Correct Answer - Option 3 : sublimation
Defense Mechanism: Anxiety comes from realistic sources in the external world and conflict within one’s own mind. A common conflict is when the id desires something that the ego and/or superego do not agree with. An important function of the ego is to operate defense mechanisms. Psychological defenses are the way we deal with anxiety
Sublimation: According to Freud, sublimation is the highest level of ego-defense and is taken as one of the most constructive defense mechanisms.
- It is a form of the mechanism of substitution in which our acceptable desires or activities are redirected into socially desirable channels.
- For example, a businessman who has been angry over certain events of the day may redirect his energies into games, gardening, or any other manual work.
- It is resolving a conflict by changing a socially objectionable aim to an acceptable one.
- For example, sexual energy is often sublimated into creative tasks and aggression into hard work.
- A writer may sublimate his libido into the creation of a book.
- In fact, Freud has maintained that much of our cultural heritage in terms of literature, music, art and the like is the outcome of sublimation.
- This is how an individual converts his/her negative energies into something creative, positive, and healthy.
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Regression
- Regression involves going back to an old, less sophisticated method of doing things. Whenever a threatening situation arises, an individual may retreat to an earlier form of adaptation, generally a childish or primitive one.
- A five-year-old child may revert to bed-wetting or thumb-sucking on being upset with the arrival of a new baby at home that has apparently reduced his importance in the family.
- Another little 4-year-old girl finding it difficult to cope with the demands of school may go back to ‘baby talk’ or demand cuddling.
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Repression
- As per Freud’s theory, repression is the fundamental technique individuals use to relieve anxiety caused by conflicts.
- Repression is the active mental process by which a person ‘forgets’ by ‘pushing down’ into the unconscious the thoughts causing anxiety. Stated in other words, it involves forgetting emotionally painful memories.
- These painful thoughts may not surface at the conscious level and the person apparently might have forgotten about them, they definitely remain at an unconscious level and may be a cause of certain mental ailments like phobias.
- At times, these ‘forgotten’ thoughts may be reflected in what is commonly termed as ‘slip of tongue’
Hence, we can conclude that the process by which the energies of instinctive nature are utilized on a higher plane of action is called sublimation.
