 We were talking about the task oriented reaction patterns. We talked about attack, frustration and attraction, conflict in choice and pressure and resistance. Two important task oriented reaction patterns are withdrawal and compromise, withdrawal as you know would be the tendency wherein you decide to draw yourself back from the engagement and compromise would be that you go for an option which was not your choice. Bedroll and compromise deliberately you find that it has been left blank here because once we complete this unit, the next unit would be exclusively dedicated to withdrawal and compromise. The reason being that out of the six different types of task oriented reaction patterns that we see here, four of them are of course, used by all of us, but withdrawal and compromise happens to be the most dominant pattern that is seen by and large in all of us. Because it has multiple dynamics attached to it therefore, we would also be discussing withdrawal and compromise at length in the next module. We now come to another type of mechanism what is called as damage repair mechanism. Now the guiding principle for the damage repair mechanism is that while executing a task in a given situation your ego has been hurt. Now the insult that is created to the ego there is an attempt to heal it. So all these damage repair mechanisms are primarily intended to heal the wound that has been created to the ego. The first damage repair mechanism is crying. Crying basically you can look at it from more than one perspective. One is that there is a state of sadness. This is one of the basic emotions. There is a state of sadness and crying is triggered by that state of sadness. That is one. Second and most important is that when you start crying you basically try to regain the equilibrium the state which you wore in before you started crying after completing this period of bereavement. So there is something to be bereaved about and this whole process of bereavement encompasses crying as a pattern of behavior. Once that state is over you feel somewhere within a solace and that is the state of achieving emotional equilibrium. Usually when you see people crying you would realize that there is a span between which they can cry. It is not that you can endlessly cry. There could be periodic states. So you cry for some time then there is absolute silence for some time and once again you start crying. That could be a possibility. Say if you take example of crying where intense bereavement is involved. Say for example one of your parent dies. This is the extreme state of bereavement. And here crying could be periodically visible. So after lapse of certain time once again you recollect some past memories and that makes you cry. If you are in a little less intense type of a situation that has triggered crying could be that you cry and then you overcome it. So this is one of the damage repair mechanisms where an insult is created. You are hurt makes you feel sad it makes you cry. Once you have completed that cycle you feel as if you are somewhere saturated to certain extent in terms of your emotional hiccups that you were experiencing and hence you regain your state of emotional equilibrium. But in terms of social acceptance of crying there is a difference. And the difference is that crying is most commonly seen in children. They can cry for each and everything that they want. It could start with desire to have milk or desire to have food to it could be anything no you want the sun you want the moon and you can cry for it you can throw your tantrums. Children no they enjoy this privilege. But once you start growing up then there are no social ways of interpreting your crying behavior. So now as boys if you cry after a particular age people will start telling you that you cry like girls. And the moment you are told that you cry like girls this means that there is a social distinction that girls can still enjoy the privilege of crying boys have been withdrawn this facility. Now once you decide that this facility is withdrawn from the boys this means that there is some you know apical limit of crying behavior for the male child. Whereas females can enjoy you know crying at all stages of life. If maybe if time permits later on I will show you that there is a pattern of crying also. In different culture people cry in a certain pattern. And I have some visuals with me which basically you know shows say for example in a tribal community women who has lost one of the family members how she cries no. And there is some type of rhyming. So she speaks out something in a rhyming order and that is also the state of crying. In another condition you know create the loudest of the voice. And that is you know simultaneously supported by shedding of tears that is crying. In certain states you just keep quiet and that is also you know you simply tears rolled down your eyes that is also crying. And very interestingly there is a pattern there. But primarily instead of looking at the pattern of crying what we are primarily interested in is the fact that crying acts as a repair mechanism for the damage that has been caused to the ego. The second interesting damage repair mechanism is talking it out. Now talking it out is basically repetitive talking to others about some experience which basically one had and that experience has caused a great degree of damage to your ego. It has created an insult to your ego. Now what happens in the case of talking it out is say for example somebody makes an entry into the room right now and I say is this the time to come it is ten past eight so go out of the room. You feel humiliated. You feel that there is somebody you know who has been coming thrice or four times he has come here ten fifteen minutes or even two days after twenty minutes but you did not say anything why was it me. The fact that now people would identify you that he was the one who was asked to leave the class is a great