Lecture 50- Defense Mechanisms-V — Transcript

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1. 0:16Namaskar friends, we are going to learn
2. 0:20lecture five of module 10 of the stress
3. 0:24management for course and as the
4. 0:27previous lectures, this lecture will
5. 0:30also discusses about defense mechanisms,
6. 0:34their role in a stress reduction and we
7. 0:38will also explore for the difference
8. 0:40between the mature and immature defense
9. 0:44mechanisms.
10. 0:46This was the coverage we are supposed to
11. 0:49have in this presentation.
12. 0:52So first of all let let me talk about
13. 0:55the two defense mechanisms which are due
14. 0:58that is sublimation and suppression.
15. 1:01Sublimation is a mechanism where we try
16. 1:07to redirect or reform our anxieties and
17. 1:11negative emotions to another form which
18. 1:15is beneficial for the society and the
19. 1:19community.
20. 1:21That is why people like Dash Mi who lost
21. 1:26his wife due to unavailability
22. 1:30of a direct route to the hospital
23. 1:36started making a way by cutting the
24. 1:40mountain simply using
25. 1:44the tools
26. 1:46available to him. and he did the task
27. 1:49manually
28. 1:51without having help from any kind of
29. 1:54machines and government and agencies
30. 1:57like that. So what he did, he was very
31. 2:01sad. He was in deep depression. And he
32. 2:05converted his anxiety, his sadness, his
33. 2:09depression into a motivation
34. 2:13to correct the situation for other
35. 2:15people so that they do not have to
36. 2:18suffer the same kind of problem. This is
37. 2:22a wonderful example of sublimation.
38. 2:26That is why we see people with children
39. 2:30who are autistic learning more about
40. 2:33autism and opening centers to manage
41. 2:36autistic children. We find people
42. 2:40opening hospitals in areas where the
43. 2:44medical facilities are not readily
44. 2:47available and this problem might have
45. 2:50caused them a lot of trouble in past. So
46. 2:54I am anxious, I am nervous, I am sad, I
47. 2:58am depressed, I'm in frustration
48. 3:02but I will not discharge these negative
49. 3:05emotions in a damaging manner. Rather I
50. 3:09will try to look at look for a way which
51. 3:13is more meaningful which is more
52. 3:15constructive which is beneficial for the
53. 3:17society and release them redirect them
54. 3:22accordingly.
55. 3:25Sublimation
56. 3:27is helpful for individuals to manage
57. 3:31their impulses in a healthy way and it
58. 3:34promotes creativity and innovation also.
59. 3:39Moreover, it brings recognition and
60. 3:42appreciation to the person thereby
61. 3:46enhancing their self-esteem.
62. 3:48So this can be taken as an appropriate
63. 3:51way of reducing stress. Similarly,
64. 3:56suppression is an another form of
65. 3:59defense mechanism. We have referred to
66. 4:02this particular mechanism while talking
67. 4:05about repression in one of our earlier
68. 4:08lectures. What happens? This is a
69. 4:11deliberate decision to forget. Forget
70. 4:14the things which are problematic. Forget
71. 4:17the things which are painful which can
72. 4:20cause a go cause a gy and you know
73. 4:24disturbance to us.
74. 4:27We try to forcefully forget those things
75. 4:31and in doing so we simply press them
76. 4:34beneath the awareness level of ourself
77. 4:39so that the cause those thoughts and the
78. 4:42memories are not readily available to us
79. 4:45on a daily basis unless they are
80. 4:48triggered by a particular cue.
81. 4:53This can be achieved by overengaging
82. 4:56oneself in other kind of activities
83. 5:00which are pleasant which are beneficial
84. 5:02to us and the community. So that the
85. 5:06person is not left with any time or
86. 5:10cognitive resources to think about those
87. 5:14problematic ideas, those painful
88. 5:17memories and they simply be out of the
89. 5:22range of awareness of the individual.
90. 5:25However, it doesn't mean that the uh
91. 5:29problem is simply resolved or it is it
92. 5:34has synced to the unconscious level of
93. 5:36mind. No, it is available within the
94. 5:39consciousness and also available to the
95. 5:42scrutiny of that individual. However,
96. 5:46this will not be readily accessible to
97. 5:49the person.
98. 5:50Therefore, it will not be causing
99. 5:54disturbance for the person on a daily
100. 5:57basis in a routined manner. If something
101. 6:00happens which can trigger the memory of
102. 6:03those problematic things will definitely
103. 6:06cause the stress to the person otherwise
104. 6:09the person would simply forget about
105. 6:11that.
106. 6:13This can include avoiding thoughts of
107. 6:16stressful events and uncomfortable
108. 6:19emotions by engaging oneself in several
109. 6:22other activities
110. 6:24and help in maintaining emotional
111. 6:27control. But also lead to emotional
112. 6:30numbness and may increase the stress
113. 6:33over time. Because whenever we
114. 6:36forcefully suppress something, it tries
115. 6:39to come back and if not allowed in its
116. 6:42original form, it can change it forms
117. 6:45and start troubling the person again. So
118. 6:48this is not a foolproof proof resolution
119. 6:51of the problem. Now we have learned
120. 6:54about so many defense mechanisms in this
121. 6:57module. Some of them are more
122. 7:00advantageous as compared to others. Some
123. 7:03of them are more benign than others in
124. 7:06terms of aggravating stress later on. Uh
125. 7:11but it is interesting to note how they
126. 7:14provide relief to the person. Of course,
127. 7:17some sort of relief is involved. That is
128. 7:19why people engage with them so
129. 7:22frequently.
