Description
Reflection Paper: My “Favorite” Defense
Review the text discussion of the defense mechanisms. Which defense mechanism is/has been the most active in your life? Be aware (as Freud might say) that the first defense that comes to mind may not be it.
Your paper should be two to three pages in length.
Weekly Experiential Assignments
Breath:
Breathing into the depth
Breathing out the depth
Slow down
Breathing into the depth
Breathing out of the depth
Let time melt
Movement:
Movement to music that stimulates your subconscious
Meditation:
Meditate on dreams
Keep a diary by your bed
Write down or draw your dreams
Try Active Imagination
Practice:
Absorb yourself in a beautiful painting/photograph
Let it work on you
Let it speak to you and your subconscious
Why and How all of this ties together:
The reflection paper on the defense mechanisms and the weekly experiential assignments are connected in that they both aim to increase self-awareness and understanding of one’s emotions and behavior. The reflection paper is an opportunity to analyze which defense mechanism is/has been the most active in one’s life and reflect on its role in shaping one’s emotions and behavior. The weekly experiential assignments, such as the breath, movement, meditation, and practice, are designed to help individuals tap into their subconscious and gain a deeper understanding of their emotions and behavior.
For example, the breathing exercises in the weekly assignments can help individuals become more aware of their body and emotions by slowing down and breathing in depth. This can help individuals become more aware of their defense mechanisms and how they may impact their emotions and behavior. Similarly, the movement to music that stimulates the subconscious can help individuals tap into emotions and memories that may influence their behavior.
Meditation exercises, such as meditating on dreams and practicing active imagination, can also help individuals better understand their emotions and behavior. Keeping a diary of one’s dreams and reflecting on them can help individuals become more aware of their subconscious’s role in shaping their emotions and behavior.
In the practice exercises, such as absorbing oneself in a beautiful painting or photograph, individuals can let the artwork speak to them and their subconscious, which can help them gain a deeper understanding of their emotions and behavior.
In conclusion, the reflection paper and the weekly experiential assignments are designed to increase self-awareness and understanding of one’s emotions and behavior. The reflection paper provides an opportunity to analyze which defense mechanism is/has been the most active in one’s life and reflect on its role in shaping one’s emotions and behavior. The weekly experiential assignments, such as the breath, movement, meditation, and practice, are designed to help individuals tap into their subconscious and gain a deeper understanding of their emotions and behavior. Together, these assignments provide a holistic approach to understanding and managing emotions and behavior by addressing both the conscious and subconscious aspects of emotional experience. Overall, the reflection paper and the weekly experiential assignments can be powerful tools for individuals to gain insight into their emotional patterns and defense mechanisms and to develop self-awareness and emotional regulation skills.
Don’t forget to take your personality tests-
On the previous page you have the links for the MBTI and the Enneagram
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Module 2 and 3-The Journey into the Subconscious and Collective UnconsciousSelf Awareness the key to Leadership, Decision Making and Management Practices
Personality-who am I?
There are four main personality
theories; psychodynamic,social cognitive,
humanistic and trait model.
The Transpersonal approach
Robert McCrae and Paul Costa: Introduced
the big five theory, which identifies five
key dimensions of personality: 1)
extraversion, 2) neuroticism, 3) openness
to experience, 4) conscientiousness, and
5) agreeableness.
There are 2 systems of personality tests
we will be looking at: the Myers-Briggs
test (Myers-Briggs Personality Test), and
the Enneagram Enneagram Testing
Take the tests in module 2 and find out for
yourself what category you fit into.
Big Five Types Personality Categories
Factor
Low Score Description
High Score Description
Neuroticism
Calm, Even-tempered, Self-satisfied,
Comfortable, Unemotional, Hardy
Worrying, Temperamental, Self-pitying,
Self-conscious, Emotional, Vulnerable
Extraversion
Reserved, Loner, Quiet, Passive, Sober,
Unfeeling
Affectionate, Joiner, Talkative, Active,
Fun-loving, Passionate
Openness to Experience
Down-to-earth, Uncreative,
Conventional, Prefer routine,
Uncurious, Conservative
Imaginative, Creative, Original, Prefer
variety, Curious, Liberal
Agreeableness
Ruthless, Suspicious, Stingy,
Antagonistic, Critical, Irritable
Softhearted, Trusting, Generous,
Acquiescent, Lenient, Good-natured
Conscientiousness
Negligent, Lazy, Disorganized, Late,
Aimless, Quitting
Conscientious, Hardworking, Wellorganized, Punctual, Ambitious,
Persevering
The History of Personality Theory
The history of personality theory dates as far back as
Ancient Greece. Indeed, philosophers since the 4th
Century BCE have been trying to define exactly what it
is that makes us us. In 370 BCE, Hippocrates proposed
two pillars of temperament: hot/cold and moist/dry,
resulting in four humors or combinations of these
qualities. The hot and dry combination was referred to
as yellow bile, cold and dry as black bile, hot and wet
was blood and cold and wet was phlegm. Though
much of the work that arose from this theory of the
Four Humors was medicinal in nature, it was also
hypothesized a patient’s personality could be
influenced by humoral imbalances.
