Say hello to the internet trolls!

Displacement refers to the Ego Defense Mechanism which uses the technique of taking emotions or unpleasant thought (usually aggression) about one thing and using it in a different place, one of the most common example of this would be when someone’s superiors at work treats one badly, but they cannot show their anger to them, so they might end up expressing this anger somewhere else. This is also one of the reasons for internet hate and trolls hating on and fighting people on internet, they say something mean just because they had a bad day.

This can be somewhat unhealthy for a person’s relationship and may lead to them hurting or losing their friends. This displacement technique can be used healthily as well, by use of anger room or maybe just breaking some objects. It can be useful to let some steam off. Piling emotions inside can usually lead to a outburst bigger than the original emotions.

Sometimes, Displacement can also be inflicted on ourselves, Turning against oneself is a type of displacement in which the person becomes their own replacement target. it is the Freudian explanation for many of our feelings of inferiority, guilt, and depression.

(The purpose of this series is to make everyone aware of the pattern in which they react in a stressful situation to avoid anxiety, and be more woke. Please do not try to self diagnose or give unsolicitated guidance to people going through stuff. )

-Kashish Shodwani

Spoiler alert: Yes.

Today I tried asking ChatGPT if it could diagnose me for mental disorders and it said, “Hello! While I am an AI language model and can provide information on mental health disorders, I am not qualified to diagnose them. It is important to seek out a qualified mental health professional, such as a psychologist or psychiatrist, for a proper diagnosis and treatment plan. They can evaluate your symptoms and help you determine the best course of action for your specific situation.” Which was not a bad response, I was happy to see it promote talking to a medical professional but from what I know about ChatGPT, it is that right prompt will always yield a right answer.

So the next thing, I did was tell it symptoms, and ask what does it think I have, to which it answered correctly and advised me to get medical support from a professional. Not bad for an AI honestly. It was able to correctly diagnose ADHD, Bipolar and Panic attacks, even when I didn’t make it too obvious with the symptoms. (or did I? check out the screen shot below) I think it is revolutionary for the psychological industry to have this. It is important to note that sometimes symptoms are not obvious and overlapping with other disorders so please do not take AI’s word for your mental illness.

-Kashish Shodwani

Do you like hate-love rom-com trope?

One of the most interesting Ego Defense mechanisms of all is Reaction Formation. It is a defense mechanism that occurs when a person automatically replaces an unpleasant or anxiety-inducing impulse with its opposite. It is frequently displayed in an exaggerated or spectacular manner. Interesting right?

One of the most definitive example for the same is when someone exaggeratedly shows their hate for someone, even though unconsciously they like them. Here although they like them, their super ego thinks it is not the right thing, i.e. maybe they do not want to feel strong emotions or there is some societal restraints in liking them. Whatever the case may be, strong hate emotions for no reason can be a sign of attraction. This can be true the other way around too, when someone is extremely sweet, they might be jealous or envious of you.

Another common example of Reaction formation can be, when someone is driven by unaccepted desires of society, they might become super spiritual which is opposite of their desire to avoid it. Maybe this is the reason we see a lot of child abuse cases with priests. (This is my take on this)

(The purpose of this series is to make everyone aware of the pattern in which they react in a stressful situation to avoid anxiety, and be more woke. Please do not try to self diagnose or give unsolicited guidance to people going through stuff. )

-Kashish Shodwani

Well, the Nile is a river in Egypt?

Denial is one of the most common Ego Defense mechanism and is talked about a lot. It works on a basic principle, to not accept the unpleasant thought as it causes pain or displeasure. It is a failure to acknowledge reality, which prevents external events from being perceived.

This Ego Defense mechanism is usually observed after a traumatic event, like death of a loved one or a shocking news of illness. Usually, it is the conscious mind denying the fact that it happened by assuming things like “They are lying” or “It is just a prank”. However, it can also sometimes manifest when on some level they also believe the information, but do not let conscious mind acknowledge it. This can be seen as, “This is not happening” or “This cannot happen”, such a defense mechanism is short lived followed by acceptance of reality.

If the situation is not as shocking or bad, but a more acceptable situation, such as “Sick Relative”. It may go on for longer, if a situation becomes too hard for a person to handle. He or she may respond by refusing to notice it or denying that it exists.

(The purpose of this series is to make everyone aware of the pattern in which they react in a stressful situation to avoid anxiety, and be more woke. Please do not try to self diagnose or give unsolicited guidance to people going through stuff.)

-Kashish Shodwani

Ego Defense mechanisms are mechanisms used by us, to avoid any unpleasant thought, memory or feeling. (or sometimes even good feelings too) these mechanisms are usually unconscious, and are used by our psyche to protect us from feeling emotions we don’t want to feel. The term was coined by Sigmund Freud and works on premise of psychoanalytic theory.

To understand more about these defense mechanisms, we should learn about various aspects of psychoanalytic theory.

Conscious, Subconscious and Unconscious

Our psyche consists of three types of consciousness,

1. Conscious: This consciousness are the active thoughts that we are aware of, and act on. also can be recognised as voice in your head.
2. Subconscious: This consciousness is somewhat passive, but can be brought into little when concentrated on. this consciousness can be seen in places like forgetting you’re driving but bein able to drive perfectly.
3. Unconscious: These are repressed thoughts, memories and feelings that can only be brought in conscious mind by thorough work. People are almost always unaware of these unconscious thoughts.

These consciousness works hand in hand with freudian aspects of personality.

1. Id: This is an aspect of personality that acts as a kid of the personality, which work on instant gratification system or pleasure principle. This aspect of personality usually do not care about practicality and have desires to get what it wants. This aspect is usually not active in the conscious mind.
2. Ego: Not the traditional ego we talk about, but it is a decision making aspect which works on reality principle. Ego cares about reasoning and a correct way to get what is desired. This is the most conscious aspect of the personality.
3. Super-ego: This is the moral driven aspect of our psyche, it is the voice of conscience and source of self criticism. Super-ego always wants to do the right thing.

After understanding various driving factors of psychoanalytic theory, we can now look at ego defense mechanisms, these mechanisms are used by the Ego to fight the anxiety causing unconscious thoughts which are often derived by conflicts between Id and Super-Ego. It is necessary for us to be aware of these reactions to better deal with our emotions and understand why we behave the way we do.

There are a lot of these mechanisms, namely.

1. Denial
2. Repression
3. Regression
4. Projection
5. Displacement
6. Sublimation
7. Rationalisation
8. Reaction Formation

We will talk about each of them in the coming blog posts, in the series ego defense mechanisms (EDM).

-Kashish Shodwani