130. 7:23So they can provide temporary relief by
131. 7:26pushing away the distorting unpleasant
132. 7:29realities.
133. 7:32but they often fail to address the
134. 7:35underlying problem. This avoidance or
135. 7:38distortion of reality can lead to
136. 7:41greater stress over time through several
137. 7:44pathways.
138. 7:47What are those pathways? First, avoiding
139. 7:51the root problem.
140. 7:53So defense mechanisms like denial,
141. 7:56repression, displacement can simply away
142. 8:02can be simply a way of avoiding the
143. 8:04actual problem. We are not focusing on
144. 8:07the problem which is very much there and
145. 8:09which will keep on troubling us time and
146. 8:12again. We are simply trying to say or
147. 8:15convince oursel that no there is no
148. 8:17problem or this is not the actual
149. 8:19problem the problem lies somewhere else.
150. 8:22So in the long run these defense
151. 8:25mechanisms are not going to help us
152. 8:27reduce the stress significantly.
153. 8:30Similarly the mechanisms like
154. 8:33rationalization or projection can lead
155. 8:36to distortion of reality.
156. 8:41Things like shizoid fantasy can also
157. 8:44lead to distortion of reality. Rather I
158. 8:47should say it can lead to disconnection
159. 8:49with the reality.
160. 8:51Then we can have interpersonal conflict
161. 8:55created due to the process of projection
162. 8:58or displacement.
163. 9:01We can damage our social relationships,
164. 9:04our family ties significantly if we are
165. 9:08engaged in frequent displacement
166. 9:11behavior or projection behavior.
167. 9:14They prevent us from adopting healthy
168. 9:17ways of coping and they require a lot of
169. 9:21mental energy. You know, if you have to
170. 9:24manipulate the real things and you have
171. 9:26to somehow craft a new reality for
172. 9:29yourself, it is not an easy thing. It
173. 9:32consumes much of your mental energy and
174. 9:36the person is left exhausted. the person
175. 9:40is left with very less amount of energy
176. 9:43to engage in the productive task of his
177. 9:46life. Moreover, they can also give away
178. 9:52to maladaptive behaviors which actually
179. 9:56uh reduces the effective adaptive coping
180. 10:00with the real life settings.
181. 10:03At this point, this is also important to
182. 10:07differentiate between mature and
183. 10:10immature defenses.
184. 10:13Mature defenses means which can give us
185. 10:16actual relief from stress and this
186. 10:20relief is longlasting.
187. 10:23It doesn't threaten the reality. It
188. 10:28doesn't lead to distortion of reality.
189. 10:30It does not uh you know restrict the
190. 10:33possibilities of self-growth like we
191. 10:36talked about anticipation and we talked
192. 10:39about compensation to some extent. Humor
193. 10:42can also be kept in this particular
194. 10:44category.
195. 10:46Sublimation is also an effective way
196. 10:48which can be taken as an uh as a mature
197. 10:52defense mechanism. Okay. So we can
198. 10:54manage stress in very constructive ways
199. 10:57if we adopt these kind of defense
200. 11:00mechanisms. Then there may be neurotic
201. 11:03defenses. Neurotic defenses means which
202. 11:06actually increases neurotic anxiety,
203. 11:09free floating anxiety that can be tagged
204. 11:12to any neutral object and creates
205. 11:15problem in future. So repression,
206. 11:18rationalization, displacement, reaction
207. 11:20formation, all these defense mechanisms
208. 11:24belong to this category.
209. 11:26Immature def uh projections or defenses
210. 11:30where we behave in an immature or you
211. 11:34can say irresponsible manner. For
212. 11:36example, in acting out, in denial, in
213. 11:39passive aggression, you know, it all
214. 11:42leads to negative interpersonal
215. 11:44relationship and behavioral consequences
216. 11:48which are ultimately harmful for us. And
217. 11:52similarly, there are certain defense
218. 11:54mechanisms like psychotic denial,
219. 11:57delusional projections. They are more
220. 12:00related to uh you know psychotic
221. 12:02disorders. That is why I did not discuss
222. 12:04a lot about them here. But somehow if a
223. 12:08person uh takes the help of these kind
224. 12:12of defense mechanisms, they can
225. 12:15completely disconnect the person from
226. 12:18the reality and increases his or her
227. 12:22susceptibility
228. 12:23for developing psychotic disorder a lot
229. 12:26more.
230. 12:29This was all we need to know about
231. 12:32different kind of defense mechanisms.
232. 12:35How they reduce stress for the time
233. 12:39being and how they actually
234. 12:43creates a new road to stress in the long
235. 12:47run. All the defense mechanisms are not
236. 12:50mature. Most of them reduces the stress
237. 12:54temporarily or one area will be relieved
238. 12:58but they can open several other domains
239. 13:01where you are going to feel stressed.
240. 13:04Sublimation we talked about that is a
241. 13:06more constructive way of expressing
242. 13:08one's negative emotions. Suppression is
243. 13:11a defense mechanism which uh is known
244. 13:15where we try to forcefully push the
245. 13:18negative emotions aside so that they
246. 13:21cannot intrude the psychological domain
247. 13:25of awareness frequently. Then we also
248. 13:28talked about the various mechanisms
249. 13:30through which they alter our stress
250. 13:33experiences. And finally we tried to
251. 13:36distinguish between the mature more
252. 13:39constructive and immature more damaging
253. 13:42ways of
254. 13:44coping with stress. That's all for this
255. 13:47module. Here are the recommended
256. 13:50readings and the books that you can go
257. 13:53through
258. 13:56as per your interest, as per your ease.
259. 14:03Thank you very much for your patient
260. 14:05listening. Thank you.