Lecture 48- Defense Mechanisms-III — Transcript

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1. 0:17Hello friends, I'm back again. I'm your
2. 0:20course instructor Shubraasha and we are
3. 0:23going to do lecture three of module 10
4. 0:27of the stress management course. In this
5. 0:30module, we are talking about different
6. 0:33kind of defense mechanisms which people
7. 0:36adopt in order to reduce their stress
8. 0:40mainly by focusing on moderating their
9. 0:44emotions.
10. 0:46In this series, we have talked about a
11. 0:49number of defense mechanisms in lecture
12. 0:52one and two and we will learn some more
13. 0:56in this particular lecture.
14. 1:00So I have brought a list of the defense
15. 1:04mechanisms we are going to talk about
16. 1:07and these are projection,
17. 1:09regression, repression, chisoid fantasy,
18. 1:14anticipation and compensation.
19. 1:18Let us go through by go through them one
20. 1:20by one.
21. 1:22So we will begin with the defense
22. 1:25mechanism of projection.
23. 1:28Projection means
24. 1:31imposing one's own unhealthy impulses,
25. 1:36one's own negative emotions,
26. 1:39one's own uh you know impairing
27. 1:43behaviors onto someone else. So if I do
28. 1:47not like somebody, I would rather say
29. 1:50that he or she doesn't like me. If I am
30. 1:54cheating, I would say that all others
31. 1:58were cheating. Everybody was cheating.
32. 2:01That is why there are some people who
33. 2:04are more suspicious and they start
34. 2:06suspicing uh about a number of negative
35. 2:10things whenever they interact with
36. 2:12people because they are projecting their
37. 2:17own negative feelings to other people
38. 2:21they meet or interact with.
39. 2:26In this particular defense mechanism, an
40. 2:29individual blames others for their own
41. 2:32unacceptable thoughts, feelings or
42. 2:36behavior to avoid the responsibility of
43. 2:40having such negative things.
44. 2:43Example can include excusing others of
45. 2:46having thoughts or feelings they
46. 2:48themselves possess and deflecting
47. 2:52criticism by attributing their own flaws
48. 2:56to someone else means the criticism
49. 2:59which was due to me actually I'm trying
50. 3:03to displace it project it towards
51. 3:07someone else that I did not do it
52. 3:10instead other people do did That
53. 3:14the function of projection mainly
54. 3:17include avoiding guilt or shame by
55. 3:20attributing negative qualities to
56. 3:23someone else and maintaining a positive
57. 3:27self-image.
58. 3:29The consequences of it may include
59. 3:32strained relationship because I have
60. 3:34developed a habit of blaming blaming
61. 3:37other people for my own deeds.
62. 3:41There may be a lack of selfawareness
63. 3:44because instead of introspecting
64. 3:47myself honestly I'm trying to hide my
65. 3:52mistakes I'm trying to hide my
66. 3:54shortcomings and projecting them to
67. 3:57someone else. If I'm not ready to accept
68. 4:01my own shortcomings I will never be able
69. 4:04to work on them and improve them in
70. 4:08future also. So I will be committing the
71. 4:11same kind of mistake again and again. I
72. 4:13will put myself in same kind of troubles
73. 4:17again and again by
74. 4:20simply not realizing that the fault lies
75. 4:24in me rather I will keep on finding
76. 4:28faults in others only.
77. 4:31The next important and popular defense
78. 4:34mechanism is of regression.
79. 4:38Regression means whenever we find an
80. 4:42emotion which is highly painful
81. 4:45which a situation which is highly
82. 4:47stressful
83. 4:49I goes back to an earlier developmental
84. 4:52stage.
85. 4:54Friends, if you are aware of the process
86. 4:58of child development or development or
87. 5:00human development, uh you will find that
88. 5:03human development progresses through
89. 5:06distinct stages.
90. 5:09All these stages are supposed to be
91. 5:12universal. That is all individuals
92. 5:15living in any part of the world
93. 5:17belonging to any culture will go through
94. 5:21these stages in the same sequence.
95. 5:26So what happens that I have progressed
96. 5:29through certain stages but I find myself
97. 5:32in a stressful situation and due to that
98. 5:36intense stress or to avoid that intense
99. 5:39stress I simply regress back to an
100. 5:42earlier developmental stage.