insult to your ego. Now starts the process of talking it out you talk to others what did he teach today. I know he talks only rubbish these are all common sensical things even I can say much better things than him. I do not know why such courses are there I do not know why such instructors are there I do not know x I do not know y many many many things you will be attaching to it. Any time you do that there is some degree of satisfaction that you derive out of it remember one thing that talking it out about the individual would simply mean that you talk negative things about the source of insult to your ego it cannot be positive. And the more and more you talk about the cause of insult to your ego the more and more degree of satisfaction you derive. Now this is what happens superficially psychologically what happens every time you start narrating to somebody say the lecture is over one of your friend walks out and you ask him so what happened today I know he would be talking only these things every day it is the same example every day it is the same concept only words are different or at times. But I think even if I am told to talk about it I can talk much better than him bad appearance bad sentence composition bad you know elocation bad at pronunciation all types of non negativities. Now once you do that exercise basically what happens the experience that you had when the moment when you are when you were asked to leave the class that flashes back to you and the tension that you had experienced within when you were asked to do that and you executed the task that physically that entire experience gets reactivated. The phase is over you meet somebody else on the way towards your hall of residence and say oh you know today 8 o clock morning I went there I was 10 minutes late and this man tells me go out of the class who is interested going to the class I just thought it was raining outside therefore I came inside. Now there could be a different way of narrating the whole story but primarily what psychologically happens is that this experience of yours that you were asked to leave the class gets reactivated within you the entire sense that you had the tension that you had within that gets reactivated you again you know third time you go back for lunch and again you talk to couple of your friends today this is what happened to me you keep on keep on talking to people about the same experience time and again. Now more and more you talk about it more and more you know psychologically and physiologically you attain the same state that you experienced in the class and this leads to what is called as desensitization desensitization is that gradually your physiological mechanism your psychological mechanism does not reach the level that it initially reached for a given stimulus because you have been over exposed to it. For example say imagine of a police cop who for the first time had seen a dead body perhaps he would have experienced 2 3 sleepless nights but then over period of time you see so many so many you know mutilated bodies dead bodies all types of crime scenes that this is no more a source of tension for you it is just one of the new case for you this is what is called as desensitization. Take another example when for the first time you saw the news that there was a bomb blast in particular area say in Jammu and Kashmir there was a bomb blast no this news attracts your attention now if you hear it time and again time and again whether there was a blast or not you do not care because you do not belong to that area that is simply a news item for you do not care for such things rather I have heard people know jokingly saying there has been 3 days and there was no news of a bomb blast in JNK this is basically an indicator of desensitization. Modification is one of the steps that is attained in one of the psychotherapies called behavior modification technique. Now behavior modification involves couple of steps we are not going into the details of it but one of the steps involved in the behavior modification technique is that you expose a person repeatedly to the same stimulus that is a cause of problem for him or her to the level that finally the person concerned gets desensitized out of it. If you read how the behaviorist they came forward with learning theories the classical and the instrumental conditioning theories and if you also see how behavior modification technique evolved as one of the therapeutic interventions you will find no great degree of discussion on desensitization the word there you would find is systematic desensitization because systematically it is introduced to you here because you are doing it yourself and you are not aware of the technique you do it unknowingly but in that process you also desensitize yourself. Now what happens if you desensitize yourself time and again talking about the same experience with different shades to the story every time know you desensitize yourself and finally you come forward with an experience that you find cozy enough to be integrated with your other experiences and therefore you integrate it into your self structure and you say that you know I have been 10 pointer all through I attend classes I do bunk but I would not call it bunking it is basically you know not attending classes which are not interesting but once in my life it happened know that I was asked to leave the class. Now it has been structured well with your earlier experiences that is no more a cause of know insult for you this is what talking it out does all of us for certain things do apply this technique know we do go for know excessively talking about the same experience to multiple sources time and again time and again we do that and in that process we get desensitized to it I am sure anyone who says that I have never used this as a technique we all do that but there is a beauty in it when you do it basically you retain the integrity of your ego because