Defence Mechanisms
They are methods used by the ego to defend itself against the conflict between ‘forbidden drives and moral codes’. Individuals unconsciously develop ways of overcoming unpleasant feelings from their midst (Cilliers, 1998). They then feel less anxious and reality is made more acceptable. Defense mechanisms have 2 common characteristics. They function at an unconscious level so the individual is unaware that he is using a defence mechanism (Cilliers,1998). They ‘deny or distort or falsify perception of reality’ so as to appear less significant. Freud stated that a certain amount of defense is found in all individuals and is necessary for normal functioning. When these mechanisms develop a regularity, they disturb normal functioning (Cilliers, 1998).
Repression is a primary defense mechanism which transfers unacceptable drives or memories into the unconscious. It is the most direct approach when anxiety is to be dealt with.
Repressed material can reappear in the conscious and that too can cause anxiety. Projection is another defense mechanism by which one blames another for his shortcomings (Cilliers,1998). He attempts to repress truths from entering awareness by frequently changing the focus to other peoples’ wishes. The behaviour of a child to its mother when he feels rejected is a significant example of projection.
Identification with a person of high status or institution helps a person gain self esteem, prestige or power that he cannot otherwise gain. It expresses its desire to be noticed (Cilliers, 1998). In projective identification, the anxious subject attempts to reduce anxiety by splitting off parts of the reason for anxiety and leaves very little for self and therefore less to worry about (Cilliers, 1998).
By rationalisation , one tries to justify one’s actions. The underlying reason for this justification may not be perceived by others (Cilliers,1998). Fixation is when an individual’s or child’s development gets stuck at some stage. The child is not able to cope with the problems of the advanced stage. Regression is the returning to an earlier stage of development. Regression and fixation are related (Cilliers, 1998). When a person regresses, he becomes fixated at an earlier level. Freud maintains that cohesion is found in a group when all members introject the same idea into their ego ideal and then identify with each other (Cilliers, 1998).
In the Anna Freud book : The Ego and mechanisms of defense (1966), there are ten mechanisms that are found in life Cilliers,1998). They are regression, repression, reaction formation, isolation undoing, projection, introjection, turning against the self and reversal. The tenth is sublimation. She believed that the child’s superego, unlike the adult’s was dependent on external parental influences (Cilliers,1998). The child has a continued connection physically and in reality to its familial surroundings. Anna Freud believed in a period of non analytic preparation for an analysis. This period of preparation was to educate the child for what was to come during the analysis (Cilliers, 1998). Melanie Klein believed that this preparation was a hog-wash and moved away from the preparation. Klein was very much opposed to Freud’s ideas of education. Freud’s aim was to normalise and make the child adapt to adult ideas of emotional health. Klein was dead against this (Cilliers,1998). Anna thought that fantasy life should be minimised Klein felt that fantasy life should be celebrated and examined. She believed that phantasy life enables one to live deeply and fully in one’s emotions. Klein describes a complex defense mechanism projective identfication. It is obvious in the first four months of birth. “It is a very intensive projection of primitive aggression of internalized self-images or object-images. At the same time the person identifies himself/herself with the object” (Fuchs, 1997).
Anna Freud and Melanie Klein worked with children and observed how important early childhood relationships were. Transference is the central theme of Freud’s Clinical Theory.
Freud defined transference as “the unconscious projection and repetition of past relationships and patterns of expectation onto the present “. The transference patterns consist of instinctual drives or drive derivatives as evidenced by the child’s unconscious fixations at its various levels of development. Transference is a pattern of unconscious resistance against instinctual drives.
Klein believes that the infant’s world is full of intolerable anxieties. These persecutory anxieties would overwhelm the infant. The natural response of the child would be to fight these anxieties. It would resort to defensive mechanisms to resist its bodily needs and frustrations. Others see this as denial, spitting, projection or withdrawal. The child separates the ‘bad objects’ and puts them far away. She preserves the good objects (Psychoanalysis of Melanie Klein, Net Industries.)