101. 5:45Okay, let me give you an example. Have
102. 5:48you ever noticed some students chewing
103. 5:51their pencils or nails by or engaged in
104. 5:55nailbiting behavior while solving a
105. 5:57difficult maths problem? You must have
106. 6:01this nailbiting behavior or chewing
107. 6:04somebody's pencil or pen
108. 6:08indicates regression. What happens that
109. 6:11when the child is very young, there is a
110. 6:15stage known as oral stage where
111. 6:19manipulation of the oral cavity that is
112. 6:23uh stimulating the mouth cavity in any
113. 6:26way is the main source of deriving
114. 6:29pleasure and it is very soothing and
115. 6:31relaxing for the child. That is why very
116. 6:34young children uh maybe around age 1
117. 6:38year they try to keep everything they
118. 6:42see or find in their mouth. They try to
119. 6:45taste it, they try to bite it, they try
120. 6:47to chew it. The same behavior can
121. 6:50reappear in some people in face of
122. 6:53stress. Even smoking is an altered form
123. 6:57of this stimulation of mouth cavity
124. 7:00behavior.
125. 7:02So similar kind of regressive behaviors
126. 7:05can be found many times. You might have
127. 7:10uh noticed that children who are 10
128. 7:13years or 12 years back whenever they are
129. 7:16in intensely stressful situation, maybe
130. 7:19the teacher scolds them or they uh have
131. 7:24a very poor test performance or the
132. 7:26grades are not according to their
133. 7:29expectation or they have a fight with
134. 7:31their best friends. They simply come and
135. 7:34they hug their mother and they try to
136. 7:36you know hide in the lap of their
137. 7:38mother. A behavior which is usually
138. 7:41shown by young children not children of
139. 7:44their own age. All these things indicate
140. 7:48regressing back to an earlier
141. 7:50developmental stage in order to get
142. 7:54relaxation in order to get a feeling of
143. 7:58safety or simply to get away from the
144. 8:01stress they are currently feeling. This
145. 8:04is the basic idea of regression.
146. 8:08Now what is the function of regression?
147. 8:11When you go back to an earlier
148. 8:13developmental stage, you become more
149. 8:16dependent on others.
150. 8:18In early childhood years, children are
151. 8:21completely dependent on their parents.
152. 8:23So if there is a problem with children,
153. 8:25they are not supposed to handle it
154. 8:27themselves. Rather, their parents would
155. 8:30intervene and solve the problem for
156. 8:32them. They will do the difficult task
157. 8:34for them. And when everything becomes
158. 8:37smooth, they will take it up again. So
159. 8:40the same kind of thing happens when a
160. 8:43person an adult indulges in regression.
161. 8:47They try to move back to a more
162. 8:49dependent stage so that the coping the
163. 8:53responsibility of coping can be shifted
164. 8:56to other people around them and it does
165. 9:00not lie on their own shoulders. But what
166. 9:03are the consequences of regression? Of
167. 9:05course, it gives you temporary relief,
168. 9:08but finally it makes you maladjusted
169. 9:13because you develop unrealistic
170. 9:16expectations from other people. If you
171. 9:19try to look at other people to solve
172. 9:22your problem all the time, it would be a
173. 9:25kind of burden for them. They will have
174. 9:28impaired relationships with the person
175. 9:31who engages in such kind of behavior.
176. 9:34And it also leads to lack of self-growth
177. 9:38because the person is not ready to learn
178. 9:40the problem solving skills himself.
179. 9:44Rather it simply goes back to an earlier
180. 9:48stage of development and start depending
181. 9:52on others to do it for him.
182. 9:57The next defense mechanism is
183. 9:59repression.
184. 10:01Repression means
185. 10:03whatever unwanted, unacceptable,
186. 10:08painful feelings or memories we have, we
187. 10:12try to press it so hard so that it goes
188. 10:18deep down to our unconscious mind and we
189. 10:23should become unaware of it completely.
190. 10:29This is very closely similar to the
191. 10:33process of suppression. But there is a
192. 10:36big difference between the two. In
193. 10:38suppression, we press the unwanted
194. 10:42painful memories and emotions.
195. 10:45But it is a sort of effortful
196. 10:48forgetting. I don't want to u remember
197. 10:52all those things again and again. I
198. 10:54don't want them to come to my mind again
199. 10:56and again. So I divert my attention to
200. 11:00something else. I make myself busy
201. 11:03preoccupied with other kind of
202. 11:06activities and behaviors so that I am
203. 11:09left with no spare time and cognitive
204. 11:13resources to think about such issues.
205. 11:17However, I'm very well aware of the
206. 11:20presence of such memories and emotion
207. 11:23within me. But in case of repression, if
208. 11:27I press it so hard, I may simply forget
209. 11:31about a few days or an event or
210. 11:35something which is intensely painful to
211. 11:37me as it is now buried into the
212. 11:41unconscious mind. And the unconscious
213. 11:44mind of a person is not available for
214. 11:47conscious scrutiny. It usually expresses
215. 11:50itself through dreams or through
216. 11:55automatic behaviors. So this is another
217. 11:58kind of defense mechanism that can be
218. 12:01utilized to reduce stress. Although this
219. 12:04is not a very effective mechanism as the
220. 12:09painful things which I have buried in my
221. 12:12unconscious mind would keep daunting me
222. 12:15in dreams and in other kind of
223. 12:18psychological complications which I'm
224. 12:22expected to suffer from in future.