once damage is caused to your ego it could be a great cause of concern know because it could lead to certain type of psychopathology you safeguard yourself by using this technique. Now we come to the third technique what is called as laughing it off laughing it off basically you know is a process where you have an experience and you just know laugh it off you laugh and you say what type of thing is this but basically you elevate your emotional tension and also you know see this experience in a much broader perspective for say you remember that famous song of a film from a film of Deva Nandu her fikr ko dhuwe me urata chala. So, it is that type of a thing know that you have really a cause of concern but instead of getting concerned over the issue you just know laugh and shut it off but this laughter is not basically intended to shut off the experience but this is basically because you are able to analyze this experience in a much much broader perspective. Say for example, somebody in a given context know comments at you and you look at it in a much broader perspective and you know the reason why he said what he said. Now if you are able to look at it from that angle and then you see how mean that person was it who thought this way and passed on this comment unless and until you are in a position to know see really things from that broader perspective know this technique usually will not be utilized. In terms of usage crying for example, is too generously used of course there is a social moderator which does not allow men to cry in public. There has also been research has shown that there is a pattern in terms of know age dependent usage of crying as a technique. People in their middle age and afterwards men cry more compared to men in their earlier phases. So, childhood everybody cries then comes your early adolescent period when you sees to cry and then it is in your middle life when you start using it to certain extent and later on again relatively more usage of crying women overall they can continue doing that. But laughing it off comparatively you would realize that this is not used generously as a damaged appear mechanism. The reason being perhaps that most of us are not capable of analyzing and even in a very broad perspective and unless and until you are able to do that laughing it off is not possible. But remember one thing even though you laugh psychologically your emotional tension that you had experienced is again know reattained. So, it gets reactivated even though you are laughing it off. And therefore, one of the dangers with this technique is that in case you had the experience and you start laughing it off if this technique fails in that situation it can lead you to burst into tears. I am sure it is very difficult to have a real life situation where you really see people like this, but very seldom you will come across you may come across people who at one point had shown this as a damage repair technique. The next damage repair mechanism is seeking support. This is basically you know you cling to derive affection and companionship and regain your state of equilibrium. So, basically say I am in trouble a damage has been caused I approach a person who I confide in. It could be one of my parents, it could be one of my siblings, it could be one of my friends at times it could be one of the inanimate objects. You go and talk to your teddy bear what mother did to you. Adulthood say you go and talk to a god whom you worship and you convey your entire pain and suffering to him or her. So, basically all you do is that you try to gain a companionship the person who would definitely provide the shoulder to you. You want to cry, you want to share your experience how insulting it was, how damaging it was for your ego and all your companion has to do is to provide a shoulder at fine. This is my shoulder you can rest on it now say whatever you want cry how much you want and this is how you attain your affection. You try to attain your state of equilibrium that there is somebody who will certainly not reject me so that is seeking support. The last damaged pair mechanism is dreaming at nightmares. Now, here what happens you do not know practice something in your state of conscious awareness rather you again try to desensitize yourself to a traumatic experience. So that it is accepted as an event of the past and once again integrated into yourself structure without undue disruption. Now, if I realize that the person whom I confide in perhaps might not extend the shoulder to me to share and cry because of certain reasons then I do not have anybody to share that experience with. The possibility could be that I have no either a direct representation of my real life experience or a symbolic representation of that in my state of sleep when as a content of dream I visualize those things and once I regain my consciousness after I wake up I accept it as a content of dream but then still it is very satisfying. I am sure you know the dreams that you see if they are not frightening that does provide some certain degree of satisfaction to you that because you have an a state of imaginary achievements there or a state of imaginary suffering which you say oh god it was only dream fortunately it did not happen in reality. Now, certain types of dreams where say let us take the same example when you were asked to leave the class and you found it very insulting it could be a very direct representation in the dream that you were asked to leave the class and the moment you started walking down the two stairs that you have in the class rest of the class stood up and said no we want him to sit in the class. If anybody else has to go you please leave the class but my friend he cannot leave the class you say this could be an imaginary way of achieving what has been done to you. The source of insult to you is now asked to do what he instructed you to do what was the cause of damage for you but