Plato proposed four groupings (artistic, sensible,
intuitive, reasoning) and Aristotle hypothesized four
factors (iconic i.e. artistic, pistic i.e. common-sense,
noetic i.e. intuition and dianoetic i.e. logic) contributed
to one’s social order in society.
In the mid to late 18th Century, Franz Gall, a
neuroanatomist, fathered the new ‘pseudoscience’ of
phrenology, a doctrine that hypothesized correlations
between specific brain areas and functions. Gall
believed measurements of the skull could reveal
something about individuals’ inner thoughts and
emotions, an assumption that paved the way for
modern neuropsychology.
Physiology can change Personality
The case of Phineas Gage. Gage was a railroad construction worker from New Hampshire when, in
1848, an accident caused a tamping iron to be driven through the side of his face, behind his left
eye and all the way through the top of his skull. Miraculously, Gage recovered. Though weakened,
he was able to walk and speak.
Phineas Gage’s demeanor went from moral and calm to irreverent, impatient and profane. His case
is one of the first to provide physical evidence that personality is linked to specific brain regions.
Freud
Sigmund Freud published the Ego and the Id in 1923. Freud posited that the human psyche consists
of three main components: the id, the ego and the superego which control all conscious and
unconscious thought and therefore behavior.
The id can be thought of as the innate drivers of behavior. It encompasses bodily needs and desires
and, according to Freud, drives us to seek out these wants. In other words it is “the dark,
inaccessible part of our personality [that] contains everything that is inherited, the instincts, which
originate from somatic organization.”
The ego can be thought of as the bridge between the id and reality; it is what finds realistic ways to
achieve what the id wants and also finds justifications and rationalizations for these desires.
The superego is the organized component of the psyche and is often referred to as the moral check
of the ego. It is responsible for conscience and for regulating the drives of the id and ego
Finding Personality
Mahler, a neo Freudian, writes about the main processes and structures of this process:
“The establishment of affective (emotional) object constancy (Hartmann, 1952) depends
upon the gradual internalization of a constant, positively cathected, inner image of the
mother. This, to begin with, permits the child to function separately (in familiar
surroundings, for example in our toddler room) despite moderate degrees of tension
(longing) and discomfort. Emotional object constancy will, of course, be based in the
first place on the cognitive achievement of the permanent object, but all other aspects
of the child’s personality development participate in the evolution as well (see McDevitt,
1972). The last subphase (roughly the third year of life) is an extremely important intrapsychic developmental period, in the course of which a stable sense of entity (self
boundaries) is attained. (Mahler, pp. 109–110)”
Jung, Maslow, Rogers
Carl Jung, a psychiatrist and student of Freud, developed a type-based theory of personality. In his book,
Psychological Types, Jung claims individuals fall into different dichotomous personality categories – for example,
introversion/extraversion. The typology theory of personality was further popularized by Katherine Cook Briggs
and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers who eventually developed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
Abraham Maslow proposed that all of human motivation is driven by the necessity of fulfilling needs in
accordance with the principle of self-actualization, which states humans are driven to be the best they can be.
In the late 1950s, Carl Rogers built off the ideas of Maslow, arguing that yes, we all strive to achieve our greatest
potential but we do so in different ways according to our personalities. This line of reasoning leads to a chicken
and the egg problem: motivations to do something (like fulfill your human needs) ultimately influence behavior
and thereby influence personality (as Maslow believed); but, that personality is simultaneously influencing the
way you act upon motivations (as Rogers hypothesized).
Individuation
As Joseph Campbell says “You become mature when you become the authority of your own life.”
Personality structure is about separation, autonomy and individuality which comes about through a
developmental process. Thereafter, according to Transpersonal Psychology, it can be transcended
from about the fourth or fifth month to the thirtieth or thirty-sixth month, there is a period we
refer to as the separation-individuation phase. (Margaret S. Mahler et al., The Psychological Birth of
the Human Infant, p. 3)
the psychological birth of the individual is a psychological achievement resulting from the
separation-individuation process, in the first three years of life.
