#freudian defense mechanisms

[hphmseojunglee]

HPHM MC PERSONALITY ASKS

Does anyone else think it’s fun to take personality tests and inventories as their MC? Here’s a bunch of them. Please note that some are not the official version, but they should be free and accessible. I wager they’re accurate enough. Also, some tests may take a while, but don’t take it too seriously!

And yes, I am a psychology major…

———

[1.] What is their Top Love Language? (acts of service, quality time, receiving gifts, words of affirmation, physical touch) https://5lovelanguages.com/ 

[2.] What is their D&D alignment? http://easydamus.com/alignmenttest.html 

[3.] What is their highest Big Five personality trait? (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism) https://bigfive-test.com/ 

[4.] What is their Four Temperaments test result? (sanguine, choleric, melancholic, phlegmatic) https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/O4TS/ 

[5.] What is their Enneagram result? https://www.truity.com/test/enneagram-personality-test 

[6.] What is their Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) result? https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test 

[7.] Which Freudian defense mechanism do they most often use? https://psychologia.co/defense-mechanisms/ 

[8.] What is their HEXACO result? http://hexaco.org/hexaco-online 

[9.] What is their Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) result? https://www.idrlabs.com/multiphasic-personality/test.php 

[10.] Where do they fall on the Multidimensional Introversion-Extraversion Scales (MIES)? https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/MIES/ 

[11.] What is their Fisher Temperament Inventory (FTI) result? https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/FTI/ 

[12.] What is their Short Dark Triad (SD-3) test result? https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/SD3/ 

[13.] What is their True Colors test result? https://www.idrlabs.com/true-colors/test.php 

[14.] Where do they fall on the Kinsey Scale? https://www.idrlabs.com/kinsey-scale/test.php 

[15.] What is their 16 Personality Factors (PF) result? https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/16PF.php 

[16.] Where do they fall on the Zodiac-sign Association Personality Scales (ZAPS)? https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/ZAPS/ 

[17.] What is their DISC personality test result? https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/ODAT/

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

Im doing a project about disinformation (specifically pseudoscience) and I've found a great paper that is trying to define pseudoscience by one common characteristic.

"Boudry and Braeckman (2011) have distinguished between ‘immunizing strategies’ and ‘epistemic defense mechanisms’, documenting how these appear in various guises in practically every pseudoscience (the relationship with Popper’s “conventionalist stratagems” will be discussed in 4.1). Immunizing strategies are defined as generic arguments or tactics that serve to protect a belief system from critical scrutiny and adverse evidence, while defense mechanisms refer to the special cases in which the immunizing tactics form an integral part of the belief system itself. (...) In many pseudoscience, core concepts are either ambiguous and amenable to a range of interpretations, or they are retrospectively redefined whenever threatened with refutation. Such strategic vagueness is characteristic of creationism and Intelligent Design theory, astrology, Freudian psychoanalysis, graphology, homeopathy, and various forms of alternative medicine." - Diagnosing Pseudoscience – by Getting Rid of the Demarcation Problem, Maarten Boudry

I just thought it might be relevant in your fight against astrology/anti-science crowd. Science doesn't try to immunize itself against scrutiny, only pseudo-science does.

I want to be so clear here that I do pretty vigorously disagree with the notion that everyone working in the sciences is a noble intellectual who's always open to new data and loves being proven wrong. anyone can be a shithead and I never made the claim that every psychologist in the world is a beacon of perfect, unbiased research and is above reproach. of COURSE some scientists try to immunize themselves against scrutiny, for any number of reasons including biased ones because people in any field can be real shitheads who 100% let their own bigotries color their work. that of course includes psychologists, given that psychologists are human and therefore fallible.

my stance is not and has never been "psychology is superior to astrology because it's an academically unblemished field of study," it's "psychology is more credible than astrology because it's a.) a field of study that is at least held to some standards and b.) dedicated to studying something that demonstrably has an effect on human behavior, unlike planetary movements."

[techramonic]

Anger is Humanity: An Analysis on Andre Kriegman

Disclaimer: This analysis is limited only to commentary and analysis as a means to reflect and understand the characters and the internal and external factors that affect their decisions and actions, this is true rationality. Just like all of my posts, I am detached from the media I write about and solely focus on the characters to understand their backgrounds and psychology, for others to gain insight. There is no room for me to romanticize anything I write because I am only here to explain in my understanding. Thank you.

Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.

There are five stages of grief—yet some find themselves perpetually stuck and fixated on the second. It is a never-ending loop due to the fear of experiencing discomfort once the light is found; it is the fear of change, the bargaining of reality, the depression in the recurrence, and the acceptance that misfortune runs in your veins. One is not born with misfortune but rather handed with it.

THE SUPEREGO. A concept based on the Freudian principles of psychoanalysis, which generally develops through the internalization of values and norms given by primary groups (family and society). If members of these groups are either overly strict and abusive or lacking guidance, poor superego is molded. The superego controls the id's basic desires by using the ego, relying on internalized moral ideals. If the superego is underdeveloped, then there is an impairment in moral reasoning and the ability to distinguish what is morally just and unjust.  Furthermore, factors such as abusive environments also play a role in hindering normal superego development. Negative consequences are also brought by exposure to violence or alienation.

With this, we view Andre Kriegman in a new light. 

His behavior might be the result of an imbalance where his id's destructive desires aren't properly controlled by a strong superego. Freud has also noted various defense mechanisms the ego uses to handle conflicts between the id, superego, and external reality. If Andre's superego isn't functioning well, he might depend on unhealthy defense mechanisms like projection and blaming others for his indecent thoughts or rationalization by justifying his harmful behavior with logical reasoning.

Anger does not come from evil, but it comes from the mistreatment you receive.

It is the pain inflicted on you, the misfortune that leads you to believe that there is no possibility of ever finding the room to grow and move on. The reason why Andre is so fixated on hatred and anger is that it is a defense mechanism born out of the tragic reality that he has been and is hurt. It is the trauma response that begs to cling on you because you fear that in change, more misfortune will arise.

Anger—that is Andre Kriegman. In a world where you have constantly been alienated, you feel less human. You are not perceived, therefore, you do not exist. You are stripped away from whatever humanity you have, because to be a human, you must exist. You are a mere entity, an omnipresent being that is everywhere yet nowhere, all at once. Forced to watch a crowd interact, fearing and knowing you are so easy to be disregarded. You try to imitate them when interacting to be deemed more human, yet alas, all subside suddenly when you are deemed as a deviant. You are isolated, believed to be nothing, and therefore, gone. 

Anger sprouts from injustice. This is the rationality in anger—even how disproportionate it feels, like how Andre feels his anger. It is rooted in the lack of good treatment. The hate you feel is disproportionate as if your body begs to regurgitate all the hate you have and project it to anyone else—your family, your peers, and even yourself. You have this strong want to let others feel the pain you feel and bear, simply because this is the part of you that yearns and begs to be seen. To be understood, to be empathized with, to feel human, to be human.

To be treated as you should've been treated—well.

Anger is human. It is a part of humanity itself. Yet, as true as it can be, you can never heal with the same thing that caused it. Pain does not heal pain and anger does not heal anger, that is reality.

Andre Kriegman is anger, he is a reflection of humanity itself and the humanity he was shown. Humanity is anger.

[charliechats]

im gonna cook up a storm in english

"When we interpret this text through a Freudian (psychoanalytical) lens, we can draw significant conclusions about Ponyboy Curtis as a character—how his defense mechanisms caused him to drift and push away the other greasers, as well as the evolution of his personality throughout the novel, highlighting his growth in maturity and as an individual."

[leonstoenailunderhisbed]

RE Villains and my psychological opinion (+mini history lesson hehe.)

I really like the way CAPCOM writes their villains. Everyone talks about the main protagonist(s) such as Chris, Leon, Jill, Claire, etc. I think we should definitely give some credit to the evil guys of the franchise. I have my own two favorite villains, Lord Saddler (RE4/RE4R), and Svetlana (Damnation). I wish I could write about ALL the characters but that would almost be a book's length.

(I am no expert in psychology, i barely survived my spring semester lol. I am not licensed and i most certainly am not a doctor. The history part is true, but the psychology is just me being hyper fixated on the minor details. Once again, take this lightly. Also, i have my psych final soon and I'm so ready to kick ass.)

