Objectives:
• To understand the psychoanalytic perspective about rage
• To understand the Ego’s strategies to reduce conflict between the id and superego
Psychoanalytical Perspective and Rage
“Rage is a feeling/state of intense, severe and extreme anger and provides grounds for many violent crimes”
What could be the origin of rage? According to Psychoanalytic model the answer may lie in two different areas. First, when an infant experiences acute pain caused from powerful breaks in the emotional connection from parent to child, pain caused by mal-parenting is so severe and intense that it cannot be emotionally or intellectually processed by the innocent child. And other significant reason is child abuse.
The four main categories of child abuse are:
1. Sexual abuse
2. Emotional abuse: such as intense criticism or humiliation and the effects of shaming experiences from parents or others
3. Neglect: such as abandonment or long periods of emotional or physical absence
4. Physical violence: such as beating, or imposing physical injury throughout childhood
Let’s look at an actual example of a mentally retarded child to understand that how child abuse can result in rage
Example of a mildly retarded child
A mentally retarded child was sexually abuse by his uncle, uncle threatened him “I will beat you and no one in family will love you if you conveyed this to any one”. But child was shocked and it was hard for him to digest. So he uncovered the reality to his mother. On the other side mother was under pressure and could not afford to favor him due to her familial problems, so she betrayed him and asked him to conceal the truth.
That was not the end of his tragic story; his tragedy was unending as he entered the abnormal environment of special school. There he faced the bullying of other elder children and painful ignoring attitude of teachers. He observed all the time that his father is cursing and blaming his mother for giving birth to mentally retarded child. Another constant torture of his life was pity and sympathy from relatives. He was considered as shame of family and was hidden in room at guest’s visit and was not allowed to go out side.And if he was given a chance to go out side with a servant, servant also abused him. Teen age problems became even more critical in the absence of any guidance and friends. Rejection from girls was another issue.
All these factors created a feeling of being abundant. All people were getting their rights and for him was just a wish “you had not been born”. All this transformed in a high pile of rejection, rage, disappointment, mistrust, hostility, discrimination, rejection, sadness, loneliness. He was being used as the psychological “dust bin” of family and all misfortunes were considered the credit of his existence.
When he approached the 22nd year of life, all this resulted in an explosive rage, anger and a serious criminal act. Once he saw a beautiful child in a park, he advanced his hand to show his tenderness but the mother of that infant raised a piercing shriek and then the rage explosion resulted and he murdered that innocent child. By analyzing this case we can identify following factors that contributed to the detonation of rage
1. Sexually abused by uncle
2. Ignoring/ Cover up by mother.
3. Special school
4. Special school: abnormal behavior.
5. Bullying by other children.
6. Father’s blaming mother for giving birth to abnormal child
7. Pity from relatives
8. Guests, he is hidden.
9. Shame of the family.
10. Comparison with others
11. Not allowed to go out to play
12. Sexually abuse by a servant.
13. Teenage Sexual urges
14. No guidance
15. No friends
16. Rejection by girls
17. Feelings of being abandoned.
18. Discrimination
But the question is why he targeted that baby and not mother? Neo- Freudian has simplified the whole phenomenon as he himself was murdered in the childhood by the cruel behavior of family and society.
Defense Mechanism
Freud also proposed the concept of Defense mechanisms that are unconscious strategies used by the ego to reduce conflict between the id and superego. For that reason they are more accurately referred to as ego defense mechanisms. They can thus be categorized as occurring due to the following scenarios:
1. When the id impulses are in conflict with each other;
2. When the id impulses conflict with superego values and beliefs
3. When an external threat is posed to the ego.
Denial
Denial is the defense mechanism in which a person protects oneself from unpleasant reality by refusing to perceive or face it. Like we frequently observe diabetic patients who close their eyes from reality, deny the existence of their ailment and keep on eating sweets.
Repression
Keeping distressing thoughts and feelings buried in the unconscious. Like a traumatized soldier has no recollection of the details of a close clash with death and Oedipus complex is another example because the unconscious wish to kill the father is buried.
Suppression
Conversely, Suppression is a conscious effort to push the unwanted thoughts and desires into unconscious. Like conscious effort to forget the recollections of the destruction of earth quake.