This development happens in the relationship to the mothering person, the primary love object;
i.e., it is within the context of an object relation (Almaas, Mahler, Freud)
Individuation
The main task of the fourth subphase is twofold: (1) the achievement of a definite, in certain
aspects lifelong, individuality, and (2) the attainment of a certain degree of object constancy. (Ibid.,
p. 109).
Object constancy means, among other things, the capacity to see the other, in this case the
mothering person, as a separate person in her own right.
Thus the child is experiencing himself as an autonomous person interacting. From that moment
onwards there is a sense of self, and therefore also a formation of characteristics as well as
attachment styles with “other”.
Personality and Masks
The word personality originates from
the Latin persona, which means “mask”. We will be
leaning into the meaning of the mask of personality
and how it is worn.
In Ancient Rome, the word persona meant ‘a mask’; it
also referred to an individual who had full Roman
citizenship. A citizen could demonstrate his or her
lineage through images, death masks of the ancestors.
These were wax casts kept in a lararaium, the family
shrine.
At funerals, professional actors would wear these
masks to perform deeds of the lives of the ancestors,
thus linking the role of mask as a ritual object and in
theatre.
Masks can also make everyone similar. In the Carnival
of Venice masks were used to become
indistinguishable, and all were equal behind their
masks, this tradition dates back to 1268 AD.
End of Semester Assignment
By the end of the course find, make, act and write up a description for each mask:
1. Myers-Briggs
2. Enneagram
3. Personality Disorder of choice
4. Transpersonal mask
There will be one mask for each of the above named categories. The mask will be a
representation of that personality category as seen by you.
You are also welcome to write a poem, song to go with your mask.
Story-Structure of Personality
John Godfrey Saxe (1816–1887) wrote the
following poem based on the famous
Indian legend:
It was six men of Indostan,
To learning much inclined……
Breath and Movement
Breathing into the depth
Breathing out the depth
Slow down
Breathing into the depth
Breathing out of the depth
Let time melt
Movement to music that stimulates your
subconscious
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJmzi9YUIs
4
Meditation and Practice
Meditate on dreams
Keep a diary by your bed
Write down or draw your dreams
Try Active Imagination
Practice:
Absorb yourself in a beautiful painting/photograph
Let it work on you
Let it speak to you and your subconscious
Active Imagination and Symbols
Surrealism,” Andre Breton says, “is based on the belief in the superior
reality of repressed associations.”
“
Motivation and Engagement
Shift the scenery
Find a new place
Change the light
Switch chairs around
Open a window and smell the air
A little like Active Imagination- Jung’s tool for engaging
in conversation with the sub conscious
Try to solve a problem using your subconscious
faculties:
Write down your problem before you go to sleep
Watch for answers in dreams and while reflecting
Creativity and engagement are enhanced using this
method.
For Steve Jobs Apple co-Founder it wasn’t greed that
caused individuals (and therefore mankind) to evolve;
it was mindfulness.
Active Imagination- what is it? Practice
Preparation to do Active Imagination
1. Obtain Focus and Calm the Mind
As the mind relaxes we become aware of our small
beam of attention that is there “witnessing” all our
rushing thoughts, our conscious mind.
2. Focus on the Dream
Move our attention onto an image from a recent
dream of our choosing. Keep the attention held to the
dream for as long as possible. Keep bringing it back to
the dream image.
3. Allow the Unconscious to Speak
Focus on the dream image. To “get the message” that
the unconscious is trying to communicate through our
dream we need to start allowing the unconscious to
speak through the image.
Active Imagination:
4. We allow our unconscious mind to speak we may
enter back into the narrative of the dream, or we may
end up speaking to one of the dream characters.
Dream characters might embody archetypal structures
that reside in the lower parts of our psyche that want
to make us aware of specific information that has the
power to help us in our waking lives. See the
archetypes, such as anima and animus, the
shadow, the persona or the wise old man.
5. Stay the course. The process of communicating with
the unconscious may be dark or weird. Facing the past.
Facing our fears and accepting our aspirations.
The ultimate goal of active imagination is the process
of individuation,
Whatever the form this “manifestation” takes engage
with it and try to remember it as vividly as possible.
Motivation and Engagement
Active Imagination:
You can also use a bad mood as a starting-point, and
then try to find out what sort of fantasy-image it will
produce, or what image expresses this mood. You then
fix this image in the mind by concentrating your
attention. Usually it will alter, as the mere fact of
contemplating it animates it. The alterations must be
carefully noted down all the time, for they reflect the
psychic processes in the unconscious background,
which appear in the form of images consisting of
conscious memory material. In this way conscious and
unconscious are united, just as a waterfall connects
above and below.