there could be another way of looking at it say for example if you are a person who is much more value oriented then you might start having a sense of guilt see I have I did so and I was asked to leave the class and see how mean I am even in dream I saw this and my dream suggested that the instructor should leave the class this is too mean of me. If you are now guided by such type of value orientation then the content of your dream might change instead of having a very direct representation you may have a much more abstract representation of the experience. You saw that you were riding back to your hall of residence and you saw a buffalo lying on the road was hit by probably a vehicle some wounds a long tongue coming out of the mouth and you just saw know that a small bird came there and sat on the dead buffalo and started chirping and next morning you wake up and you say what type of absurd dream was this I see a buffalo on the road I see a sparrow sitting over a buffalo and chirping you never realized that the instructor was the buffalo and you were this sparrow and great degree of damage that could be caused to the symbolic conversion and great degree of joy that you could derive again out of a symbolic representation that you see in the dream you never understood what it was but then it was satisfying this is how dreams and nightmares they were. So these are the basically the damage repair mechanisms which are basically tailor made to damage the sorry to repair the damage that has been caused to your ego and once you apply this technique you realize that you have been able to attain a state of integrated ego structure that you earlier had with you and it is nothing like good or bad in terms of using this these are all basically guided to safeguard you from getting into the trap of one or the other psychological problem because you had an experience which you did not had a control over and therefore a mechanism was needed to help you regain your earlier state. So that you do not know flow towards the direction of pathological behavior and therefore usage of any of these techniques is not at all detrimental it is perfectly normal to use these techniques now we will come to the last set of mechanisms that we were supposed to discuss as part of this module where we would be talking about defense mechanisms the difference between the damage repair and the defense mechanism primarily is that damaged repair mechanism are adopted after the damage is caused to the ego whereas defense mechanisms are no mechanisms which are used by individual anticipating the damage. So in reality the damage has not been caused but you somewhere perceive that damage could be caused and in order to safeguard your ego you put these defenses beforehand. So it is equivalent to say walking with a bodyguard it is not that somebody has planned to kill you or somebody is coming to kill you it is basically that you perceive a danger and that perception makes you know move along with a large number of bodyguards. So it is equivalent to that second and technical distinction between these two mechanisms are that defense mechanisms are all unconsciously used. So even though you might be using this as a technique in a given situation you consciously never will admit that this was a defense because this is unconsciously used. The first defense mechanism is denial of reality. Denial of reality primarily means that it is meant to protect yourself from some unpleasant realities. So you basically you know refuse to perceive the problem or you simply refuse to face it and this is how you protect yourself. If you have examples share it with us I know of a person who has been into smoking since his college days. His old mother now stays with him and the mother till date pretends that she does not know that the son smokes. This could be one of the examples of denial of reality because you have tried your best to groom up your child in a particular way. The very fact that your child has been smoking right when he was with you during the college days makes you feel that perhaps you fail you know giving the best that you could have done as a mother and hence in order to protect that structure you simply pretend that fine I am very sure my son can never do that. You simply you know do not accept it you know simply because the reality is unpleasant and this unpleasantness somewhere is associated with you. So you would somewhere feel that you know I could be held responsible for the unpleasantness that is embedded in this situation and hence what you do is that you simply refuse to perceive it. Then comes second interesting defense mechanism fantasy. Now fantasy is basically you know a technique where one gratifies frustrated desires by certain imaginary achievements. Fantasy could be know of a usually know if you put it on a continuum when you have the daydreaming. Daydreaming usually is know when in a conscious state you keep on keep on visualizing and fabricating the whole content of a given situation the whole episode you can do that that is daydreaming but if that intensifies that is what is called as fantasy. So in fantasy you have imaginary achievements but those imaginary achievements are extremely gratifying as if you have really attended. Say for example you appeared in the exam your end same exam and say you somehow thought that you would be the 10 pointer and you are definitely going to get the president medal this year and then you know full of that feeling you sit there in the convocation hall to realize that somebody else's name has been announced. A great degree of frustration for you and then you could have some imaginary achievements you fantasize your fantasy know tells you that somebody else's name has been announced and he goes there the chief guest and the guest of honor know confers the award to him he comes down he celebrates there are people know who come to you who express their sense of sorrow to