Defence mechanisms

In Freud’s model of personality, the EGO is the aspect of personality that deals with reality whilst having to cope with the conflicting demands of the ID and the SUPEREGO and when the EGO cannot cope with the demands of our desires, the constraints of reality and our own moral standards generates anxiety and stress.

In order to cope with the negative elements of anxiety and stress, the EGO develops ‘defence mechanisms’, which help us to repress or conceal this anxious libido. These ‘defence mechanisms’ can be healthy or adaptive, that is, allowing us to function normally. For instance, by trying to rid all the stress from work by doing a dangerous sport such as rock climbing for instance, which is called Sublimation where a person transforms an unacceptable impulse into a socially acceptable one. On the other hand, a ‘defence’ can be unhealthy by interfering with our day-to-day lives.

In the film Sucker Punch, Baby Doll chose to Suppress (not Repress) her memories. Because Baby Doll was under such enormous amounts of stress, she created the "fantasy world" as a way to cope with the harshness of her traumatic reality: her stepfather killed her little brother (there are also elements of sexual abuse towards Baby Doll). 

As a result of this highly stressful and emotionally impactful situation her psyche uses another defence mechanism: she dissociates herself from the horrible realities of her life and toggles between reality and fantasy world where she creates this “James Bond” world where the “Wise Man” supports her with his advice. Essentially, she used fantasies to cope with the horrible things that she was experiencing whilst inside the mental asylum.

Madam Vera Gorski uses Hypnotherapy techniques such as Visualisation as a possible therapeutic cure for her depression and help her learn new behaviours where she is given positive advices and coping tools “weapons” which come from the “Wise Man”, an archetype (please see my previous blog for a full explanation) who helps her to boost her self-esteem and overcome the “monsters” of her life. 

Another interesting way of depicting her coping mechanisms is the fact the she sacrificed herself at the end. This parallels her being lobotomized in the real world upon which she had no control whatsoever. 

Of course, every story has always two sides... let us play the devil's advocate now... maybe she suffered from Schizophrenia... because of this, she was delusional and as a result she actually killed her little brother... her stepfather found the asylum to be the best place for her to be...

Now the question remains… was she trying to cope with reality… or was she Schizophrenic?

What do you think?

Narcissism: be or not to be...

We all have personality traits and our own ways of dealing with the universe however it all becomes a problem when they become maladaptive and interfere with our ability to function socially and occupationally... It is difficult to pinpoint our personalities: some may be depressive, some obsessive compulsive, some schizoid, some histrionic and others narcissistic…

Narcissism is a normal part of child hood development and let’s agree: the child is the centre of attention, love, hope (from the parents). It is a defence mechanism used in any normal upbringing, where the child will have unconditional and constant positive attention from the mother; the child will be supported and praised, no matter how small their achievements are. Don’t get me wrong, it is all good as it helps to boost the self-esteem. However, some children may be constantly praised for more than they should be, regardless how small their achievements are. However, too much of anything is not good… Up to this point, Narcissism is healthy, however, many children grow up and go into adulthood still thinking and feeling they are still the focus of attention and expecting the same treatment from others hence becoming maladaptive behaviour.

Narcissistic personality disorder is characterized by people who display grandiosity, envy and an inability to have empathy (put themselves in another person's shoes).

For instance, let’s take a look at the character Patrick Bateman from the American Psycho movie. He suffered from Narcissistic Personality Disorder and it was ALL about him! He craved and needed constant attention… positive attention to be more correct. He needed affirmation that he was the most beautiful, most intelligent man at work, socially and in love.

Patrick is all about creating appearances, but not necessarily physical ones, that gain admiration. It involves manipulating others with a well-honed subtlety that matches his absolute callousness. He beats people up, exaggerates situations, lie with no sense of shame and hurl threats upon anyone who criticizes him, all to make himself feel like an autocrat, but he only do things when he thinks he'll get away with them.

Envy is another element of this trait. So, if one possesses something materially or psychologically that a person with narcissistic personality disorder doesn't have, they will become envious. Now, you're not going to hear them say, "Oh, I'm so jealous of you." What you'll actually see, the manifestation of that envy, will be a devaluation, "Oh well, that's because she's a brown-noser; that's why she got that promotion." So, anytime they feel that envy coming up, they will immediately have to devalue it.

Like most of people with this trait, they may seek revenge if you don't agree with them and may lash out on people in a moment of rage…or even kill you if you stand between them and their objective. 

Like Patrick, there is Brian Blackwell and Diane Downs who also suffered from Narcissistic Personality Disorder. 

We don’t know very much about Downs’ childhood other than she had been allegedly sexually abused by her dad. Narcissistic personality disorder might be developed as the result of neglect or abuse and trauma inflicted by parents or other authority figures during childhood. The disorder becomes more evident by early adulthood. Downs’ narcissism and need to be the focus of attention was evident in the film “Small Sacrifices”. On 19th May 1983 she shot her 3 children in attempt to get rid of them as they posed an obstacle between her and her boyfriend.