There's just something so alluring to me about the obsession with one being known as a God or God's messenger. Lord Saddler really got me thinking about how easy it is for a narcissist to make a cult about, essentially, themselves. Everyone knows the story about Narcissus, the mythological Greek God, and how he fell in love with his own reflection and basically starved himself to death. Hence why the term narcissism derived from the myth of Narcissus. Narcissism goes deeper than just one being self-centered. A narcissist is much more evil- they lack empathy and exploit others for their own goals/achievements. I would like to believe that Lord Saddler definitely has a narcissistic disorder because he took it upon himself to become, and as I like to call it, The God of Plaga. I mean, the dude literally created his own "bible" and his own insignia. He, like James in RE0, believe that they can conquer the world using the parasite. But the psychology behind it, or least in my humble knowledge, is really just a narcissist playing God. Saddler's psychological disorder is being projected onto religion, maybe in a response to a traumatic event. Freudian theory states that projection is a psychological defense mechanism where an individual projects unwanted thoughts, feelings, and motives on another person/group. I'd like to think that Saddler is a narcissist that projects his own motives as defense mechanism using religious methods.

I'm no expert on modern religion but I do like to think myself as someone well versed in BCE and CE religion. As i played through the game, I couldn't help but notice some similarities between Saddler and his cult and some ancient religious beliefs. Ancient civilizations often believed that their God's power was absolute, thus making religion an important part of their culture. The village in which the game takes place obviously contains a small church and then a castle- followed by the peasant village in the beginning of the game. We know that this is a remote location in Spain and since Spain was known as Hispania during the Roman Empire, it would be safe to say that maybe MAYBE CAPCOM was inspired by the history of the country that had followed all the way to CE. I'd like to believe that Saddler was probably inspired by the ruling of the Roman Empire after Emperor Theodosius (who declared Christianity as the state religion of the empire.) Saddler, much like Theodosius, created his own religion but it was considered a minority. Once Saddler had recruited more people, his "empire" expanded, much like Christianity all across Europe in CE. His plan was obviously to expand his domain and control the world with Las Plagas. Of course, this is just my own theories and observations.

I really loved Svetlana's character as a villain. She's cunning, diplomatic, and very goal oriented. It fascinated me the way she handled situations, as if she already knew everything from the start (except the temporary unification of Russia and the US). We know she used to be a combat instructor, or still is maybe. To me, she's the definition of a wolf in a sheep's disguise. Which again brings to my point on my analysis on Saddler- a narcissistic will do anything to make sure they accomplish their goals, regardless of whose lives are at risk. Svetlana, unlike Saddler, has international support and can manipulate ambassadors to be in her favor. She already has control over her republic as president, she only needs a little more help from her international supporters. This is not only a trait from a businessperson but also someone who is very smart and probably knows how to use people at their expense. But that's every politician, in my opinion. Greed and money are basically what sugar is to kids for politicians and government officials. The way she smirked and basically declared her victory when she was talking to Buddy through the barrier was literally so evil of her part, but it made sense. At the end of the day, I'd like to think that she really just had this urge of not messing up the country since she probably faced a lot of pressure from being the first female president of the country.

Svetlana is very smart. She resigned of her position right after the civil war ended because she knew the consequences of basically breeding Nemesis’s cousins (LOL) A narcissist is never dumb and if they are then they aren’t narcissists. Narcissists are extremely smart and extremely manipulative with no sense of guilt.

I would like to talk more about James and then deeper in Resident Evil Village bc that game is literally so well written I’m like 😍🫶🏼

[itsoxyymoronn]

i'd like to disclaim i have only read the first hunger games book and around half of the second, so my opinions and personal analysis are mainly skewed towards the movies. also spoilers for TBOSAS (duh). also this is all kind of a rushed non-edited theory, and probably needs more detail. ill probably edit here and there, so i'd love to hear any thoughts!

after seeing The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes last night, honestly what has been on my mind a lot was if the love between lucy gray and snow was real, and from that it felt it could only be answered by whether snow was inherently evil or he became evil.

the easiest answer feels to be that he was always purely selfish and lacked a great deal of empathy. all things seemed to point to that, but one thing that always threw a wrench in that idea for me was the scene where snow breaks down crying after looking in sejanus' storage. i think this scene is particularly important because by panem standards he did the correct thing. his friend was a rebel and he reported it. by panem's standards, he shouldn't feel guilty, and yet he still does. this seems to indicate some sort of moral compass in him.

i guess then the question leads to why snow became so evil. i think it is a combination of inherent self-serving traits and the environment he was raised in. i think a key concept here is "explanation, not excuse", which i learned from a video essay by Trope Anatomy in regards to Cassie Howard (link below). experiencing war and hardship at such a young age and later growing up around negative influences, such as Dr. Gaul and really all of the capitol itself, shaped his worldview and are direct factors that lead him to make the decisions he does. it doesn't excuse them though. his upbringing didn't force him to make these terrible choices, they only gave him more reason to. yet he still could've chosen to be good, as people like sejanus did.

him becoming pure evil in the end felt like a defense mechanism to cope with his own guilt. an incredibly messed up and extreme one at that. i think in the end his distain for the districts and their people doesn't come solely from them being "district" (although that definitely has something to do with his hatred) but rather them being people. dr. gaul taught him humans are all destined to show their true, evil nature, and this snow did. i think continuing the games was a way of proving to himself again and again that it was not just him that was evil, but all humans. it probably soothed the guilt within him.

while he may not have began as pure evil, he did become it. he's evil, full stop. he can't be redeemed. but i think TBOSAS gives us reason as to why he is like this. and while it may have been easy to view snow as forever and always evil, i believe in a way snow having this agency and development into cruelty just makes him all the more evil because it shows he DID have a choice, and chose evil. a great Screen Rant quote that really made me start thinking about this is "the overarching antagonist of the Hunger Games [is] Panem, not Snow" (link below).

SOURCES:

Trope Anatomy: Freudian Cassie: How Far an Excuse Can Go

Screen Rant: Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes Changes How You See Snow (But He’s Still Evil) https://screenrant.com/ballad-songbirds-snakes-president-snow-changes-evil/#:~:text=Still%2C%20the%20purpose%20behind%20Suzanne,Games%20as%20Panem%2C%20not%20Snow.

GIF credit is linked in GIF.

[viperzerofsx]

why both Evangelion endings are the same and the Psychology behind them

A common long standing sentiment is that the last two episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion and the film End of Evangelion are at odds with one another. The idea goes that the ending of the TV show is an ending where Shinji accepts instrumentality and End of Evangelion he rejects it. By going over the psychological framework in the show I would like to show that Shinji definitely rejects instrumentality in both endings.

Though well know for its references to psychology, the first half of Evangelion mostly does not contain them save episode 4 Hedgehog's dilemma (which apparently was made out of production order). This part of the series builds characters and world building. The show has a fascinating ability to flesh itself out scene after scene without truly elaborating on anything. 

The first half of the show is quite compelling but it’s not exactly what the show would become. The November 1996 Newtype interview has lots of interesting insight. Namely director Anno claims he was not familiar with psychology before reading a book on a production break (interesting as a previous work of his GunBusters has a character named Freud Jung). 

“Ueno: "They say it's about psychoanalysis and personality seminars and stuff, but I've always had a strong interest in psychology in general, "

Anno: "Not at all."

Ueno: "Did you feel like you were heading in that direction while working on Eva?"

Anno: "Yes. It was natural.

I had never read any psychoanalysis books before. I only touched on it a little in my general education classes at university. It was the most interesting of them all."

Ueno: "So, somehow, a keyword or something like an interest stuck in my mind."

Anno: "Yes. I guess I wasn't that interested in humans. But when I started talking about myself, I wanted words to convey my story.

So, the words I thought were the easiest to use were psychological terms commonly used in society. And I started looking through books.

Until then, I never thought I'd be interested in psychology."” Newtype November 1996

He continues 

“Anno: "Episode 16 was the first time. I plunged directly into my own inner world. I'd tried expressing words through line drawings before.”