Carl Gustav Jung
Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson quotes Jobs
explaining his way of thinking:
If you just sit and observe, you will see how
restless your mind is. If you try to calm it, it only
makes it worse, but over time it does calm, and
when it does, there’s room to hear more subtle
things–that’s when your intuition starts to
blossom and you start to see things more
clearly and be in the present more. Your mind
just slows down, and you see a tremendous
expanse in the moment. You see so much more
than you could see before.
In other words, mindfulness meditation helps a
manager become better able to 1) concentrate for
longer periods of time, 2) remain calm when under
pressure, and 3) better handle job-related stress, all of
which are of great benefit to managers.
Mindfulness also increases creativity, according to
research conducted at the University of Amsterdam
Difference between Freud and Jung
Jung investigated the power of dreams, symbols, and the universal human search for meaning.
Freud pioneered in exploring negative unconscious processes, the “basement” of the human mind.
Jung pioneered in exploring positive unconscious processes, the “upper floors” of the mind.
Archetypes Introduction
Carl Jung made the term “archetype” famous in his theory of personality with his
expression of terms such as “Shadow,” “Animus,” “Anima,” “Persona,” “Ego,” and “Self”
as core archetypes of the personality. An archetype can be defines as an internal psychic
structure around which collects a combination of attributes or characteristics of similar
types which provides the distinctive unique identity of the archetype (e.g., shadow
attracts “evil” traits, animus attracts “masculine” traits, and so forth). There is an
emotional core to each archetype around which specific images and ideas surround
representing instinctual energies of the species’ collective unconscious. There are an
innumerable number of archetypes (e.g., jokester, power, energy, God, angels,
Madonna, nature spirits, hero, king, warrior, sage, gods and goddesses) each of which
describe a specific aspect of human personality and that influence our relationships with
self, world, and others.
Archetypes Introduction
1.Ruler
2.Creator/Artist
3.Sage
4.Innocent
5.Explorer
6.Rebel
7.Hero
8.Wizard
9.Jester
10.Everyman
11.Lover
12.Caregiver
Archetypes Introduction
Jung defined twelve primary types that represent the range of
basic human motivations. Each of us tends to have one dominant
archetype that dominates our personality.
Jung’s Personality Types
Jung’s Theory of Personality Types
Jung’s theory focuses on four basic psychological functions:
Extraversion vs. Introversion
Sensation vs. Intuition
Thinking vs. Feeling
Judging vs. Perceiving
These basic categories were used to develop the Myers Briggs Personality Test
The basics of Freud
and Jung
PERSONALITY AND
MOTIVATION
1
Sigmund Freud
ÒBorn 1865 in Freiberg, Moravia to Jacob, his woolmerchant father. Mother was Jacob’s third wife.
ÒMoved to Vienna in 1860 until 1938.
ÒVienna exciting place of opportunity and optimism. In
1867, Jews granted political rights and accepted into
society.
ÒFreud assimilated, identifying as a German.
ÒAbout the time he was 15, liberal political atmosphere
evaporated and anti-Semitism became virulent,
shattering assimilation
ÒGraduated from University of Vienna medical school
with strong interest in research but quickly married and
realized only private practice would provide needed
financial support.
ÒPublished well received scholarly papers on
neurological disorders.
ÒOutbreak of WW II forced him to flee to London,
where he died a year later in 1939.
2
Freud’s theory is complex
because:
He kept modifying it as he went along
He never presented a comprehensive
summary of his final views
His theory is more comprehensive than must
since it has a number of aspects. For
example, he gives us:
◦A theory of motivation
◦A theory of thinking (which includes
dreaming, etc.)
◦A theory of personality development
(psychosexual theory)
◦A theory of mental structures (id, ego,
superego)
◦A theory of psychopathology and symptom
formation
◦A theory of psychotherapy
3
Personality Theory According to
Freud
Personality is defined as follows:
◦
Our characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling,
and acting.
Freud’s psychoanalytic perspective proposed that
childhood sexuality and unconscious
motivations influence personality.
Freud called his theory and associated techniques
psychoanalysis.
Unconscious-large below the surface area which
contains thoughts, wishes, feelings and
memories, of which we are unaware.
Free association-the patient is asked to relax and
say whatever comes to mind, no matter how
embarrassing or trivial.
