In response, Amelia argues that it is not her, but her partner who fails to acknowledge Amelia’s feelings. Amelia believes she is a very empathetic person, and she thinks she is very responsive to her partner’s feelings. The therapist suggests to the client, Amelia, that she fails to acknowledge her partner’s feelings in an argument. By not acknowledging threatening traits in themselves, and seeing them in other people instead, the client can protect their self-concept. This is known as projection (Baumeister et al., 1998). See these same threatening traits in other people.Fail to recognize that they possess these traits.If a client’s traits threaten their self-concept, then the client may: In the next section, we will explore some defense mechanisms clients might use. The presence of a defense mechanism, however, implies that the client’s self-esteem and self-concept feel threatened and need protecting. Defense mechanisms may be employed unconsciously, with the client unaware that they are using them or why. To preserve their self-esteem, the client develops defense mechanisms (Baumeister et al., 1998). Specifically, he posited that when the patient’s self-esteem and self-image were challenged or threatened, they would rely on certain cognitive or mental strategies to protect their self-esteem (Baumeister et al., 1998). Initially, Freud argued that these threats were basic drives (specifically sexual and aggressive drives) that were at odds with the ego (Baumeister et al., 1998) for example, feeling sexually attracted to one’s child.įreud later refined his theory by shifting the focus toward self-esteem preservation. In a psychoanalytic context, a dangerous threat is something that challenges the patient’s self-concept or self-esteem (Baumeister, Dale, & Sommer, 1998). Sigmund Freud argued that when placed in a psychologically dangerous or threatening situation, the patient was likely to resort to defense mechanisms for protection. However, each component can cause anxiety within an individual. Ideally, the id, ego, and superego interact in concert and harmoniously. The superego is also home to the expectations of the ego: the way we should behave and think. The superego houses all the rules that we have learned throughout our life and uses these to control the ego.

The ego controls the demands of impulses of the id and is home to our consciousness. The ego is responsible for how we react to, function in, and make sense of the external world.Simply, the id acts as a hedonistic pleasure center whose primary goal is to satisfy basic needs and drives. The id houses basic needs, impulses, and desires.’s Relevant Resourcesĭefense Mechanisms in Psychology: Freud’s Theoryįreud argued that the mind was made up of three components: the id, ego, and superego (Rennison, 2015).Defense Mechanisms in Psychology: Freud’s Theory.

Superego examples