Episode 16 (apparently the first episode of the second half to enter production) is called Splitting of the Breast, this is a term from Psychoanalysis Melanie Klein’s theories. Klein founded a school called object relations theory, whereas classic Freudian theory is of biological drives, object relations is a theory where people develop via interactions with others and a drive for relation with others. Internal objects are our mental representations of others, parts of others, and sometimes things (and external object would be the actual thing). We form internal representations of others based on our repeated interactions with them. Further we develop a mental representation of ourselves in relation to these objects which influence our interpersonal relationships through our our lives.

These mental representations or internal objects are called UnconsciousPhantasy. The Ph to distinguish from fantasy, ordinary everyday daydreaming and imagination, fantasy is an consciousness process while phantasy is unconscious and underlies all mental activities. Our unconscious phantasy is our relationship with the objects formed by experience to develop the emotional and intellectual character of a person, their thoughts, dreams, and defense mechanisms.

For the most part mental representations take these forms

The object as perceived by the individual 

Self perception related to the object

Individuals relationship with the object

Or

Mom is a good object because she takes care of me

Because she takes care I must be good, have value

I love my mom

Alternatively 

Mom is a bad object she ignores me when I need her

Because she ignores me I must be bad and worthless 

I hate my mom

The infants mind however is limited due to the nature of infant cognition. When the child is born it is undifferentiated from the world around it. The first other person is the child’s mother. As the child is totally dependent on the mother for survival, the mothers breasts (or a bottle) provide life giving subsistence to the helpless child. The child internalizes the breast as a “good” internal object. However when the child’s needs are not met, when it’s hungry or scared and no one is around to feed or comfort or otherwise care for it, it internalizes a “bad” breast. Infants “split” objects because they are not yet able to understand ambiguity. The good aspects of an object and bad aspects of an object are seen as separate objects.

A good object is soothing and takes care of a child. In Psychoanalytic terms good objects are associated with the Life force, Libido, Eros the will to live. A child feels omnipotents with the good object (I cry the good object takes care of me).

A bad object is an anxiety producing object, an object that does not meet a vulnerable baby's needs. a child feels persecuted by the bad object it feels a loss of omnipotents by the object  not being around when needed making the child feel powerless. Bad objects are associated with Dustrudo, Thanatos, the Death drive, a desire to return to an inorganic state before the stresses of life. A child can’t handle these feelings and projects aggression at the bad object to reassert control.

This state of coping with the world is called the paranoid schizoid position, where good objects are “protected” by being split into bad objects. If a caregiver is adequate the child will move to what’s called the Depressive position. In that stage a child realizes the good and bad objects were the same the whole time. The child feels regret for its treatment of the bad object (which along with the good object is now a whole object) and fears losing its loved ones. 

Returning to Evangelion Episode 16 

Early in the episode during a routine test Shinji’s sync ratio surpasses Auska’s for the first time. Misato praises Shinji in an effort to improve his morale, angering Auska. Though never competitive Shinji has made it clear he pilots the Evangelion for his fathers praise and he takes the news well. During a train ride Shinji is a bit overly excited and some young children laugh at him causing distress.

Later the angel Leliel attacks, with his new found confidence Shinji charges in against orders and he and Eva unit 01 are absorbed by the Angel. Later Shinji awakes on what seems to be a train and senses a presence 

Shinji : Who? 

        Who?

Shinji ' : IKARI Shinji.

Shinji : It's me.

Shinji ' : I am you.

          One has another self inside within oneself.

          The Self is always consisted of two selves.

Shinji : Two ?

Shinji ' : The self who's actually watched by others and 

         the self who wathces itself.

         IKARI Shinji in your mind.

         IKARI Shinji in KATSURAGI Misato's mind.

         IKARI Shinji in Souryuu Asuka's mind.

         IKARI Shinji in AYANAMI Rei's mind.

         IKARI Shinji in IKARI Gendou's mind.

        Any IKARI Shinji is differnt from each other,

        but each of them is true IKARI Shinji.

        You're afraid of IKARI Shinji in other's mind.

Leliel takes the form of a young Shinji, from around the time he was abandoned by his father. He tells Shinji that he has an internal Object of himself and others have an Internal Object of him. Shinji is afraid of what the others think of him because he certainly doesn’t think highly of himself.

Shinji : I'm afraid of being hated.

Shinji : You hate to be hurt.

        Who's bad ?

        Father is bad.

        Father who deserted me.

Shinji : I am bad.

-

(flashback)

Asuka : This way you always think yourself bad!

        That is "self-punishing."

-

(flashback)

Shinji : Heck, it's me who can do nothin'.

Misato :It's you that think you can do nothing?

-

(flashback)

Rei : Don't you trust your father ?

-

(flashback)

Shinji : (thought) I think I hate father. But I'm not sure.

-

(flashback)

Gendou : Well done, Shinji.

-

Shinji : Father called me by my name.

        I was praised by that my father.

Leliel tries to tell Shinji that Gendo is no good but Shinji is reluctant and points the negativity at himself. Shinji originally disliked Gendo but since he praised him Gendo is a “Good Object” who brings Shinji validation and comfort.

Shinji ' : You'll live with chewing the cub of the pleasure.

Shinji : If I trust this word, heck, I can live on from now on.

Shinji ' : ... by deceiving yourself ?

Leliel points out this is no way for anyone other then an infant to live. Holding up with your “good objects” while ignoring the bad is immaturity.

live.

Shinji ' : Unless you continue to think you may not change yourself,

         you can't live on.

Shinji : There're too many pains in this world for me to live.

Shinji ' : For example, you cannot swim ? 

Shinji : Human aren’t made to float.

Shinji : It's self-decetion.

Shinji : I don't care whatever you refer to it.

Shinji : You have been closing your eyes and turning your ears deaf 

        against anything you did not want to know.

-

(flashback from the episode 3)

Kensuke : Sorry, but his younger sister was ...

-

(flashback from the episode 4)

Misato : This is not your business to care others!

-

(flashback from the episode 1 )

Gendou : Get Out!

-

Shinji : No, I don't want to hear that!

Shinji' : Hey, you run away again.

        No one  can live on with linking things one enjoys like 

        the rosary.

        Particularly, I cannot.

Shinji : I found one thing I enjoy.

        Am I wrong if I do the thing enjoyable?

--

To summarize, Shinji hates himself because of his neglectful upbringing. For the first time in his life he’s gotten some measure of praise and he’s determined to hold on to it even at the expense of ignoring the still harsh realities of his life. This however is not resolved in this episode. Evangelion 01 goes berserk at the last minute saving Shinji and killing Leliel.

The last two episodes take place during the human instrumentality project, the goal of Seele and Shinji’s father Gendo. Gendo describes instrumentality 

Gendou:         No,

                It's not that everything returns to nothingness.

                It's nothing but returning everything to the begining.

                Nothing but returning things to the mother which

                has long since been lost.

                All the minds become one mind, obtaining peace forever.

                Nothing but that.

If mother is the first other this is before that, before polarizing good and more importantly bad objects that cause pain. Frued called the pre object faze “The Oceanic Feeling” a feeling of oneness with everything, inspired by Hindu mystics of his time. 

Shinji:         What feeling is this?

                That is what I feel like I experienced before.

                My body seems like dispearing.

                Agreeable.

                I feel like spreading, and becoming large,

                to here, there and everywhere.

Evangelion references Kabbalah but any nonduelistic mysticism would give the same point. If our bad feelings about ourselves comes from our relationship with others who we need to feel good, instrumentality seeks to merge all souls into one to avoid those negative aspects.

Shinji lost his mother at a young age and his father was neglectful and abandoned him. He has feelings of worthlessness because of this. Piloting an Eva was the first time in his life he was needed and praised, the first time he had a sense of value. He doesn’t however like doing it and is aware one day he will not be needed as an Eva pilot. The Angels will be defeated and then what need will anyone have of him? He runs away from this.

-

                        You pilot Eva for the sake of others?

-

Shinji:         Yes!

                That is a good thing.

                That is a very good thing.

                Everyone prases me, then.

Asuka:          That's a lie.

Shinji:         What?

Asuka:          You idiot?

                After all, it's for the sake of oneself.

Shinji:         Eh?

Asuka:          And you excuse yourself as usual.