The Object relations Theory is an offshoot of the Psychoanalytic theory. The object is the person who is the object or target of someone’s attachment. Relations are the interpersonal relationships. (Object relations theory, Sonoma State University).Projection and introjections are the most fundamental of the processes. These describe the infant’s first attempts to show he is different. His mother’s breast is his first nurturing or frustrating object (Object Relations Theory, Syque 2002-2007). When the child matures, it introjects both good and bad. The forerunners of the superego are first seen in the infancy following processes of step by step internalisation.The process of introjection, projection and reintrojection is continuous. The child will gradually control his psyche (Psychoanalysis of Melanie Klein, Net Industries.) Klein detected the first paranoid or schizoid position in the first months of an infant’s life. During this period, deprivation and frustration are seen as persecutory. The infant responds by throwing away or projecting what he does not need or introjecting what he needs. Klein saw the relations with the breast as significant. It feels gratified and happy when there is plenty of milk in the breast. When he does not get enough or is prematurely withdrawn, he feels frustrated and rejects it (Object Relations Therapy, Syque 2002-2007).
The depressive position is reached after the first six months. He is able to understand between good and bad (Psychoanalysis of Melanie Klein, Net Industries). His awareness now sees his mother as a whole object. Fearing the loss of what he loves, he inhibits, protects and resurrects. He becomes aware of aggression towards his mother. Paranoid /schizoid and depressive positions are part of the normal development. Fixation at such positions developed or transferred into later psychopathology. The same defense mechanisms seen in infancy would be transferred to later life and seen as psychiatric illness. Klein usually traced these disturbances to early childhood (Psychoanalysis of Melanie Klein, Net Industries).
Freud emphasised the first 4-6-years of life as important for understanding the psyche of children while Klein was of a different opinion as mentioned above. According to Melanie Klein, the object relations theory can be optimistic or pessimistic depending on the quality of relationship. A healthy relationship produced a healthy happy child (Psychoanalysis of Melanie Klein, Net Industries.). An unhealthy relationship produced a pathologic self-absorbed child. The relationship of mother and child is environmental in nature and the determinants are social. Freud’s theory caters to the paternalistic emphasising the power and control of the father. Freud sees the mother as intimate and nurturing. Klein places more emphasis on biological rather than environmental while speaking about death instinct and phylogenetic endowment. Klein’s theory also sees human contact and relationship as the prime motive of human behaviour while Freud thought in terms of sexual pleasure (Psychoanalysis of Melanie Klein, Net Industries.).The theory stresses the importance of similarities between people.
Object relations theory holds that an infant’s relationship with its mother or care-giver
determines personality formation primarily. The infant’s need for attachment is the motivation for development of self (What is Object Relations Psychotherapy, IPI). The mother and child relationship is the major component of psychic structure formation. John Sutherland preferred to relate object relations theory to psychotherapy where the therapist and the patient work together to plan a therapy series based on their relationship (What is Object Relations Psychotherapy, IPI).
Attachment can be defined as a special relationship that is emotional and involves care comfort and pleasure. Though Freud first spoke of attachment, it is Bowlby who is known as the father of the attachment theory. Bowlby called it “lasting psychological connectedness between human beings” He also believed that one’s behaviour and personality are influenced by early childhood experiences (Wagner, About.com). The infant care-giver relationship is important. Bowlby stated that attachment had an evolutionary factor and it aids survival. He also spoke of four different characteristics of attachment. The desire to remain near people to whom we are attached is called proximity haven (Wagner, About.com).Returning to the attachment figure for comfort and safety in the face of a threat or fright is called safe haven. Secure base describes the person of attachment around whom the child can move safely and explore the surroundings. Separation distress is the anxiety experienced when the figure of attachment is absent (Wagner).
