 The first one that we would be talking about today is identification. Identification is basically characteristics of say an individual who just finds affiliation either with an individual or a group of individuals or with institutions and by doing so he finds worth or he adds worth to himself or herself. So, as you can see the description here there is an increased feeling of worth simply by identifying with a person or an institution and of course, that person or that institution should have an illustrious standing in the society. Say for example, people who take pride in adding the some surnames because those surnames have high degree of social acceptability or people joining certain communities. Say for example, you join the community for the preservation of wildlife and in your society you find that there are dominant stakeholders who are affiliated to this very society or when you know join the alumni association of a given institution. You find that you as an individual even though you have passed out from that given institute in your individual capacity your stature is not as big as the composite stature of the institution and therefore, you take pride in saying that I am an alumnus of such and such institution. Similarly, institutions they can also decide that we have our own standing, but if we collectively stand our position becomes far more stronger like say you can have IIT Kanpur alumni association, you could have IIT Delhi alumni association, IIT Bombay alumni association perfectly fine, but then you realize that if you make something like pan IIT your strength increases like anything. So, this is basically the state of identification. Institutions they do not have to know use defense mechanisms, but individuals they have to do that. Next defense mechanism is introjection. Introjection is a very different type of a defense mechanism in a sense that rest all defense mechanisms that we have discussed throughout these days were the defenses where you apprehend that there could be a threat to your ego and therefore, you use the defense beforehand and by a large you do certain things which does not allow your ego structure to be hurt. In introjection what happens? You start incorporating external values to your ego structure. This is something that was not done in any of the defense mechanisms. So, here what happens that you actually remain what you are, but because you see that there are some worth replicating things there are some worth replicating values that others have. Therefore, you start selecting picking and choosing those worthy external values and standards and you incorporate into your own ego structure. This whole exercise is done so that you are not left at the mercy of others. The best example of introjections could be where you have been patronizing one type of an ideology and then you realize that the society now has the dominance of those who are opposite to your ideology and then you introject their values into your own ego structure. So, that you are not at the mercy of them rather you also say that find earlier I was like that but now I think this group is correct this view point is correct this is introjection. Very commonly seen when you find society under transition say cases like the society a rival group which is also into merciless you know prosecution, merciless killings, complete intolerance for people belonging to the opposite ideology. If they come into power then you realize that many people start showing introjection as a defense because if you know get disaligned from the dominant ruling group your survival is at stake now you cannot transform the whole way you used to think about the world and the worldly affairs. So, what you do you keep it silent you take external values which will help you survive which is the dominant view point in the society as of now and then you also start advocating things in that order that is introjection. So, it is like say in biological sciences they use the word called grafting you know say those who undergo plastic surgery for example. So, part of the skin from one part of the body is cut and externally you know it is put on the place where the actual plastic surgery has taken place. So, say for example, if this is the area where you have lost the skin usually you know thigh skin would be cut and then put here. So, it is externally grafted and gradually the body adapts to it the cells starts growing even in many, many botanical gardens you would find that grafting of the trees are done the stems of two plants are cut half way and then they are joined together. So, you could have say tree x and tree y half of the stem of tree x is cut half of the stem of tree y is cut and they are put together know and then they coil them after some time this stem grows together they are not divided stems this is called a technique of grafting. Introjection is very close to that in terms of taking values from and standards from the external world and then grafting it on your own ego structure fine and then we come to compensation. Compensation basically is an exercise of covering up once own weaknesses by emphasizing certain desirable traits or you try to over gratify in the area where you realize that this is the source of frustration for you. Now, in compensation what happens one common example could be that I must say that many of you must have seen such situations in the schools say you have somebody who is extremely good at academics and you have somebody who is not so good at academics, but is an excellent player. Now, usually what happens in the school situation if you are worthy student of know achieving certain stature in your in terms of academic achievement then you will have to wait for know quite long the school will have to wait quite long for you to get a displayable recognition for the