Shinji:         Do I?

Asuka:          To think that you are doing your best for the sake of others

                is itself an easy way to live.

Shinji:         Is that so?

-

Asuka:          In other words, you are lonely, Shinji.

-

Shinji:         Is that so?

Asuka:          That's nothing but a dependent or symbiotic relationship.

Shinji:         That might be.

Asuka:          All you wish is that people depend on you.

Shinji:         That might be.

Asuka:          All you do is to wait for someone's giving you a happiness.

                A false happiness.

Rei:            That's the very thing you do.

Asuka:          WOW.

—

Later

Shinji:         I was praised by people!

                But, not happy.

Rei:            Which is your true mind?

Shinji:         I don't know, or, both of them are my true minds.

Misato:         So piloting Eva.

Shinji:         I have nothing but Eva.

Rei:            Otherwise you cannot keep yourself?

Misato:         It's true that Eva Unit One is part of your mind.

Ritsuko:        If you depend on Eva too much,

                Eva itself will be yourself.

Ryouji:         Eva will be all of yourself.

Misato:         The true yourself will be nowhere.

Shinji:         It's OK. I've had nothing from the begining.

                I've been learning cello, but results nothing.

Asuka:          I did not try to do from your side.

Shinji:         But, now that I can pilot Eva.

Asuka:          And, when you lost Eva, you can do nothing, like me.

                        Why pilotting Eva?

Shinji:         Because it's all of me.

Auska’s mother killed herself when she was young. Similar to Shinji Auska pilots the Eva for others not to abandon her, while at the same time wanting to be completely independent and unhurtable. She tries to validate this adultness by making romantic moves toward an adult man Kaji and to an extent Shinji who is also a prodigy Eva pilot (a cornerstone of her identity) but also seemingly meek and passive, giving an extreme love hate relationship between them.

Rei is the soul of Lilith in a cloned body of Yui, she has no past or upbringing and has very little self concept, only kept going by pacing moments of kindness from Gendo and later Shinji. She seeks death, a return to a simpler state but waivers in the attachments she’s made with others. Rei has begun to understand she has developed a self image from her time with others

Rei:            I am I.

                I've become me in the instrumentality of the links

                between me and others.

Rei:            I've been formed by the intercouse with others.

Rei:            The intercouse with people and the flow of time change

                the shape of my mind.

-

                        Those are bonds?

-

Rei:            Yes. Those've formed me so far, the thing called Ayanami Rei.

                And, those will form me from now on.

-

                        Those are bonds?

-

She no longer just wants to die but wonders if her new humanity is compatible with her true nature.

Misato seemed to have a normal relationship with her mother but had a very strained one with her father who later died saving her. Misato as a result has a much more stable personality save her odd relationships with men. She falls in love with Kaji a man she notes is very similar to her father, she breaks up with him because of this but then years later they meet again and get back together in short time. Before he comes back and again after his death Misato is also flirty and inappropriate with Shinji who is only 14 while she is 29.

Misato:         You tried to find a peace on Kaji-kun's face.

Misato:         NO!

Misato:         You tried to find a peace in Kaji-kun's kindness.

Misato:         NO!

Misato:         You tried to find your father in Kaji-kun's arms.

Misato:         NO!

-

Misato:         YES.

                I found the father within Kaji-kun back then.

                So fleed from him.

                I feared.

                He was just like my father.

                But, it was because I was happy,

                It was a joy.

                It was truly a enjoyable joy!

                So did I hate.

                So did I separate.

Ryouji:         No reason to begin a love, but a reason to end the love.

Misato:         You are kind enough,

                You are kind enough to, I hope, make me dirty.

Ryouji:         Don't hurt yourself only because you hate yourself now.

                That's only to cheat yourself by momentally punishing yourself.

                Don't do that.

Misato:         And "you must take care of yourself" say you?

-

Misato:         Guys always do so.

                And Guys work, and Guys go into their world,

                leaving me behind.

Misato:         Just like my father.

Misato:         Always trying to escape from the hardships in the reality.

                Hardship in the reality?

                It's me?

                It's me.

                Yes. It's me.

                It's inevitable.

-

Shinji:         Stop, Misato-san.

-

Misato:         I'm desparate of myself.

                I hate myself!

-

Misato:         Impure.

                Dirty!

-

Ritsuko:        Badlooking.

-

Misato:         Mean! Dirty!

                Is that the adults' intercourse? I really hate that!

-

Makoto:         Congratulations for you promotion. Major Katsuragi.

-

Misato:         The me appreciated is the me who is trying

                to play to be appreciated.

                It's not the true me.

Misato:         The true me is always crying.

We see Kaji brought out the “Good object” of Misato’s father (the one that saved her in the second impact) and this is what attracted her to him. However, being aware of the similarities brought out the “bad object” the father that neglected her during her childhood and made her mother cry.

As instrumentality continues and the internal objects converse (this is the me in your mind and the you in my mind). Shinji is taken through the early parts of the object relations individualization process. He’s taken too a pre object world, before any others.

Shinji:         What? The world with nothing. The world with nobody.

Shinji:         The world of freedom.

Shinji:         Freedom?

Shinji:         The world of freedom that would never be restrained by anybody.

Shinji:         Is this Freedom?

Shinji:         Yes. The world of freedom.

Rei:            As the result, there's nothing.

Shinji:         unless I think.

Misato:         Yes, unless you think.

Shinji:         What's the hell! I don't know what I should do.

Rei:            You are uneasy.

Asuka:          You don't have your own image.

Shinji:         Too vague.

Misato:         Everything is vague.

                        That's freedom.

This is the world of an infant at birth, simple experience. Then they introduce an other

Gendou:         I give you an unfreedom.

Asuka:          Now that you have top and bottom.

Rei:            Now that you lost one degree of freedom.

Misato:         Now that you have to stand on the bottom.

Ryouji:         But you obtain a confort.

Makoto:         You get slightly easier in your mind.

Shigeru:        And you walk.

Maya:           That is your will.

Shinji:         Is this my will?

Ritsuko:        The world with the bottom is the world surrounding you.

Touji:          Yet, you can move freely.

Kensuke:        If you wish, you can change the position of the world.

Hikari:         The position of the world does not keep the same position.

Ryouji:         That changes through the time flow.

You can also change.

Gendou:         The things that forms you are your own mind and

                the world surrounding yourself.

Ritsuko:        Since this is your own world.

Misato:         The real figure that you conceive.

                        That is the reality.

The ground allows Shinji to see himself in relation to it. He also learns his perspective, his Phantasy can be changed. But Shinji realizes something is wrong.

This is the world with nothing, the space with nothing,

                the world with nothing.

                The world with nothing but me.

                I am getting  less understand myself.

                I feel as if I am going to disappear.

                My existence is fading away.

                        Why?

Misato:         Because there's nobody but you.

Shinji:         Nobody but me?

Misato:         Because you have no existence but of yourself,

                You can't figure out your own shape.

Shinji:         My shape?

                        My image.

Misato:         Yes. You are getting to know your own shape through

                seeing others' shape.

Asuka:          Seeing others' wall, you imagin yourself.

Rei:            You cannot see yourself unless there are others.

Shinji:         Because there are others, I can exist.

                If alone, I am always alone at anywhere.

                The world is entirely by my ..

Misato:         By cognizing the difference between you and others,

                you form the image of yourself.

Rei:            The very first other person is your mother.

Asuka:          Your mother is a different person from you.

Shinji realizes it’s the social relation with others, how they treat him forms his self image, his expectations for how he’ll be treated. Rei and Auska like Klein point out Mother is the first other person, the one who starts individualization.

Shinji then sees a world where he has a more well adjusted Phantasy and lives a normal life. He realizes his limited view of himself and others can be changed. 

——

Shinji:         The real world might not always be bad.

                Yet, I hate myself. 

Makoto:         It's your mind that conceives that the reality is bad

                and hateful.

—- 

He comes to realize it’s possible for him to love himself 

Shinji:         I hate myself.

                But, I might be able to love myself.

                I might be allowed to stay here.

                Yes. I am nothing but I.

                I am I. I wish to be I.

                I wish to stay here as do I.

                I can stay here as do I!