Anna Freud’s lasting contribution that she gave to attachment was the thorough training in child observation that she imparted in her Hampstead Residential Nursery. Bowlby discarded the idea that the superego had its origin in the resolved Oedipus Complex. He believes that in the early years , the mother is the child’s ego and superego till the child develops the capacity to self regulate. He depends on his mother to perform for him. The development of his ego and superego are dependent on the primary relationship with his mother. Bowlby concluded that “the infant and young child should experience a warm, intimate, and continuous relationship with his mother (or permanent mother substitute) in which both find satisfaction and enjoyment” (Bowlby, 1951, p. 13). Bowlby believed that children look towards parents for sustenance, while parents depend on the society for economic provisions. “If a community values its children it must cherish their parents (Bowlby, 1951, p. 84). Bowlby believed in the importance of the female parent. The attachment theory was first presented as 3 classic papers. “The Nature of the Child’s Tie to His Mother” (1958), “Separation Anxiety” (1959), and “Grief and Mourning in Infancy and Early Childhood” (1960).
In “The Nature of the Child’s Tie to His Mother” Bowlby explains the libidinal attachment to the mother where need satisfaction is the primary and attachment is secondary. He agrees with Freud when he says that component instincts make up mature human sexuality. In the first year of life, these instincts attach the baby to the mother. The components would include sucking, following, clinging, smiling, crying and the like.
In “Separation Anxiety” he identified 3 separation responses. protest, despair (when in loss), denial or detachment (related to defense mechanism repression). Children experience separation anxiety when a situation arises to activate escape and attachment behaviour and they do not find their attachment figure. He disagreed with Freud who said that maternal overgratification is dangerous in infancy. Repeated threats of rejection or abandonment by parents, illness or death of a sibling (for which it feels responsible) all increase separation anxiety. When this anxiety reduces , a false impression of maturity is obtained. Pseudoindependence could be a defense mechanism.
In “Grief and Mourning in Early Infancy” Freud believed that infants cannot mourn as their ego had not developed. They just undergo separation anxiety. Bowlby thought that grief and mourning processes appear each time attachment behaviour is activated but the attachment figure will not be available. When the substitutes are many, depth of attachment is lost.
We notice that projection, transference, object relations theory and attachment theory are all linked to one another. When a mother and child are together, they are attached through a very loving and caring relationship where the mother protects, feeds and nurtures her baby. The baby understands first that the mother’s breast is the one which keeps her full and satisfied. When the feeding is satisfactory, the baby is happy and healthy. When it finds the breast being taken away prematurely or is not providing enough food, it reacts by projection. It shows its displeasure by pushing it away or crying. It feels rejected. The object relations theory sees the mother or care-giver as the object of attachment for the baby. The baby which is fed and cared for adequately grows up into an individual of healthy psyche. This is the transference. On the other hand, a baby which sees more rejections and frustrations turns out to be a self-absorbed quieter personality who may be moody. This is the kind of personality which turns into a psychiatric patient much in need of care. It turns out that these theories hold good in psychotherapy. When a mentally ill client approaches a psychiatrist for treatment, the technique of referring back into the childhood history and the relation with the mother is employed. A defective early childhood would come to the fore usually.
References
Bowlby, J. (1951). Maternal care and mental health. World Health Organization Monograph (Serial No. 2).
Britzman (2003),Deborah; “After-Education: Anna Freud, Melanie Klein, and Psychoanalytic Histories” Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies.
Cilliers and Koortzen, 1998; Chapter 2, Defence Mechanisms, Pg 65, Web.
Fuchs, Thomas; Psychoanalytic Concepts in the Light of Gestalt Theory, March 1997, Web.
Klein and Others, Objects Relations Theory, Web.
Objects Relations Theory, Web.
Psychoanlaysis and Object Relations, Web.
The Origins of Attachment Theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth Developmental Psychology (1992), 28, 759-775.
Wagner, Kendra, “What is attachment”, 2008, Web.
“What is Object Relations Psychotherapy”, Scharff, J.S. & Scharff, D.E. (1992). Scharff Notes: A Primer of Object Relations Therapy. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson., International Psychotherapy Institue. Web.