Rationalization
Creating false but plausible excuses to fulfill unjustified justify unacceptable behavior and unconscious wishes. Rationalization is the cognitive distortion of "the facts" to make an event or an impulse less threatening. We do it often enough on a fairly conscious level when we provide ourselves with excuses.But for many people, with sensitive egos, making excuses comes so easy that they never are truly aware of it. In other words, many of us are quite prepared to believe our lies, e.g. a student watches TV instead of studying, saying that "additional study wouldn't do any good anyway."
Projection
Projection is attributing one's own thoughts, feelings, or motives to another, e.g. two cousins are watching TV, and an actress appears on screen. One says to other “look your favorite one” although that is his own favorite or a husband, a good and faithful one, finds himself terribly attracted to the charming and flirtatious lady next door. But rather than acknowledge his own, hardly abnormal, lusts, he becomes increasingly jealous of his wife, constantly worried about her faithfulness, and so on.
Reaction formation
Reaction formation is behaving in a way that is exactly the opposite of one's true feelings e.g. the individuals who possess immense sexual thoughts can start “Jihad” against immorality.
Displacement
Is diverting emotional feelings (usually anger) from their original source to a substitute target e.g.after parental scolding, a young girl takes her anger out on her little brother
Regression
A reversion to immature patterns of behavior, usually such people are seriously mentally ill and can not bear the tensions of adult age.
Overcompensation
Covering up felt weaknesses by emphasizing some desirable characteristic, or making up for frustration in one area by over-ratification in another e.g. A dangerously overweight woman goes on eating binges when she feels neglected by her husband.
Acting Out
The individual deals with emotional conflict or internal or external stressors by actions rather than reflections or feelings e.g wildly quarrelling on road with driver, who has hit your car.
Splitting
Splitting as a predominant defense mechanism is used by a large number of people. It is characterized by viewing people as completely good or evil entirely.
Sublimation
Acting out unacceptable impulses in a socially acceptable way e.g sublimating your aggressive impulses toward a career as a boxer; becoming a surgeon because of your desire to cut; lifting weights to release 'pent up' energy.
• To understand the psychoanalytic perspective about rage
• To understand the Ego’s strategies to reduce conflict between the id and superego
Psychoanalytical Perspective and Rage
“Rage is a feeling/state of intense, severe and extreme anger and provides grounds for many violent crimes”
What could be the origin of rage? According to Psychoanalytic model the answer may lie in two different areas. First, when an infant experiences acute pain caused from powerful breaks in the emotional connection from parent to child, pain caused by mal-parenting is so severe and intense that it cannot be emotionally or intellectually processed by the innocent child. And other significant reason is child abuse.
The four main categories of child abuse are:
1. Sexual abuse
2. Emotional abuse: such as intense criticism or humiliation and the effects of shaming experiences from parents or others
3. Neglect: such as abandonment or long periods of emotional or physical absence
4. Physical violence: such as beating, or imposing physical injury throughout childhood
Let’s look at an actual example of a mentally retarded child to understand that how child abuse can result in rage
Example of a mildly retarded child
A mentally retarded child was sexually abuse by his uncle, uncle threatened him “I will beat you and no one in family will love you if you conveyed this to any one”. But child was shocked and it was hard for him to digest. So he uncovered the reality to his mother. On the other side mother was under pressure and could not afford to favor him due to her familial problems, so she betrayed him and asked him to conceal the truth.
That was not the end of his tragic story; his tragedy was unending as he entered the abnormal environment of special school. There he faced the bullying of other elder children and painful ignoring attitude of teachers. He observed all the time that his father is cursing and blaming his mother for giving birth to mentally retarded child. Another constant torture of his life was pity and sympathy from relatives. He was considered as shame of family and was hidden in room at guest’s visit and was not allowed to go out side.And if he was given a chance to go out side with a servant, servant also abused him. Teen age problems became even more critical in the absence of any guidance and friends. Rejection from girls was another issue.
All these factors created a feeling of being abundant. All people were getting their rights and for him was just a wish “you had not been born”. All this transformed in a high pile of rejection, rage, disappointment, mistrust, hostility, discrimination, rejection, sadness, loneliness. He was being used as the psychological “dust bin” of family and all misfortunes were considered the credit of his existence.