Personality Structure according to Freud
ID-a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy constantly striving to satisfy
basic drives to survive, reproduce, and aggress.
The id operates on the pleasure principle: If not constrained but reality, it
seeks immediate gratification.
Ego-the largely conscious, “executive” part of personality that, according
to Freud, mediates the demands of the id, superego, and reality.
The ego operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id’s desires in
ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain.
Superego-represents internalized ideals and provides standards for
judgment (the conscious) and for future aspirations.
Id Ego and Superego
6
Another way of looking
7
Freud’s Psychosexual
Stages
STAGE
FOCUS
Oral
(0-18 months)
Anal
(18-36 months)
Pleasure focuses on bowel and
bladder elimination; coping
with demands for control
Phallic
(3-6 years)
Pleasure zone is the genitals;
coping with incestuous sexual
feelings
Latency
(6 to puberty)
Pleasure centers on the mouthsucking, chewing, biting
Dormant sexual feeling
Maturation of sexual interest
Genital
(puberty on)
Important Psychosexual Stage Theory
Vocabulary
Oedipus complex-a boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and feelings
of jealousy and hatred for the rival father
Castration anxiety
◦ Fear from boys struggle to deal with his love for mother
while knowing he cannot overcome his father physically
Identification-the process by which, children incorporate their parents’
values into their developing superegos
Fixation-a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier
psychosexual stage, where conflicts were unresolved.
Penis envy
◦ Desire for male dominated advantages
Freudian slips
Free recall/free association
◦ Concept of a person having one word and freely
associating any word with it
DEFENSE MECHANISM
Tactics that reduce or redirect anxiety in
various ways,
but always by distorting reality
Repression
A defense
mechanism
that pushes
threatening
thoughts
into the
unconscious
11
Reaction formation
A defense
mechanism that
pushes away
threatening impulses
by overemphasizing
the opposite in one’s
thoughts and words
12
Denial
A defense
mechanism in which
one refuses to
acknowledge anxiety
provoking stimuli
13
Projection
Defense mechanism
in which anxiety
arousing impulse are
externalized by
placing onto others
14
Displacement
Defense mechanism
in which the target of
one’s unconscious
fear or desire is
shifted away from
true cause
15
Sublimation
Defense mechanism
where dangerous
urges are
transformed into
positive, socially
acceptable forms
16
Regression
Defense
mechanism where
one returns to a
earlier, safer stage
of one’s life to
escape present
threats
17
Rationalization
Defense mechanism
where after the fact
(post hoc) logical
explanations for
behaviors that were
actually driven by
internal unconscious
motives
18
Carl Jung
19
A Journey Into The
Mind Of…
Carl Jung
“Everything that
irritates us about
others can lead us to an
understanding of
ourselves.”
Who is Carl Jung?
ØCarl Jung was born in Kesswill Switzerland
(1875).
ØAs a child he was interested in history,
archaeology, and philosophy.
ØHe studied medicine at the University of
Basel and discovered he had a passion for
psychiatry. He became a psychiatrist as it
gave him the opportunity to study both the
spiritual and factual sides of the world.
ØFor 9 years he was an assistant physician at
a Psychiatric Hospital
ØHe studied Schizophrenia extensively.
His Early Career…
ØIn 1907 Jung went to Vienna to meet Freud where
they studied along side each other for a number of
years. They developed their own theories and
corresponded through letters.
ØThey came to parting ways because Jung disagreed
with Freud’s belief that the sexual component was the
only part of the human personality. Jung also felt
Freud was too narrow-minded about his views on the
unconscious mind and dream interpretation. Freud’s
main theories were that our sexual libido controlled
our unconscious thoughts and when dreaming it was
our sexual thoughts that controlled the content of
these dreams.
His
Early
Career
Cont.
ØHis first ideas were
published in Psychology
of the Unconscious (it
contained much about
mythological content
and listed parallels
between myths and
psychotic fantasies).
ØHe went on to develop
his own theory called
analytic psychology, for
half a century he wrote
religiously about
personality in regards to
symbolic, mythological,
and spiritual views.
His Major Theories…
Ø·Focused on the
unconscious and
conscious mind…he
believed that the
unconscious played more
of a role in controlling
our thought process
(especially during
dreaming)
Ø·The collective
unconscious was also
more dominant factor in
the development of
human personality
His Major Theories Cont.
Module 3
He believed in two personality types
Ø·Introvert – someone who keeps to
themselves and is emotionally self-sufficient
ØExtrovert- someone who is outgoing and
use their psychological power to draw people
towards them
Ø·
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