225. 12:26Shizoid fantasy is another kind of
226. 12:29defense mechanism. When my reality is
227. 12:33very stressful, I simply withdraw myself
228. 12:37from the real world and my inner
229. 12:40fantasybased world, imaginationbased
230. 12:43world expands. So instead of living in
231. 12:47the present moment in the reality, I
232. 12:50would simply sink into an a virtual
233. 12:54world which is created in my imagination
234. 12:58where everything happens according to my
235. 13:00own wish. So I am the commander of that
236. 13:03world. I would interact with people the
237. 13:07way I want. I can do anything in that
238. 13:10imaginative world.
239. 13:13You know why we enjoy the Bollywood
240. 13:16style movies, the typical masala movies
241. 13:19which is full of uh you know um
242. 13:22fantasies and dance and fight scenes and
243. 13:25everything because for the time being it
244. 13:29detaches me from the hardships of my
245. 13:32life because it takes me away to a world
246. 13:36of fascination and fantasy where I can
247. 13:39forget about the problems.
248. 13:42which are continuously
249. 13:45teasing me about the realities about the
250. 13:48emotions or the things which are
251. 13:50continuously causing pain and agony to
252. 13:53me. The same thing happens in shizoid
253. 13:56fantasy. But of course there is nothing
254. 13:58outside. When we are watching movie
255. 14:01there is a thing which is going on in
256. 14:04the external world and we get ourself
257. 14:07subsumed with that particular thing. But
258. 14:10if there is nothing and I'm simply
259. 14:12sitting and imagining,
260. 14:15I'm completely withdrawn from my real
261. 14:18world and engaged in some sort of
262. 14:21imaginative
263. 14:22uh behavior or interaction with the
264. 14:25person. This would be an example of
265. 14:28shizoid fantasy.
266. 14:30If this become extreme, if it expands
267. 14:35more and more, it may cause chisoid
268. 14:38personality disorder.
269. 14:41Then comes splitting.
270. 14:43Splitting is basically an effort to look
271. 14:47at a situation, to look at a person, to
272. 14:50look at an object in a very uh dual
273. 14:54manner in terms of white and black,
274. 14:56either good or bad.
275. 14:59This type of defense mechanism is
276. 15:01adopted when one tries to avoid dealing
277. 15:05with complex emotions.
278. 15:09What happens that most of the time the
279. 15:12people around us or the situations in
280. 15:15which we are or the objects that we have
281. 15:18at hand with which we deal they have
282. 15:22certain positive things and certain
283. 15:24negative things. There are certain
284. 15:26advantages, certain disadvantages. And
285. 15:29this is the truth of the life. There is
286. 15:31nothing which is completely good or
287. 15:34completely bad. There is a combination.
288. 15:37We label the things good or bad
289. 15:39depending upon their predominant
290. 15:41characteristics. If most of the
291. 15:43characteristics are good, we will label
292. 15:45it good. If most of the characteristics
293. 15:48are bad, we will label them bad. But we
294. 15:51must realize that every person,
295. 15:54situation or object
296. 15:56has both kind of characteristics good
297. 16:00and bad in it.
298. 16:03But we do not want to uh you know get
299. 16:07into the complex analysis of such
300. 16:10nuances or such uh difficult emotions.
301. 16:14So I simply try to um put put a label of
302. 16:20good or bad over things and this is a
303. 16:23kind of oversimplification of the
304. 16:25situation. What happens when I try to
305. 16:28look at the world in black and white
306. 16:31manner? I intentionally overlook certain
307. 16:35aspect of the person's situation or the
308. 16:37object. If I'm trying to look at
309. 16:40everything as good, I'm going to mask
310. 16:42the negative side. If I'm perceiving
311. 16:45everything as bad, I try to overlook the
312. 16:50positive aspect that they have. Because
313. 16:52whenever we uh realize that both
314. 16:56positive and negative things are there,
315. 16:58it is a kind of problem in making
316. 17:02attitude in developing attitude towards
317. 17:04that particular thing. If I'm not
318. 17:07efficient enough
319. 17:09to manage my emotion to analyze the
320. 17:12complex situation and derive successful
321. 17:16appropriate inferences out of them
322. 17:19obviously I'm going to suffer from the
323. 17:22complexity of the situation and then I
324. 17:24will try to oversimplify it. This is the
325. 17:27process of splitting.