What is important though Shinji experience pure instrumentality where others did not exist and he had no existence. He found this unacceptable and decided a better course of action was to find a healthier view of him. Loving himself as an individual or others is an inherent rejection of instrumentality which the self image cannot exist.

——

Now End of Evangelion

The movie begins, Shinji has lost almost everyone and is alone. He goes to Auska in the hospital, he sees her not because he’s worried but because he has no one else. In a comma Auska can’t respond. Shinji lashes out and does something terrible.

Though the TV ending is quite upbeat, Klein's psychology is quite dark and violent. As mentioned above the death drive plays a major role in Klein, infants who don’t have their needs met by their environment and caretakers feel anxiety and project the death drive, lash out in aggression. In Evangelion when an Eva loses control or Ritsko destroys the dummy Rei, or during the third impact the computer monitors will often read high levels of destrudo. 

—

Psychograph signal down! 

Destrado has begun to manifest! 

The pilot's ego won't be able

to take much more of this. 

No more. 

I can't take it anymore.

—

Rei who speaks of wishing to return to nothing is the living personification of the death drive, while kaworu (music is the highest achievement of Lillian culture) is Libeto or the life force.

Third impact begins with Shinji at his absolute lowest point in the series, having done something horrible to Auska and then watch her get killed. The image of Kaworu however provides him some brief comfort and he enters his internal world. He sees himself as a child with two doll looking girls that look like Rei and Auska, they build a sand castle of Nerv HQ together. Their mother (who is Misato) collects them and Shinji is left alone with no one. Alone, neglected, and his needs not met, Shinji destroys the Castle, lashing out violently, a taste of what’s to come. Shinji then seems flashes and images of Misato, Auska, and Rei. Importantly he sees sides of them unfamiliar, and more importantly not pleasure granting to him

—-

Does Misato really

do things like that?

Yes, this is also me.

The me that exists

when two hearts are joined as one.

The me that

Shinji has never known.

Reality can be painful,

but it's something that

you must learn to accept.

His internal objects of the women reject and accuse him

If I can't have you all to myself,

then I don't want anything from you. 

Then, try being nice to me. 

We are nice to you. 

Liars! 

You're just hiding

behind those smiles, 

intentionally keeping

things ambiguous! 

Because the truth causes

everyone pain... 

because the truth is very,

very traumatic. 

But ambiguity only

causes me more pain. 

That's just an excuse. 

But it scares me, 

because I don't know if everyone

will stop wanting me again. 

I feel awkward and uneasy.

Let me hear your voice! 

Don't leave me! 

Please care about me!

—

 In this sequence Shinji basically admits everything. He wants them for comfort, but he can’t handle ambiguity. The world is only black and white, good pleasure granting objects or total abandonment, no room for real people and their nuance. Shinji goes to an image of Auska on the night they kissed. He tries to be their for her but she doesn’t buy it and calls him out as someone who only wishes to avoid pain. Shinji Chokes Auska and the third impact begins.

—

No one understands me.

You never understood anything.

I thought this was supposed

to be a world without pain,

and without uncertainty.

That's because you thought that

everyone else felt the same as you do.

You betrayed me!

You betrayed my feelings!

You misunderstood

from the very beginning.

You just believed

what you wanted to believe.

Nobody wants me,

so they can all just die.

Then what is your hand for?

Nobody cares whether or not I exist.

Nothing ever changes,

so they can all just die!

Then tell me,

what is your heart for?

It would be better

if I never existed.

I should just die, too.

Then why are you here?

Is it okay for me to be here?

(Silence)

—-

The ultimate Childish lashing out of the Death Drive, Shinji forces the human race to a Preobject state, where they are all indescribable from one another. Notably in the final moments of third impact Shinji can hear the voices of the girls rejecting him. Shinji immediately rejects the world he created for much the same reason as the show

—

Ayanami. 

Where are we? 

This place is a sea of LCL. 

The primordial soup of life. 

A place with no AT Fields,

where individual forms do not exist. 

An ambiguous world... 

where you cannot tell

where you end and others begin. 

A world where

you exist everywhere... 

and yet you're nowhere,

all at once. 

Is this death? 

Not quite. This is a world

where we are all one. 

This is the world you wished for. 

But this isn't right.

This feels wrong. 

If you wish for others to exist, 

the walls of their hearts

will separate them again. 

They will all feel fear once more. 

Okay then. 

Thank you. 

I only felt pain

when I existed in that reality. 

So I thought

it was alright to run away. 

But there was nothing good

in the place I escaped to either. 

Because I didn't exist there,

and so no one existed. 

Is it alright for the AT Field

to cause you and others pain again? 

I don't mind. 

—

Having a world without others is a world with no self concept, which isn’t what Shinji real wanted either.

Reality exists in a place unknown,

and dreams exist within reality.

And truth lies in your heart.

The contents of a person's heart

shapes their appearance.

And new images will change

their hearts and their forms.

 The power of imagination is

the ability to create your own future,

and the power to create

your own flow of time.

Shinji rejects instrumentality and decides even if he doesn’t know how to be happy it’s better than losing himself. He returns to earth, the violent destructiveness of the rest of the film is replaced by a sad melancholy as he says goodbye to Yui his mother and Eva unit one.

The final scene is a microcosm of the movie. Titled “I need you” the hidden tagline of the film (and likely Gendo’s secret line) Auska returns to the beach Shinji is on. He starts strangling her like before, she puts her hand on his face, Shinji stops and cries. As mentioned before the depressive position is the next state when the Child realizes the good and bad object were the same all along. They feel regret over their treatment of the object. Shinji can finally understand ambiguity about others and ultimately himself and can move on from Black and White thinking.

To summarize, Shinji had a black and white view of himself and other people because of his neglectful upbringing. He had no sense of value for himself and saw others as either sources of validation. In both endings Instrumentality offered an ultimate retreat but Shinji found his loss of self unexceptionable and chose to reject instrumentality and mature.

[specksizedgoddess]

Trait: Squick When exposed to a kink your character is very not into (selected when picking this trait), they gain a +1 to attack but suffer -1 to defense for 1 hour

Trait: Inconvenient Kink When exposed to a kink your character didn't realize they were into (selected when picking this trait), they lose their primary action on the next turn as they process this information, but gain 10 temporary hit points after a short/long rest.

Trait: Freudian Slip While engaged in a conversation, you may make an innuendo to distract the target while a mother (another) character in your party gains advantage on sneak until the conversation ends.

YESYESYES EXACTLY MECHANICS LIKE THIS

While it all functions around kinks and fetishes, interactions are still meant to be silly! These are all very well done- I do worry a little bit about Squick, admittedly, as adding an ability thats strictly "against" one kink leaves open a few very small cracks in doorways that I'm sure could be solved easily :3

Mwah mwah mwah BEAUTIFUL stuff anon 10/10 <3333

[luxe-pauvre]

According to classical Freudian theory, the parts of the mind that correspond roughly to the autobiographical self (i.e. the person you understand yourself to be) defend against three threats: internalised parental criticism, primitive urges, and dangers located in the real world (such as physical harm, embarrassment or humiliation). Anna Freud maintained that it is only by analysing defence mechanisms that we can hope to gain meaningful insights: Without a knowledge of these we may, indeed, discover much about the contents of the repressed instinctual wishes and phantasies, but we shall learn little or nothing about the vicissitudes through which they have passed and the varies ways in which they enter into the structure of personality: In other words, a close examination of defence mechanisms will probably tell you more useful things about a person than their sexual and aggressive urges ever could. In a sense, we are our defensive distortions. When we hold a mirror up to life, the warp in the glass makes us who we are.

Frank Tallis, The Act of Living

[poetrythreesixfive]

Aries Moon

Fuck you, Aries, you fucking asshole.

