How does Freud believe our ego protects us?
by reducing anxiety and unconsciously distorts reality
According to Sigmund Freud, the ego is the aspect of our psyche that deals with reality and serves as a mediator between the impulses of the id and the demands of the external world. Freud believed that the ego uses various defense mechanisms to protect us from anxiety and maintain our psychological balance.
One of the key ways in which the ego protects us is through repression, which involves pushing unpleasant or unacceptable thoughts, feelings, and memories out of our consciousness and into the unconscious mind. This enables us to avoid the painful emotions and conflicts that would arise if we were to consciously confront the source of our anxiety.
Another way in which the ego defends us is through projection, which involves attributing our own unacceptable thoughts, feelings, and traits to others. This allows us to disavow our own negative impulses and cast them off onto others, thus preventing us from having to confront our own shortcomings directly.
The ego also employs displacement, which involves redirecting our negative emotions and impulses onto a less threatening target. For example, we might feel angry at our boss, but instead of expressing this to him directly, we might take out our frustration on a subordinate or even on inanimate objects.
Overall, Freud believed that the ego is crucial to our psychological functioning and protection. It helps us navigate the demands of the external world and manage our internal conflicts and tensions, thus allowing us to function in a relatively stable and adaptive manner.
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