326. 17:31Then there are some higher level defense
327. 17:34mechanisms. Higher level defense
328. 17:36mechanisms means defense mechanisms
329. 17:38which are not really bad. Rather they
330. 17:42have a high level of adaptive capacity.
331. 17:46For example, anticipation. Anticipation
332. 17:49means trying to uh predict what can
333. 17:53happen in future if the situations
334. 17:57continue to be like this.
335. 18:00We all use this behavior in problem
336. 18:03solving and in planning as well. People
337. 18:07who believe in proactive coping means
338. 18:10taking coping uh steps even before the
339. 18:13situation arises so that they can handle
340. 18:17it efficiently depends on this
341. 18:20particular mechanism of anticipation.
342. 18:23And everybody who is considered to be a
343. 18:26very good planner or a person who uh
344. 18:29believes in you know uh preparing for
345. 18:33the future nicely.
346. 18:35Everybody depends on this particular
347. 18:38behavior. So they we try to predict
348. 18:42certain aspects of the situation. We try
349. 18:45to foresee the consequences of an action
350. 18:48and we prepare ourselves accordingly. So
351. 18:52if a particular type of thing is about
352. 18:54to happen in future or this can happen
353. 18:57in future, I must be mentally and
354. 19:00physically ready to deal with the with
355. 19:02the scenarios. Right?
356. 19:05So this can be an effective coping
357. 19:08mechanism for stress reduction.
358. 19:12This gives us an opportunity to regulate
359. 19:15our emotions also because if I know I
360. 19:18can be uh in a bad shape. If I know I
361. 19:23can feel some sort of negative emotions,
362. 19:26I get more time to manage my emotions.
363. 19:29Suppose I get to know that I have to
364. 19:31undergo a major surgery. It immediately
365. 19:35triggers a feeling of fear inside me
366. 19:37because you know surgical operations are
367. 19:39always uh anxiety prone for all of us
368. 19:44for most of us and we are always worry
369. 19:47about our health conditions. So if I am
370. 19:52able to anticipate it a little bit prior
371. 19:55to actually when the doctor asks me to
372. 19:58do so I can get more time to identify
373. 20:03the positive aspects of undergoing
374. 20:06surgery to calm myself
375. 20:09uh about the anxieties to read more
376. 20:12about that surgical procedure about the
377. 20:14cases which have been recovered
378. 20:16successfully after the surgery. and this
379. 20:20is going to help me out in order to
380. 20:22regulate my own emotions. Then this is a
381. 20:26popular strategy for those who appear
382. 20:28for job interviews. They make a
383. 20:31simulation of the interview setting.
384. 20:33They start anticipating the questions
385. 20:37that the interviewer may ask and then
386. 20:39practice answering those questions. So
387. 20:42the functional value of this particular
388. 20:44technique is high.
389. 20:47The same is true for compensation also.
390. 20:50If I know that I'm lacking in certain
391. 20:53aspect and I can't do much to improve
392. 20:56the situation, I can work on the other
393. 21:00aspects of my personality or my behavior
394. 21:03or the skill set so that if there is a
395. 21:06shortcoming at one hand, I can
396. 21:09compensate it with surplus supply on the
397. 21:13other hand. This is the basic idea
398. 21:15behind compensation. So whenever we get
399. 21:19reduced grades on one paper, we may try
400. 21:22to secure good grades in other papers we
401. 21:24are more comfortable with so that the
402. 21:27overall grade on the mark sheet does not
403. 21:30affect it badly. Okay. So compensation
404. 21:33is also a popular defense mechanism and
405. 21:36this is a useful defense mechanism also.
406. 21:40It redirects our energy from you know
407. 21:43hovering around a weakness and
408. 21:45regretting about it to strengthening a
409. 21:48positive side of us. Okay. Grooming
410. 21:51about um an aspect which is already um
411. 21:58my strength which is already good in me
412. 22:01and I can develop it more so that I can
413. 22:05compensate for my shortcomings.
414. 22:09It also helps maintaining my self-esteem
415. 22:12high. So this was all about these
416. 22:16popular defense mechanisms. Let us have
417. 22:18a quick recap. Projection, regression,
418. 22:23anticipation, and compensation. Of
419. 22:26course, repression was also there. So
420. 22:28these five defense mechanisms were there
421. 22:30in this presentation. And we saw how and
422. 22:34when we adopt these defense mechanisms
423. 22:38and what could be their probable
424. 22:40consequence for us with respect to the
425. 22:44reduction of stress.
426. 22:47As always I have a long list of
427. 22:50recommended readings. I provide a number
428. 22:53of options so that you can select them
429. 22:56according to your own convenience.
430. 22:59Whatever is available to you can be
431. 23:02picked. You can go through the library
432. 23:05resources as well as resources available
433. 23:07on internet. Thank you very much for
434. 23:10your kind attention.