All people use defense mechanisms, whether they be consciously or unconsciously. Anxiety may arise from an intense situation or even past experience. It is then the ego's job to displace anxiety so as to protect the rest of the mind. Through defense mechanisms such as sublimation, repression, fantasy, compulsive fun-seeking, and negativism, the ego eliminates anxiety caused by surroundings which in effect tries to prevent insanity. Fantasy is a device used to thwart reality. It involved the imagination of a fantasy life for the individual to crawl into, in essence, to escape reality. It is needed to be utilized by everyone in order to maintain sanity. If the mind were exposed to the ...view middle of the document...
In the end, society benefits. However, sometimes the negative energy will emerge in this positive action. A policeman could fatally wound a petty thief, or a bouncer will break both legs on a pushy adolescent. Despite these downfalls, it is the most effective form of harnessing inappropriate of harmful energy into benefitting society. Compulsive fun-seekers are essentially just that. They look for things to amuse them like t.v. and video games to spend their time with, other than accomplishing something productive like homework or a project. It is used to again thwart reality by focusing on something enjoyable. However, because they are only having fun, nothing productive is getting done. With students, bad grades could be a result or even being dropped from a class. Reality then hits the person in the face. Negativism is the act of expecting a situation to turn out bad, so as to prevent being let-down. A person will not expect much to come out of a situation so therefore they will risk getting hurt. It is also an attitude of resistance to suggestion, in an attempt to keep the power in a group. The power is kept by demolishing their ideas by being negative about it. However, the negative...