school. So, say know school would identified it right from class fifth when you took an injury you were really a very bright student and school is expecting that you could know bring laurel to the school because you could be know 100 out of 100 in the board examination, but then the school will have to wait for 5 years know till you give up the give the class 10th exam and finally attain that level of achievement which the school will take pride in, but you know that there is a football match this student goes performs and brings the huge cup for know the school and usually I am sure you must have had similar experiences wherever you go all the schools the principal's office will have huge shields and cups and interestingly enough these shields and cups are not brought by students who are academically very bright, but are brought by students who have performed in other areas sports or extracurricular activities. And then you also have know some certificates some group photographs your individual cut out saying that know class 10th topper U P class 10 all India topper and likewise. Now compensation would in that situation would be say somebody for example you are a good student and I am a weak classmate of you, but I am know very good at football. Now the moment I realize that I cannot perform as well as you in terms of say sciences, mathematics or English or other subjects, but you cannot come anywhere close to me in terms of performing in the ground and therefore I know give my best in terms of performing in the sports field. And this makes me compensate for my under performance in academic area you are a hero school knows you all teachers know you all students knows you because you are academically bright and so is the case with me even though I am not bright as bright as you why because the school entire school distinguishes know that this is the best player the school ever had. You have compensated for something that you do not have you have something you do not have something you over gratify what you have. So, that it compensates for what you do not have you would find many many such cases of compensation usually know many a times people who are physically challenged they would try to achieve like anything in a given area. So, say you could be physically crippled and then you decide that the day this rafting competition takes place I will certainly participate rock climbing the days introduced I will definitely go and I will put the fullest of my effort to succeed in rope climbing it is just to prove that I can and perhaps better than you. So, that is the defense mechanism called compensation with this we have come to an end of the whole list long list of defense mechanisms. There is one interesting defense mechanism that we did not discuss what is called as sublimation sublimation all of you must be aware of this word know as discussed in chemistry know that transformation from one state to the third state without crossing the intermediate step. So, solid to gas without getting converted into liquid sublimation is exactly the same thing in psychology it is used in the same fashion it is an interesting defense mechanism where your great degree of frustration gets converted into highest degree of creativity. So, it is something like say you are engaged in an activity you did not get the desired goal and non-fulfillment of the goal becomes a great source of discomfort for you it induces great degree of frustration in you, but instead of sinking down you sublimate that energy you convert that frustration into a creative outcome there are hundreds and thousands of such examples. You feel cheated in a in a love affair and then all the pain that you derive out of it out of the separation gets sublimated into a piece of poetry. You become a great warrior you perform the best in the battlefield simply because you were repeatedly told by your friends that you are not worthy of being in the armed forces. I will give you couple of real life examples those who are aware of the Bangla literature and those otherwise interested in literature would know a very renowned Bangla writer named Bhivuti Bhushan Bandopadhyay. Bhivuti Bhushan Bandopadhyay wrote a story and it was very very popular he was at his time he was one of the very popular writers and he wrote a piece of literature which somebody read and that somebody later on happened to meet this author who finally wrote it through which we came to know why also came to know through that very piece. What happened? Bhivuti Bhushan Bandopadhyay know wrote a piece of this creative literature titled Nilanguriya. Now Nilanguriya was published somebody reads it it is deeply impressed and then he wrote back to the author saying that you did not do justice to this character the story was that there was a boy from a small town who goes to Calcutta for his education and then perhaps he was involved for his own pocket money he was involved in providing a private tutorship to a girl who happened to be a daughter of a very renowned barrister in Calcutta these two these boy and girl they fall in love with each other and finally because of all those social and economic compulsions there was no way out for them to get married and there was some some dispute that took place because of this issue and the girl thought you know that the girl told this boy to leave the house and she thought that he would turn back and say that fine you know I am sorry and why do not we go ahead with this relationship but in turn the boy did not say anything but quietly walked out not only of her house but out of her life. Now this was the crux of that whole piece of literature now this reader after reading this Nilanguriya he writes to Bhivuti Bhushan Dupadhyay that you did not do justice to the girl okay what was the harm if the story would have taken a