TPO 20 - Question 6

A sample Answer to this speaking in text:

According to the lecture, the professor talked about two defense mechanisms, fantasy and sublimation. When people come across psychological pain, they will use defense mechanisms to protect themselves. Such as a woman who lost her dog, she felt helpless and sad. There are two ways that she can deal with her internal pain. To begin with, she can use fantasy. She can invent a happy story in her head, imagining her dog has found a happy family and the dog lived very happily. It is not real, but it keeps her pain away. Also, she can use the defense mechanism called sublimation. It isn’t about pretending. She will turn her negative emotions into something practical. She can start a dog training school to prevent other people’s dog from running away.

1. When people are in difficult situations, sometimes they experience feelings of helplessness or psychological pain.
2. So what'll they do?
3. They unconsciously use strategies called defense mechanisms to protect themselves psychologically from their painful emotions.
4. Let's say a woman has a pet dog.
5. She's had his dog for a long time and he's kept her company and guarded her for years.
6. But one day he runs away.
7. This woman looks everywhere and asks other people if they've seen her do but she just can't find him.
8. Now she feels helpless and sad because she misses her dog.
9. So she'll unconsciously find ways to deal with her painful feelings.
10. One defense mechanism she might use is fantasy.
11. With fantasy, the woman uses her imagination.
12. So instead of just feeling helpless and sad about her lost dog, she invents a happy story in her mind.
13. She might imagine that a nice family found him and feels him and that he is really happy with them.
14. She will picture the dog playing, running around, having fun.
15. Because of this fantasy, she doesn't have to feel sad about her do running away.
16. It's a fantasy.
17. It's not real but it keeps her pain away.
18. Another defense mechanism she might use is what we call sublimation.
19. Sublimation is different from fantasy because sublimation isn't about pretending.
20. It's about turning negative emotions into something useful, practical.
21. So the woman might start a dog training school.
22. That way, by training dogs, perhaps she can help prevent other people's dogs from running away like hers did.
23. In other words, with sublimation as a defense mechanism, the woman redirects her negative feeling about losing her dog into a positive constructive activity.