When he approached the 22nd year of life, all this resulted in an explosive rage, anger and a serious criminal act. Once he saw a beautiful child in a park, he advanced his hand to show his tenderness but the mother of that infant raised a piercing shriek and then the rage explosion resulted and he murdered that innocent child. By analyzing this case we can identify following factors that contributed to the detonation of rage
1. Sexually abused by uncle
2. Ignoring/ Cover up by mother.
3. Special school
4. Special school: abnormal behavior.
5. Bullying by other children.
6. Father’s blaming mother for giving birth to abnormal child
7. Pity from relatives
8. Guests, he is hidden.
9. Shame of the family.
10. Comparison with others
11. Not allowed to go out to play
12. Sexually abuse by a servant.
13. Teenage Sexual urges
14. No guidance
15. No friends
16. Rejection by girls
17. Feelings of being abandoned.
18. Discrimination
But the question is why he targeted that baby and not mother? Neo- Freudian has simplified the whole phenomenon as he himself was murdered in the childhood by the cruel behavior of family and society.
Defense Mechanism
Freud also proposed the concept of Defense mechanisms that are unconscious strategies used by the ego to reduce conflict between the id and superego. For that reason they are more accurately referred to as ego defense mechanisms. They can thus be categorized as occurring due to the following scenarios:
1. When the id impulses are in conflict with each other;
2. When the id impulses conflict with superego values and beliefs
3. When an external threat is posed to the ego.
Denial
Denial is the defense mechanism in which a person protects oneself from unpleasant reality by refusing to perceive or face it. Like we frequently observe diabetic patients who close their eyes from reality, deny the existence of their ailment and keep on eating sweets.
Repression
Keeping distressing thoughts and feelings buried in the unconscious. Like a traumatized soldier has no recollection of the details of a close clash with death and Oedipus complex is another example because the unconscious wish to kill the father is buried.
Suppression
Conversely, Suppression is a conscious effort to push the unwanted thoughts and desires into unconscious. Like conscious effort to forget the recollections of the destruction of earth quake.
Rationalization
Creating false but plausible excuses to fulfill unjustified justify unacceptable behavior and unconscious wishes. Rationalization is the cognitive distortion of "the facts" to make an event or an impulse less threatening. We do it often enough on a fairly conscious level when we provide ourselves with excuses.But for many people, with sensitive egos, making excuses comes so easy that they never are truly aware of it. In other words, many of us are quite prepared to believe our lies, e.g. a student watches TV instead of studying, saying that "additional study wouldn't do any good anyway."
Projection
Projection is attributing one's own thoughts, feelings, or motives to another, e.g. two cousins are watching TV, and an actress appears on screen. One says to other “look your favorite one” although that is his own favorite or a husband, a good and faithful one, finds himself terribly attracted to the charming and flirtatious lady next door. But rather than acknowledge his own, hardly abnormal, lusts, he becomes increasingly jealous of his wife, constantly worried about her faithfulness, and so on.
Reaction formation
Reaction formation is behaving in a way that is exactly the opposite of one's true feelings e.g. the individuals who possess immense sexual thoughts can start “Jihad” against immorality.
Displacement
Is diverting emotional feelings (usually anger) from their original source to a substitute target e.g.after parental scolding, a young girl takes her anger out on her little brother
Regression
A reversion to immature patterns of behavior, usually such people are seriously mentally ill and can not bear the tensions of adult age.
Overcompensation
Covering up felt weaknesses by emphasizing some desirable characteristic, or making up for frustration in one area by over-ratification in another e.g. A dangerously overweight woman goes on eating binges when she feels neglected by her husband.
Acting Out
The individual deals with emotional conflict or internal or external stressors by actions rather than reflections or feelings e.g wildly quarrelling on road with driver, who has hit your car.
Splitting
Splitting as a predominant defense mechanism is used by a large number of people. It is characterized by viewing people as completely good or evil entirely.
Sublimation
Acting out unacceptable impulses in a socially acceptable way e.g sublimating your aggressive impulses toward a career as a boxer; becoming a surgeon because of your desire to cut; lifting weights to release 'pent up' energy.