different turn much later this boy who was the then private tutor studying in one of the colleges in Calcutta becomes a celebrated writer this girl who now happens to be a member of family of some other man sends a letter to her congratulating on his whole achievements and sending a precious stone that usually people we are know that Nilam stone and says no that given your jodiak sign and given the level of achievement that you have attained in your life this is a suitable stone you should certainly wear it in finger X okay and this would add to your glory and all those things now later on it was identified Bhivuti Bhushan Dupadhyay as per the story goes that he replied back to this reader saying that I am really humbled by your positive comments but it is always good because you read the translated version it is always good to know read the original version much later this man the writer who finally wrote all these experience happened to get in touch with this reader who said that Bhivuti Bhushan Dupadhyay his family happened to be our neighbors they used to stay I guess his childhood days was spent in one of the districts other and its six of the heart precisely speaking Darbhanga was the place where his family was from and then he said that you know that this is not a piece of novel but actually this is what happened actually to be with Bhivuti Bhushan Dupadhyay you have such stories at one level and you have several other celebrated stories which has come to the silver screen also know Laila Majnu for example where finally the life of two individual gets ruined in the process just out of a break out in a relationship other case where there is a break up in the relationship but then you get finally a creative outcome of it similar type of story I know about a great freedom fighter but we would not discuss it right now here the whole story was that of bravery that he demonstrated after which he was hanged by the British government the entire act of bravery was driven by the fact that his friend said that you refrain from you know participating in such acts because you do not want you to be separated from a particular girl and this man wanted to prove that nation comes first relationship comes later because he was not in the actual plan that he will be executing this blast against the British government there are there are several such stories know there is a park when you move from Delhi towards Jaipur there is a park where you have the whole know story of the life of Shiva and Parvati being put in the form of a sculptures the man responsible for coming forward with that said that he was in a relationship and the girl did not like know him playing with stones and of course those who are into sculpture know their hands are you know pretty tough very thick skin they become their palm the girl did not approve of it and this man was enjoying this act like anything and finally he had to choose between the girl and sculpture and he opted for a sculpture and when he was given this assignment he would continuously walk for hours and hours together when he was asked that how could you complete so many pieces of a sculpture in such a short span and how could you work so long know hitting the stones carving them and he said that every time I hit a stone with a hammer it reminds me that somebody had broken the relationship and I feel I am hitting her that you have broken the relationship fast hammer second hammer so these are know basically the acts of sublimation what I am all I am trying to say is that you have certain adverse experience in your life and instead of the adversity making you sing you stay with your frustration for some time and then you come forward with the creative outcome this is the state of sublimation so this was all about defense mechanism if you want to ask something the forum is open for discussion now if not then what I will do is that I will once again start with the first defense mechanism that we had discussed denial of reality and like we follow the same pattern what we had done actually till now is that we have just taken one defense mechanism try to understand what it is what we would do now is that we will again take the same defense mechanism because you have now understood what it means and then we will try to stretch it and see how there could be simple situations where this is used complex situation and are there deviant situations also so basically trying to stretch it but before that if you have any question related to this we will discuss it nothing fine we go back to denial of reality now this was the first defense mechanism we had discussed and we will follow the same chart that we had followed know there we had the name and the description of the defense mechanism here we would have something else denial of reality actually means that you are trying to screen out some unacceptable realities of your life now all we said was that in denial you just do not attend to know the reality and you try your best to ignore it you are screening it out you are reading it out what could be the manifested form of denial one you refuse to discuss you do not you just think that this topic is not worth discussing not because you are really convinced that it is not worth discussing but because the moment it is discussed several things will start coming back to your conscious awareness something that you do not want to happen okay the extreme of it that the moment something takes place you faint I know somebody a women who would be of the age of my mother by this time she had this typical habit that whenever there was a situation in the family where there was too much of a rift she would just faint now in hysteric reactions also in hysteria you find such type of fainting you find fainting even in the case of epilepsy also but epilepsy has an organic