Let’s start with that full-frontal assault,

you ancient and so-obsolete-it’s-sad deity

whose only mission in life is to issue strife

spawn of Zeus, that womanizing temper-strewn

lightning chucker, and Hera, shrew of shrews,

perpetually raining upon everyone’s parade –

no wonder you’re a douche-bag

forever looking for trouble, making it double,

lugging around that huge spear and shield like

some quasi-Freudian self-defense mechanism

to compensate for your small penis

at least Athena approaches battle with some

semblance of decorum, martial strategy, honor,

while you wade into baths of bloodlust, brutal

and profane, the worst of what man has to offer

get out of my moon, stop clogging up my

star-chart, you are astronomically unwelcome

within my celestial spheres of influence, and I

hereby cast you out of my house and unto hades

it’s never that easy, so I must ease my anger

on its own accord and wait for Venus to enter

Sagittarius, wait for my wounds to heal, for my

blood to cool with the touch of her pale hand

next time you think to sacrifice my peace

of mind to your irrepressible belligerence,

keep walking, take your battalions of bad

ideas with you, and let me get some sleep.

-GeorgeFilip

[marley-manson]

anyway other things about Mail Call Three:

-- When BJ tells Hawkeye about a neighbour making a pass at Peg, he asks, "How did she handle it?" BJ: "She thought it was funny." Hawkeye: "Sounds like she handled it very well." I love Hawkeye.

-- BJ's "She sounds less like herself with every letter," is such an oof moment. And BJ being mollified by telling her which mechanic to go to on the phone at 3am because he wanted to know she still needs him is also yikes lol. Like BJ's "I need you too," is purely a romantic sentiment, but BJ is desperate for Peg to rely on him for material things. See also: the gutters, the second job, etc.

It really isn't far off from Frank's freakout about his wife wearing pants lol, except that it isn't really problematicized, at least not in this episode. The narrative treats BJ's intense moping with condescension here, but their exchange on the phone, and BJ's relief at being able to tell Peg to take her car to a different place, is framed as sweet and romantic, not annoyingly paternalistic.

-- Fun to note that Hawkeye's duet with Mulcahy, "take good care of yourself, you belong to me," is bookended by Hawkeye looking after BJ, first by trying to console him and cheer him up, and after by dragging him out of the bar after he's had too much to drink and tucking him into bed.

-- Hawkeye's "Goodnight Irene," is presumably a joking reference to BJ obsessing over Peg, but the original version of the song is about a dude obsessed with a woman he can't have, rather than later versions about a man "parted" from his wife, and I'm js it works as a sardonic little reference to his own crush on BJ.

-- I know it's an actual thing that has nothing to do with dumb freudian psychology, but the show loves freudian psychology so I'm still gonna lol @ Hawkeye being jealous of his dad's girlfriend.

-- This is not a defense of Your Retention Please, more a mild condemnation of this episode/the trajectory of the show as a whole, but Your Retention Please does have basis as a sequel to this episode. Klinger gets more bad news about Laverne from home, but instead of deserting he re-enlists - which is a continuation of the end of this episode where he declares that he may have no family back home, but at least the 4077 is his family.

A sentiment I of course don't like lol, but it's only mildly annoying until it's the basis of a whole episode where Klinger decides he loves the army, actually.

[writinglittlemagics]

Forgive my poor citations for this one :[ I’m currently sitting in the nicest amphitheater I've ever been in getting ready to sing a holiday concert! Feeling a little nervous, a little silly, here’s some Freudian Analysis:

Freudian Defenses in The Main Character

“The Main Character” by Will Wood is a satirical song from the perspective of a modern self-obsessed, trope-defined egomaniac. This character is meant to embody someone who speaks without the use of their Freudian superego (see: “Look in the sky, it’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s superego!” as the character watches their superego leave them behind). This speaker utilizes several of the Freudian defense mechanisms to justify their egoic actions and attitudes towards other people. One such example is the speaker’s use of regression. When speaking about being disliked, the narrator becomes incredibly uncomfortable, saying, “Don’t come at me; I’m the main character, and you have to like me.” After this, the narrator regresses into childish villain personas to hide from their actions. One such example is Snidely Whiplash, the villain from the cartoon Rocky and Bulwinkle. This villain is a caricature of evil and is known for tying people to train tracks and twirling his mustache. The speaker is hiding behind this immature cardboard character to hide from the more severe accusations they are being confronted by. Some other such villains are Boris Badenov and “Daleks in high collars,” more foolish villain types.

Another favorite defense mechanism of our narrator is rationalization. The chorus repeats the lines, “So God forbid I’m seen just as an average human being… Don’t come at me; I’m the main character, and you have to like me.” The word “like” here can refer to both “likes” on social media and liking someone as a genuine person. Our narrator easily conflates the two. The phrase “main character energy” is famous on a lot of social media platforms as a way to announce one’s self-importance in one’s life. You are living your life; ergo, you are the main character in your own story. The narrator in this song does not have the superego to recognize that they are not the main character in everyone else’s life, and so lives deluded into thinking that they are. This is exemplified in verse two, stating, “I loot plot armor from NPC��s; Well, they are to me. Trite tropes, traits, traumas, trinkets, and treats; it’s all XP.” To translate some of the slang here, the speaker is calling other people’ Non-Playable Characters’ and deeming them worthless to his endeavors. Plot armor is a film device that describes protagonists who have to stay alive, even in dangerous situations, for the sake of the story. Stripping someone of their plot armor means that they would be expendable to the narrator if they need to gain the ‘XP’ or experience. Because the narrator believes themselves to be the main character of this larger story, mistreating other people is acceptable for the sake of “the plot.”

The final commonly used defense mechanism is denial. The narrator can comfortably live this lifestyle as long as they don’t wake up to the reality that other people are more relevant than themself. The post bridge says, “The court fool got the guillotine, the witches the stake, you the dopamine. And Siemens made the Zyklon B, but we all still get the flu.” These lines all refer to some kind of scapegoat, different groups of people who were blamed for the sake of denying more significant issues. The court fool is executed as an example, witches are burned to defend the church and deny other ideas, and a person takes dopamine to deny their depression. This narrator is a self-aggrandizing, deluded narcissist and can only continue to be this way with the use of defense mechanisms.

(Word Count: 590)

“Will Wood – the Main Character.” Genius, 29 July 2022, genius.com/Will-wood-the-main-character-lyrics.

[angels-in-the-electric-chair]

YOU ALL KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS!!! ITS FREUDIAN DEFENSE MECHANISM TIME‼️‼️‼️

[emmyrosee]

There’s this ongoing trend on tiktok where moms would “teach” their sons to do chores so they wouldn’t settle for a “bare-minimum” partner (mostly female) in the future. It’s really unsettling and there’s a lot of gender and class politics going on there (also the freudian slip lol).

but girl, i just know that your mom!y/ns are the absolute best moms ever and would teach their sons to do chores so they wouldn’t grow up dependent on accomplishing all the houseworks to their wives just bc they’re women.

The same goes with the hq!dads too! They would teach their daughters to be their own person like the real barbie girls that they are 💗

Im not going to speak too too much on the politics of parents and gender roles in society, because I write about animated lines and I have only my niece and nephew IFNEIDBDOD- I don’t really have the degree to speak on it 🤠😂🩷

BUT what I do know is she would teach Akito and Kaito (secret boy lol) that listening and communication is the most important part of any relationship. Any aspect of life. She teaches them how to be kind above anything else; but also the proper way to load a dishwasher is also on that list

With the dad’s, it’s the opposite, albeit the same. They’re taught yes, basic maintenance of house keeping, but they’re taught boundaries. They’re taught some self defense, and talk to police officers if, the gods forbid, they get pulled over. They’re taught how to love themselves and never, EVER settle on anything in life. They’re taught how to change their oils and tires and break pads, some of them are taught how to check engine codes so no mechanic can try to outsmart them or walk over them, or so they can simply do the work themselves. The bare minimum is not good enough for these sweet girls and whoever tries to go against that is absolutely silly.

I just. I want my parent!au’s to reflect all of that and maybe let others learn it too 🥺🩷

[leebird-simmer]

Psychopathology, Ch 2 pt. 2

Describe the key features of psychodynamic models of abnormal behavior and evaluate their major contributions.

Psychoanalytic theory: the theoretical model of personality developed by Sigmund Freud, based on the belief that psychological problems are rooted in unconscious motives and conflicts from childhood; also called psychoanalysis.

Conscious: to Freud, the part of the mind that corresponds to our present awareness.

Preconscious: to Freud, the part of the mind whose contents lie outside present awareness but can be brought into awareness by focusing on them.