Brian Blackwell also killed his parents on 25^th July 2004 in Liverpool, England, as his parents challenged Brian’s intention to go to America. Brian was also excessively pampered (his mum would still bathe and dress him at the age of 17) by his parents who also needed for him to be talented and special, maybe to maintain their own self-esteem. His fantasy life he created had collapsed and Brian could not accept this: he WAS going on holiday and intended to spend a large amount of money and because his parents wouldn’t allow this, it caused an outburst of rage which resulted in his parents’ death.

The above examples are extreme cases of NPD, however they may help us understand their mindset. Like other Personality Disorders, the person must be seen by a Doctor or Psychologist for a proper diagnosis.

In my view Psychotherapy may help, however keeping them in treatment can be an issue and rather challenging as they may devalue the therapist because of the envy involved in this situation.

What do you think?

Costa Alecrim - Dip Hyp

MetaMind Therapies

Multiple Personality Disorder & "The Ward"

I was speaking to another colleague about Multiple Personality Disorder when he mentioned the film "The Ward" which I had watched years ago, however as I couldn't recall it properly. So I decided to watch it again as well as state my point of view.

It goes like this...

Alice Hudson was abducted when she was only 11 years from home address on 03rd September 1958 and was left chained up in an abandoned farmhouse for nearly 2 months.

Trapped in the darkness under horrid conditions she starved, was sick and sexually abused hence her only escape was into delusion. In order to survive after that, her psyche “fractured” hence developing Multiple Personality Disorder and creating different personalities which were represented in the film by: 

Emily – The Id;

Iris – The Artist;

Sarah – The Seductress;

Tammy – The Aggressor;

Zoey – The Infant and the last one…

Kristen – The Protector, the survivor, the intelligent.

Each personality (including her own) took a piece of her nightmare and repressed them by locking them away from her, for her own protection. However as they became more dominant, they completely overwhelmed Alice’s own personality making her stressed, confused and suffocated (that’s how Alice’s own personality died).

Alice (represented by Kristen) managed to escape and burn down the farmhouse where she was kept, after which being taken to North Bend Psychiatric Hospital.

Looking from a different perspective, in this case, through C. Jung’s view point, we can clearly see the different archetypes which are the contents of her collective unconscious (it connects people of different cultures at the deeper level of dreams, ritual, religion and mythology). A kind of knowledge we are all born with, a reservoir of our past experiences from which everything is drawn and made

The archetypes, which have no form of its own, but organizes our existence functioning like a psychological DNA of the mind. It allow us to express certain types of characters, patterns that are common, myths containing same stories and dreams which Jung felt were all common to all cultures as he concluded when setting out travelling in search of other psychological discoveries within other cultures such as in Africa, New Mexico, England and Switzerland where archetypes such as mythology and ritual defined the role of the individual’s lives. For instance, by using symbolism or archetypes to represent their collective unconscious, the Navarro people use archetype in their artefacts as well as in rituals to cure their patients, where they choose the most suitable archetype, which will pass on the power to him or her. Similarly, in Jungian therapy the client has to produce the symbolism if there are no dreams for instance.

Now going back to the film…

Through experimental techniques, Dr. Stringer explains that up to 1966, the treatments were working until "Kristen" turned up as he had been successful in unlocking her repressed memories and isolating her different identities by singling them out one by one, by the usage of hypnotherapy, and eliminating one by one through hypnotherapy itself, ECT and medication. 

Explanation: Over time, Alice's own personality became so overwhelmed by that of the others that she became lost… As the other personalities become dominant and ended up killing Alice (personality), then the ghost “appears” to stop them from rebelling… the ghost image represents the treatment…

 As the first personality, Tammy, is killed, her subconscious realises that it is starting to loose the “battle” as it is loosing the defences, at which point it fabricates Kristen in order to protect Alice (the person) from the previous trauma and the other personalities (and possibly to replace Tammy too), as they were being killed one by one as a result of the treatment which was represented by Alice’s ghost, as mentioned previously (another archetype – possibly The Shadow), a type of disfigured zombie.

When all the personalities had been exterminated, Dr Stringer confronts Kristen during a psychotherapy session (the last personality to be eliminated) and explains who she truly is after which there is a fight between Alice’s ghost and Kristen (in her psyche). As a symbol of success of the therapy, the ghost throws herself and "Kristen" out of the window, reawakening Alice to her real “Self”.

Alice's parents then collect her from the hospital to take her home. As Alice is gathering her belongings, Alice takes one last look around her room. However when she opens the cabinet, Kristen suddenly jumps out of it and attacks her…