reason for fainting hysteria has pure psychological reason for fainting but this is neither hysteric in nature this is not epileptic in nature this is simply that say there is a great sense of discomfort something that reminds me of something that is extremely painful to me I do not want it to be processed consciously and therefore it's like say I just know the main switch will trip so no more power supply to my brain I am happy for those couple of minutes okay when I stay in the state of faintness then by the time I would regain my consciousness episode would be over and people would also sublime because they would know that oh fine fine this person had fainted okay when we started this they will attend to you and not to the topic that was the cause of entire discomfort but there could be a very intelligent way of handling denial of reality where you involve yourself in some type of work so you are too much preoccupied with that work so much so that you do not get time to process other things okay somebody who has difficulty in terms of marital adjustment for example you have difficulty at your domestic front great degree of mismatch and discomfort between the husband and the wife for example okay or say you have an adolescent child with whom you have a great degree of difference of opinion and therefore his or her behavior happens to be a great source of discomfort for you you are not able to manage him or her what to do now you are you get too preoccupied with your own official things so much so that you do not get ever time to see what your wife has been doing or husband has been doing or what your daughter or son has been doing okay so you get a chance to know ignore all no relevant personal problems simply because you are too preoccupied with your work and you say that I am too preoccupied the world also sees that you are too preoccupied but the truth could be that you deliberately have made yourself land up in this situation because you want to ignore other things okay so these could we know the ways in which denial of reality could manifest we come to fantasy now fantasy you remember was a state of no gratification through imaginary achievements and in terms of no imaginary achievement one would always make oneself as the lead character of that fantasy but then there could be two situations you could dream yourself as a conquering hero or you could dream yourself as a suffering conquering hero fantasy would be where you are involved in the process okay and finally you do what you wanted using the way you wanted to achieve it your achievement and you both are celebrated that is the conquering hero fantasy in the suffering hero fantasy there would be a twist in the story you try to achieve the goal but you suffer in the process okay and your suffering okay finally leads to the achievement of the target and it is celebrated let me give an example conquering hero as you can see here okay wouldn't require that you prove your capability your power okay and then the fact that you derive great degree of acceptance and respect for whatever you have done a conquering hero fantasy an example a small boy okay suddenly fell into the river okay and the river was flooded with water it's a monsoon season in the north of India river is over flooded the small boy who falls into the river seeks for six help and there are all people know whom you know who are around there but nobody knows how to swim everybody is scared of you know going into the water okay you work returning back after buying some green vegetables for your family and you saw and then you suddenly left your back there jumped into the water okay you struggled a lot against the forces of the water and finally you could succeed holding the little finger of the boy okay and then you dragged and dragged and finally could catch hold of the wrist and then brought the boy back to the banks everybody was cheering up okay many many no news channels arrived there meanwhile okay and there was a live telecast of this whole episode next day the district magistrate announced that he would recommend the bravery award for this very boy who had done this exemplary work in this whole story there is only capability power your superiority your achievement you derive respect out of it this is conquering hero fantasy if the situation is the same and then if you have a suffering hero fantasy what would be the twist in the story again over flooded river monsoon season north of India the same people are around you you are coming back after taking those green vegetables you are hesitant whether I should go there or not you are also scared but you think that no you should certainly do that but you are not convinced whether you would be able to do that because you have very recently learned swimming but still because nobody is going there therefore you jump into the water you could only manage to catch hold of the little finger of the boy tried your best to catch hold of the wrist but it was extremely difficult and because you had to drag the whole body of a live boy using the little finger you had to use excessive force you were completely exhausted by the time you were able to come to the banks suddenly there was a high flow of water you could come to the bank and apply the best of your force to throw this boy on the banks the boy reach the bank but then meanwhile the next flow of water took you away to the mainstream you drowned and you died but then camera was still on this this whole live telecast is going on your body is recovered little ahead and then the district magistrate says posthumously we will know ask the government of India to give the bravery award to this very boy and then the head of the nation decides that we will know give the tricolor to the dead body of the deceased okay the national flag will be brought halfway