Unconscious: to Freud, the part of the mind that lies outside the range of ordinary awareness and that contains instinctual urges.

Id: the unconscious psychic structure, present at birth, that contains primitive instincts and that is regulated by the pleasure principle.

Pleasure principle: the governing principle of the id, involving demands for immediate gratification of needs.

Ego: the psychic structure that corresponds to the concept of the self, governed by the reality principle and characterized by the ability to tolerate frustration.

Reality principle: the governing principle of the ego, which involves considerations of social acceptability and practicality.

Superego: the psychic structure that incorporates the values of our parents and important others and functions as a moral conscience.

Defense mechanisms: the reality-distorting strategies used by the ego to shield the shelf from awareness of anxiety-provoking impulses.

Fixation: in Freudian theory, a constellation of personality traits associated with a particular stage of psychosexual development, resulting from either too much or too little gratification at that stage.

Other Psychodynamic Theorists

Carl Jung (1875-1961) - Swiss psychiatrist, developed analytical psychology. Believed an understanding of human behavior must incorporate self-awareness and self-direction as well as impulses of the id and mechanisms of defense. Believed that we have a personal unconscious, but also that we inherit a collective unconscious. The collective unconscious contains archetypes: primitive images or concepts that reside in the collective unconscious.

Alfred Adler (1870-1937) - broke away from Freud because he believed people are basically driven by an inferiority complex, not by the sexual instinct. These feelings of inferiority lead to a powerful drive for superiority, which motivates us to achieve prominence and social dominance. In the healthy personality, those struggles for dominance are tempered by a desire to help other people. Adler spoke of a creative self, a self-aware aspect of personality that strives to overcome obstacles and develop potential. Because our potentials are uniquely individual, Adler's theories have been called individual psychology.

Karen Horney (1885-1952) - stressed the importance of child-parent relationships in the development of emotional problems. Horney believed that when parents are harsh or uncaring, children develop a deep-seated form of anxiety called basic anxiety, a feeling of "being isolated and helpless in a potentially hostile world." Children may also develop a form of hostility called basic hostility. With Horney and other psychodynamic theorists who followed Freud, the emphasis shifted from a focus on sexual & aggressive drives toward a closer examination of social influences on development.

Today, most psychoanalysts see people as motivated on two tiers: by the growth-oriented conscious pursuits of the ego, and by the more primitive conflict-ridden drives of the id. Heinz Hartmann (1894-1970) was one of the originators of ego psychology, which posits that the ego has energy and motives of its own.

Erik Erikson (1902-1994) - focused on psychosocial development, in contrast to Freud's emphasis on psychosexual development. Erikson attributed more importance to social relationships and formation of personal identity than to unconscious processes. Erikson's developmental theory, beginning in early adolescence, posits that our personalities continue to be shaped throughout adulthood as we deal with the psychosocial challenges or crises we face during each phase of life.

Margaret Mahler (1897-1985) - developed object-relations theory, focused on how children come to develop symbolic representations of important others in their lives, especially their parents. According to this theory, we incorporate parts of parental figures in our lives into our own personalities, and when we fear losing those people through rejection or death, we might incorporate elements of other people who disapprove of us or have perspectives that conflict with our own. The aim of Mahler's therapeutic approach was to help clients separate their own ideas and feelings from those of the incorporated objects so they could develop as individuals.

Psychosis: a severe form of disturbed behavior characterized by impaired ability to interpret reality and difficulty meeting the demands of daily life.

Evaluating Psychodynamic Models

culturally influential

generally agreed that people can have hidden motives even they may not be aware of

Freud placed too much emphasis on sexual & aggressive impulses and under-emphasized social relationships.

Freud's hypothetical mental processes are not scientific concepts because they cannot be directly observed or tested.

There IS a growing body of scientific evidence that supports the existence of unconscious processes that lie outside ordinary awareness.

Describe the key features of learning-based models of abnormal behavior and evaluated their major contributions.

Behaviorism: the school of psychology that defines psychology as the study of observable behavior and that focuses on the role of learning in explaining behavior.

Conditioned response (CR): in classical conditioning, a learned response to a previously neutral stimulus.

Unconditioned stimulus (US): a stimulus that elicits an unlearned response.

Unconditioned response (UR): an unlearned response.

Conditioned stimulus (CS): a previously neutral stimulus that evokes a conditioned response after repeated pairings with an unconditioned stimulus that had previously evoked that response.

Classical conditioning: a form of learning in which a response to one stimulus can be made to occur in response to another stimulus by pairing or associating the two stimuli.

Operant conditioning: a form of learning in which behavior is acquired and strengthened when it is reinforced.

Reinforcement: a stimulus or event that increases the frequency of the response that it follows.

Positive reinforcers: reinforcers that increase the frequency of the preceding behavior when introduced.

Negative reinforcers: reinforcers that increase the frequency of the preceding behavior when removed.

Punishment: application of aversive or painful stimuli that reduces the frequency of the behavior it follows.

Social-cognitive theory: a learning-based theory that emphasizes observational learning and incorporates roles for cognitive variables in determining behavior.

Modeling: (1) learning by observing and imitating the behavior of others; (2) in behavior therapy, a treatment technique for helping an individual acquire a target behavior by observing a therapist or another individual demonstrate the target behavior and then imitating it.

Expectancies: beliefs about expected outcomes.

Evaluating Learning Models

spawned behavior therapy (AKA behavior modification) that involves systematically applying learning principles to help people change their undesirable behavior

behavioral therapies tend to be effective for depression, anxiety disorders & phobias, sexual dysfunction, and more

reinforcement-based programs are useful to parents and teachers

critics point out that human experience cannot be reduced to observable responses

social-cognitive theorists are particularly dissatisfied with the view that rewards and punishments control our behavior; thoughts and dreams and goals and aspirations are not accounted for

critics of social-cognitive theory might say that it places too little emphasis on genetic contributions to behavior and doesn't provide a full enough account of subjective experience

Describe the key features of humanistic models of abnormal behavior and evaluate their major contributions.

Self-actualization: in humanistic psychology, the tendency to strive to become all that one is capable of being; the motive that drives one to reach one’s full potential and express one’s unique capabilities.

Unconditional positive regard: valuing other people as having basic worth regardless of their behavior at a particular time.

Conditional positive regard: valuing other people on the basis of whether their behavior meets one’s approval.

According to humanists, we cannot fulfill all the wishes of others and remain true to ourselves. However, this does not mean that self-actualization invariably leads to conflict. Rogers believed that people hurt one another or become antisocial in their behavior only when they are frustrated in their efforts to reach their unique potentials. When parents and others treat children with love and tolerance, children also grow up to be loving and tolerant, even if some of their values and preferences are different from their parents' choices.

The goals of client-centered therapy or person-centered therapy are self-discovery, self-acceptance, getting in touch with one's true feelings, accepting them as one's own, and acting in ways that genuinely reflect those feelings.

Evaluating Humanistic Models

brought concepts of free choice, inherent goodness, personal responsibility, and authenticity into modern psychology

because conscious experience is private & subjective, it's difficult to quantify and study objectively

Maslow & Rogers' concept of self-actualization is not directly measurable or observable; it's inferred from its superimposed effects

Describe the key features of cognitive models of abnormal behavior and evaluate their major contributions.

Cognitive theorists study the thoughts, beliefs, expectations and attitudes we use to understand the world around us. They focus on how inaccurate or biased processing of information about the world can create abnormal behavior. Cognitive theorists believe that distorted interpretations or judgments about the events in our lives (not the events themselves) determine the likelihood of developing emotional problems.

Albert Ellis developed rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT) to help people dispute their irrational beliefs and substitute more rational ones.

Aaron Beck developed cognitive therapy, and stressed four basic types of cognitive distortions that contribute to emotional distress:

Selective abstraction - People may focus exclusively on the parts of their experiences that reveal their flaws and ignore evidence of their competencies.

Overgeneralization

Magnification

Absolutist thinking

Evaluating Cognitive Models

The overlap between learning-based and cognitive approaches is best represented by the emergence of cognitive-behavioral therapy, a form of therapy that focuses on modifying both self-defeating beliefs and overt behaviors.

CBT is not particularly helpful for more "severe" mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia.

