense mechanism, repression, is the pushing away of threatening thoughts, feelings, and memories into the unconscious mind: unconscious forgetting. Regression is the retreat to an earlier level of development characterized by more immature, pleasurable behavior. Rationalization is offering socially acceptable reasons for our inappropriate behavior: making unconscious excuses. Projection is attributing our own undesirable thoughts, feelings, or actions to others. Displacement is shifting unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or actions from a more threatening person or object to another, less threatening person or object. Displacement is sometimes depicted in cartoons with the boss yelling at an employee, then the employee going home and yelling at the kids, then the kids taking it out on a toy or pet. Reaction formation is acting in a manner exactly opposite to our true feelings. Reaction formation is exemplified by the new mother who really wants to be back at work as a highly paid lawyer, but stays home instead, showering all of her attention on her child. Sublimation is the redirection of unacceptable sexual or aggressive impulses into more socially acceptable behaviors. For example, home from a date with a sexy man she didn’t have sex with, Jan plays her flute.

Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual Development

For Freud, the first 5 years of life are critical for the formation of personality. In each stage of Freud’s theory of psychosexual development, the pleasure center moves to a different area of sensitivity, or erogenous zone, and an unconscious conflict occurs. Freud believed that if the conflict was not resolved well, libido or life energy would become fixated at the pleasure center of that stage and became a permanent part of the adult personality. To help prevent fixation, parents need to be sensitive to the young child’s needs in each stage, but not overly indulgent.

• Freud named stage 1 (0–1 year) the oral stage. During this stage, the infant receives pleasure and nourishment from the mouth and explores the world first by sucking, then later by biting and chewing. Pleasure derived from oral stimulation can lead to adult pleasure in acquiring knowledge or possessions. When the mother weans the child from her breast or the bottle, the conflict develops. If withdrawal causes especially traumatic separation anxiety in the infant, Freud thought it could lead to a fixation; either oral-dependent personality, characterized by gullibility, overeating, and passivity; or oral-aggressive personality, characterized by sarcasm and argumentativeness later in life.

• In stage 2 (1–3 years), the anal stage, the child obtains pleasure from defecation at the anus. When the child is being toilet trained, the conflict develops. Freud claimed that very strict and inflexible methods of toilet training may cause the child to hold back feces and become constipated. Generalized to other aspects of behaving, the anal-retentive personality is marked by compulsive cleanliness, orderliness, stinginess, and stubbornness. Alternately, such toilet training may cause the child to become angry and expel feces at inappropriate times, which may generalize to an anal-expulsive personality marked by disorderliness, messiness, and temper tantrums. If a child is praised extravagantly for bowel movements, the child may acquire the concept that producing feces is important, which can generalize to creativity and productivity.

• During stage 3 (3–5 years),