down all the way of paying national respect and the superintendent of police in the district magistrate decides that you know there would be you know the whole official way of cremation so gun salutes all those all those all those things no now you are able to prove your capability but you suffer in the process target achieved at a cost okay but still you realized that you are the hero okay so this is all about fantasy it could take a different shape also where at the end you need not celebrate it to that extent you could say that I know it could make it extremely negatively loaded in a sense that although this exemplary performance was there the performance was not recognized okay so that's about fantasy but fantasy would always have this bipolar dimension either you go for a conquering hero fantasy or you go for a suffering hero fantasy yeah see fantasy you don't have a belief that this has actually happened because this is all imaginary achievement no but the fact that for certain period you are involved in that gross period phase of imagination you derive that satisfaction you didn't jump you are aware that you didn't jump but this three four five minutes of that episode of whole visualization and pleasure that makes you very pleased okay but after that phase of fantasy is over it's not that you realize that this has actually happened that doesn't happen then we come to repression this was the third defense mechanism that we had discussed which was no basically you remember that we had talked about real life experiences separation and repression that distinction we had established when we were talking about this the important construct in case of repression is that you try to selectively forget people also argue that this is perhaps not selectively forgetting something but selectively remembering something okay so things which you find hurts your ego okay you simply choose that aspect and then you know put a dark curtain over it it's forgotten you do not recollect it okay so this viewpoint is always there no that whether it is selective forgetting or is it selective remembering but then both of them actually refers to the same thing that either say if I have a say such this long as experience and this is the period that I want to forget selective forgetting would say that you select this period and then you cover it up selective remembering says that you select this period and blow it zoom it so that this part becomes minimized and it knows visible okay different type of situations no one can experience I would share a very interesting story with you little painful this was when the Kargil war was on and after the war that was the first war to the best of my knowledge when there was a live media coverage okay from certain distance no all the news channels will continuously continuously show the visuals of the war front okay and all its because it's all you know distant type of a war because you stay at one point the your enemies at some other unseen point that you cannot see but then you have the bombshells you have firings that taking place no so enemies not visible only the bullets are visible or the bombshells are visible but this was for the first time that it happened I very distinctly remember it no because that happened when I was an adult so I could remember it there was a very interesting episode there sad episode when media team once from one of the news channels and the people on one of the war fronts this group was there they had finally made up to a particular point that they wanted to achieve okay and the two officers who were there in front of the camera were showing no what actually took place and how difficult it was to achieve the target okay and finally we have done it okay and then suddenly a bombshell came from the other direction and it beheaded the officer who now described the achievement now these two individuals were still standing there and the man who was describing it later on actually saw this whole thing taking place no so it's like say something like we are talking to each other and suddenly a bombshell comes and you could really see no how a piece of bombshell takes away my head out of my body now having seen this later on after a week I think when this person was asked what actually took place what did you see there he started showing amnestic experiences of the battlefield means there is an amnesia no you forget these things it is so painful for you to recollect what would have actually happened and you selectively choose to forget it because every time you recollect it there is a great degree of physiological arousal and psychological discomfort it will come okay and what happens actually this type of experience this type of exercise of repression actually protects you from sudden traumatic experiences till you realize that you have become no desensitized to such type of shocks then you can recollect it you would find n number of stories n number of stories usually from the battlefield where the soldier who was right on this spot will show inability in terms of recollecting what actually happened okay because the whole recollection is extremely painful but the truth is also that this is not forgotten this is repressed why because there could be two ways of recollecting it if you hypnotize that soldier ask him to recollect the experience what actually happened the soldier would be able to do that so if in the trance state you are able to recollect that experience this means that there is that experience who has been deliberately hidden somewhere in your mind which consciously you do not want to recollect the other you must be aware of this sodium pentothal interviews know when this injection is given to you this chemical is injected in your body this is called truth serum in the forensic sciences they call the other word