It's unclear whether distorted thinking patterns are caused by depression or are effects of depression.

The Sociocultural Perspective

The sociocultural perspective proposes that a fuller accounting of abnormal behavior requires that we consider social and cultural factors, including factors related to ethnicity, gender, and social class. Sociocultural theorists seek causes of abnormal behavior in the failures of society rather than in the person. Some of the most radical sociocultural theorists even deny the existence of psychological disorders or mental illness.

Evaluate ethnic group differences in rates of psychological disorders.

Knowing that a disorder disproportionately affects one group or another can help planners direct prevention and treatment programs to the groups that stand to benefit most.

In general, as incomes increase, the risk of serious psychological disorders decreases, a trend that points to the effects of financial stress on mental well-being (Weissman et al., 2015). People with household incomes near or below the poverty line stand a higher risk of developing serious psychological disorders, including mood disorders and substance use disorders, than those with higher incomes (Sareen et al., 2011; Weissman et al., 2015).

Exposure to racism, discrimination, and oppression is also a significant source of stress to ethnic minorities, and that can take a toll on mental health (Chavez-Duenas et al., 2019; Hartmann et al., 2019). [Note: does anyone know how I can add the ~ over an "n"? I'm not on mobile.]

We also need to account for differences among ethnic subgroups. For example, depression is more prominent among Hispanic immigrants to the United States from Central America than from Mexico, even when considering differences in educational backgrounds (Salgado de Snyder, Cervantes & Padilla, 1990).

Black and Hispanic Americans actually have lower rates of current (past year) psychological disorders or mental illness than white (European) Americans. Asian Americans also generally show lower prevalence rates than the overall US population (Kim & Lopez, 2014; Ryder et al., 2013; Sue et al., 2012). However, when it comes to the chronicity of psychological disorders, Hispanic and Black Americans typically develop more persistent or chronic mental disorders than white/European Americans (Breslau et al., 2005).

Additional analysis showed that differences in persistence of disorders were not a function of socioeconomic level (Breslau et al., 2005). However, white adults are about twice as likely - compared to Black or Hispanic Americans - to use mental health services, with factors relating to cost and lack of access to insurance coverage most often reported as reasons for lower use among racial or ethnic minorities (SAMSHA, 2015). It is conceivable that better access to mental health care may help shorten the duration of psychological disorders.

American Indians - and Native Hawaiians, and Alaska Natives - experience high rates of mental disorders, such as depression and substance use disorders (Gone et al., 2019; Nelson & Wilson, 2017; Skewes & Blume, 2019). They also happen to be among the most impoverished ethnic groups in the United States & Canada. High levels of stress and poverty among Natives living on tribal reservations are certainly among the factors contributing to a greater prevalence of depression (Kaufman et al., 2013).

Rates of substance use disorders among American Indians & Alaska Natives are more than double those of the general population (Skewes & Blume, 2019). The death rate due to suicide among 10-14 year olds is about four times higher for Natives than other ethnic groups. Native boys and young men have the highest suicide rates in the nation (USDHHS, 1999).

Native Hawaiians tend to die at a younger age than other residents of Hawaii, largely because they face an increased risk of serious diseases, including hypertension, cancer, and heart disease (Johnson et al., 2004). They also show higher rates of risk factors associated with these diseases, such as smoking, alcohol abuse, and obesity. Compared to other Hawaiians, Native Hawaiians also experience higher rates of mental health problems, including higher suicide rates among men, higher rates of alcoholism and drug abuse, and higher rates of antisocial behavior.

The mental health problems and economic struggles of Native peoples are, at least partially, a reflection of the alienation from their lands and erasure of their lifeways that resulted from European colonization (Gone et al., 2019; Rabasca, 2000).

Evaluate the sociocultural perspective in our understanding of abnormal behavior.

Social causation model: holds that people from lower socioeconomic status groups are at a greater risk of severe behavior problems because living in poverty subjects them to a greater level of social stress than that faced by more well-to-do people (Costello et al., 2003; Wadsworth & Achenbach, 2005).

Downward drift hypothesis: suggests that problem behaviors lead people to drift downward in social status, thereby explaining the link between low socioeconomic status and severe behavior problems.

The Biopsychosocial Perspective

examines contributions of multiple factors spanning biological, psychological, and sociocultural domains, as well as their interactions, in the development of psychological disorders

biological influences more prominent for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and autism (for example)

for anxiety and depression, there is a more intricate relationship between biological, psychological, and environmental factors

Describe the diathesis-stress model of abnormal behavior.

diathesis-stress model: holds that certain psychological disorders arise from a combination or interaction of...

a diathesis: vulnerability or predisposition to developing the disorder, usually genetic in nature

stressful life experiences

Whether a disorder actually develops depends on the nature of the diathesis and the type + severity of stressors the person experiences in life. The life stressors that may contribute to the development of disorders include birth complications, trauma or serious illness in childhood, childhood sexual or physical abuse, prolonged unemployment, loss of loved ones, or significant medical problems (Jablensky et al., 2005).

The stronger the diathesis, the less stress is generally needed to trigger the disorder. In some cases, the diathesis may be so strong that the disorder develops even under the best life circumstances.

A diathesis or predisposition is usually genetic in nature, but it could also take other forms. Ex. the tendency to blame oneself for negative life events that are not totally within one's control may put a person at greater risk of developing depression as a response to those events.

Evaluate the biopsychosocial perspective on abnormal behavior.

With few exceptions, psychological disorders or other patterns of abnormal behavior are complex phenomena arising from multiple causes.

Different people may develop the same disorder for different reasons.

[olena]

(via The Denial of Death - Wikipedia)

The Denial of Death is a 1973 book by American cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker. The author builds on the works of Søren Kierkegaard, Sigmund Freud, Norman O. Brown, and Otto Rank to discuss the psychological and philosophical implications of how people and cultures have reacted to the concept of death. The author argues most human action is taken to ignore or avoid the inevitability of death. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1974, two months after the author's death. It is the main work responsible for the development of terror management theory.

The premise of The Denial of Death is that human civilization is ultimately an elaborate, symbolic defense mechanism against the knowledge of our mortality, which in turn acts as the emotional and intellectual response to our basic survival mechanism.

...since humanity has a dualistic nature consisting of a physical self and a symbolic self, we are able to transcend the dilemma of mortality by focusing our attention mainly on our symbolic selves...

This symbolic self-focus takes the form of an individual's "causa sui project," (sometimes called an “immortality project,” or a “heroism project”). A person’s "causa sui project” acts as their immortality vessel, whereby a person creates meaning, or continues to create meaning, beyond their own life-span. ... In other words, by living up to (or especially exceeding) cultural standards, people feel they can become part of something eternal: something that will never die as compared to their physical body. This, in turn, gives people the feeling that their lives have meaning, a purpose, and significance in the grand scheme of things i.e. that they are “heroic contributors to world life” engaged in an “immortality project.” 

Immortality projects are one way that people manage death anxiety. Some people, however, will engage in hedonic pursuits like drugs, alcohol, and entertainment to escape their death anxiety - often to compensate for a lack of “heroism” or culturally-based self-esteem - resulting in a lack of contribution to the “immortality project”. Others will try to manage the terror of death by “tranquilizing themselves with the trivial” i.e. strongly focusing on trivial matters and exaggerating their importance — often through busyness and frenetic activity.

... Humanity's traditional "hero-systems", such as religion, are no longer convincing in the age of reason. Becker argues that the loss of religion leaves humanity with impoverished resources for necessary illusions. Science attempts to serve as an immortality project,

...Becker argues that the conflict between contradictory immortality projects (particularly in religion) is a wellspring for the violence and misery in the world caused by wars, genocide, racism, nationalism and so forth since immortality projects that contradict one another threaten one’s core beliefs and sense of security.

Concepts and ideas

... Creativity Like the schizophrenic, creative and artistic individuals deny both physical reality and culturally-endorsed immortality projects, expressing a need to create their own reality. The primary difference is that creative individuals have talents that allow them to create and express a reality that others may appreciate, rather than simply constructing an internal, mental reality.

...

The Denial of Death has been praised for its post-Freudian approach to psychoanalysis, and has been criticized for its reductive depictions of mental health and humanity.