Sigmund Freud’s greatest strength is ____________

[paulbball]

Sigmund Freud’s greatest strength is ____________ and this can be seen in my life

Comments

[mdulay]

This is great, Paul. I hope others read it also.

Mike

Thank you

[elemq]

Thank you for making me laugh today! I was sitting here struggling with my homework, looking for someone who had written in their blog recently so that I had something to respond to but really on another level I was berating myself for the various mistakes I felt I had made over the past week or so. Like your list I had a line of defense mechanisms doing a jig in my head. I don't think I could have made mine sound as eloquent and entertaining as yours at least I hope you don't mind my being entertained by the tone you took

Re: Thank you

[paulbball]

I have a three-year-old girl and she too is very good at taking what we show her and using it to her own benefit. In a way, the saying "a child is a mirror of the family" is true. However, sometimes you have children who are afflicted with some neurological syndrome and it looks like the parents don't know what they are doing. I think on a broad sense each of us is designed differently and our weaknesses are not slways the result of the lack of good parenting. That's what makes good parenting so difficult.

defense mechanisms

[silverapache]

You make it seem like these defense mechanisms are a bad thing to have in your life. If you look at their name, they are intended to defend you from emotions or situations that your body or mind can't handle at that time. There has to be a reason that your mind has created these reactions other than to make you feel bad for not directly facing these problems.

Re: defense mechanisms

[paulbball]

Thanks for your reply. Sorry it took so long to post and respond to it. Yes, I agree with you to some extent. Without these mechanisms we would be hard pressed to function in this false world of keeping up appearances. However, if we let ourselves revert to them without questioning the validity and truthfulness of our actions on occasion, we can get lost in our own mendacity and remain in denial, displacing, undoing etc. for the rest of our lives. This is why Shakespeare said, "Above all things, to thine own self be true." Psychoanalysts abound because seeking the truth is so hard, and I believe those who have made it a habit to revert to defense mechanism too readily need even more help getting back to the truth. The ironic thing is, as you mention in your posting, once we find the truth, it is sometimes unbearable. So we end up needing more therapy to learn how to deal with it in healthier ways.

What an explanation of defense mechanisms

[briandopsych]

Wow Paul. That was a very interesting way of explaining defense mechanisms. Talk about talking a subject and applying it. I don't thing that you can do any better than that. I wish I was able to elaborate on something that I read the way you did.