PS 242 Lecture 6: Fixations and Defense Mechanisms
Document Summary
Three levels of awareness: conscious level: what you are thinking of now. What about a situation is upsetting: pre-conscious level: buried a little. Something happened where you do not remember them: unconscious level: repressed/buried. Memories are our of awareness incapable of retrieving them. What is in the unconscious is important. Goal of therapy: make the unconscious, conscious. Parts of personality: i. d: part we are born with. Thinking only about themselves and what they need: superego. Example: guilt, good decision making, socio/psychopath personalities. Forms in the phallic and anal stage. Resolve complexes through identification of same gender. Take values of the same sex parent. Unconscious techniques that are used to cope with anxiety or stress. Protect us that help us cope with life. Downside: prevent us from accurately seeing what"s going on. Denial: not accepting reality of situations substance abusers. Projection: don"t accept responsibility for their behavior. Sublimation: i. d impulses (sex and aggression) and redirecting it to socially appropriate behavior.