used for it is the truth serum it is injected in your body and then you cannot have voluntary inhibitions usually what happens when you are interviewed you filter should I say this should I say that and you way and then come forward with an appropriate response if you are given this sodium pentothal injection or what is popularly called as truth serum that inhibition goes so you do not discriminate between the options and then whatever is true you just reveal it out so if you are able to reveal it out under a chemical influence or if you are able to reveal it out under the state of hypnosis this means you have actually not forgotten it okay but you have simply repressed it fine we come to rationalization this was the next defense mechanism that we have discussed this was basically you know to justify the behavior provide rational to something and as you remember know we said that this was this is something like this sargrip experience now here what happens in justify in rationalization one would try to justify a very very specific behavior of him or her okay now either you soften or your disappointment that pertains to unachieving a goal okay or all you do is that you tend to prove you know that it is not such a great no underachievement usually that you are looking at it is rather good that I did not get this because I got that okay so there is a sense of no loss out of the non-achievement of the goal and this whole sense of disappointment frustration that you derive out of your underachievement or unachievement you try to soften it out when you give justification okay popular examples you make a mediocre performance okay in a course and you blame no that see I think the instructor was harsh enough in rating the instructor was harsh enough in saying that no the slides carrying the questions of the quiz will not be projected again okay the instructor was harsh enough because he announced two three weeks in advance that you can anticipate a quiz but then there was a long lull period okay and I decided to come to the class after this announcement came for two three four five days quiz didn't take place and the day I stopped the quiz took place okay why did I lose this 10% weightage first it is not my fault it is fault of the instructor okay this is rationalization you say you know I have this cuff and cold I have no little bit of fever sometimes I have headache therefore I want to safeguard myself against this chilled winter and now you put in this chilled winter you put a eight to nine slot for this course okay how can I know come to the class so you are actually doing some atrocity to me why I lost 10% because you were atrocious I am such a good student if you give me the question paper today right now I will do it I could have done it but it is you who didn't allow me to do that this is rationalization okay or when you say that array come on here I missed one quiz what did what does that mean I have given 377 quizzes in my life till now all you do is that you really say that this goal was not worthy of achievement now eight to nine I have even attended six to seven classes okay while I was preparing for my coaching eight to six to seven classes not a big deal chilled winter I was in JNK know completely clad with snow but still would return the pages of the book and read it I am not concerned and 10% I am interested in more than 100% 10% is not a big deal so all you do is that you have not been able to attain something there was a goal and then you try to deem in this goal itself no that this goal is not worth achieving at all in the first case what you were doing you said that the goal was important you couldn't achieve to the level expected but other person is responsible this is one form of rationalization the other form goal itself is not worthy of achieving okay we know very generously use such defenses in our life then comes projection another interesting defense mechanism here others are held responsible for one's own shortcomings you remember the example that we had taken that women who is not able to conceive blames that fine no she was not given proper care and she was not given nutritious diet by her parents so parents are responsible for her biological incapability now projection overall when you look at a broader picture you would realize it in the society largely people who know have rigid moral structure they are very rigid in terms of morality they use projection very much okay options the way you manifest it teachers are held responsible for your failure okay 22 students got D in this course why this is a mad man okay who takes okay pleasure in giving D okay so the blame is shifted to the source of you know giving the grade rather than those who actually deserve the grade okay or when you hold the society responsible for what you are doing why did I become no a thief society didn't give me the opportunity to education the right to decent living I went to a school once and I was thrown out because my father was not able to pay the fee for me okay so society is responsible why am I doing this I was not allowed to do other thing other any other thing by the society so here it's not in the previous case one teacher was held responsible in the other case it's not one individual it is a society at large why am I doing this because of this no or when you say bad luck when you say fate you know kismat kharab okay so the entire blame is projected okay we will continue with this the whole exercise that we are performing now is that after having understood different defense mechanism we are now looking at a little larger picture trying to understand that what type of situations are there in life when these defenses are used okay and what are the various forms okay simple complex and are there deviant forms we will continue with this when we meet the next