you that you did not get it but definitely you were the one who actually deserved it. And next day there is know Corrigan done published in the newspaper saying that the name of the person concerned who was given this medal was mistakenly announced. So, the actual recipient is you so full celebration to the actual recipient and then there is a twist in the story you know. So, your name is published and this was one column news the Corrigan was much more bigger and then the board decides that we will have a reconvocation and in this reconvocation only you will be invited and given this award. And you could add all types of flavors to it you know you were very sad and you were going back to your hall when this whole cavalcade came to you and said oh hold on hold on we want to take you back to the ceremony ground this medal actually belongs to you. So, know this is the whole story in fantasy depends on how stronger is your visualization capacity and what actually you want to attain. There could be certain fantasies which can live longer with you there could be few episodes which has shorter lifespan situations where you visualize it for some time and done. In the other state there could be situations where you really you know stay with your fantasy you repeatedly, repeatedly fantasize it till there is a greater degree of satisfaction that you derive out of. Then we come to the third defense mechanism repression. Repression is basically a very different type of a technique what it does is that it somewhere acts as a block which will not allow the painful the dangerous desires to enter into your conscious awareness. But what it basically does is that it will help you put that entire experience in a black box which will never ever be available to you. See understand we will understand two things which are closely associated with repression one is that you encountered the situation you have a conscious experience of what actually happened and that is your experience you thought of something you had some experience and you do not want it to resurface again the dangerous desire or the experience that you have is known to you and you deliberately know cover it up and put it in a corner never ever try to visit it that is the mechanism of suppression you have suppressed your desire. Now in otherwise you know real life experience you are aware of your desire you express your desire it is partly fulfilled it might not be fulfilled that is one state the second state when you are very aware that this is a dangerous desire and therefore you cover it up you do not try to open it up anytime. But you are aware of your desire and you are also aware that I have tried to cover it that is the state of suppression. Repression is a state when you had the desire but you never ever came to know about it because this was repressed before it is like say you have the soil you have shown the seed and before the seedling sprouts you again you know cover it up it is equivalent to that. So, before the desire sprouts up there is another layer which does not allow this seedling to sprout. So, the desire will never ever surface you will never consciously be aware that this was one of my desires because you have repressed it and why did you repress it unconsciously simply because you thought that this is a painful experience or it is a dangerous desire and it will hurt you like anything if it resurfaces and therefore you just cover it up. Then comes another interesting defense mechanism that is rationalization. Rationalization is basically a technique where the attempt is made to prove that what I did is justified and therefore it is worthy of the approval of myself you should also approve it and overall the society should also approve it. This is popularly called as that SAR grape episode you know that happened to that fox in that famous story. So, you try to plug in you know the gaps that you find in terms of your action and what was anticipated and you all attempt is made to prove that this is a justifiable act. If I ask those of you who come late to the class why do you do that and especially if I say that no there are there is probably a visual record of who came late by how much time and then I am sure all of you will have stories to say why you were late. And how and if I say that fine no tomorrow onwards dot at 8 the gate will be closed and no one will be allowed to enter the room you will have justification that why although you said this but why you should be given a waiver from this clause. It is equivalent to false assignment and when the day it was announced that do not submit it anymore three four of you came here to justify that how important it is for you to resubmit it. Study I made the announcement that second assignment do not submit it anymore still I received two mails and finally I had to write a mail to all of you that now no more submissions. There is no always a tendency in us as human beings to say that fine you have put the clause but you know I qualify for a waiver because the situation that I am in is justified it is a rational. Surprisingly what you will find is that people on others the opposite side of the fences they also sometimes know or in most of the situations they will also have no different justifications for the act that they are involved in. Let us say take the December 2012 episode in Delhi and elsewhere in the country when you know that say the police has drawn a line by putting a barricade that the student protesters cannot cross this line should not cross this line. A police will always have a justification why it had to use water cannons why it was forced to use latte charge why it was forced to resort to no excessive usage of tear gas shells. Simply because you are standing on the other side of the line those who are standing on this side of the line they have another justification why the police should not have no used water cannon why you did not deserve latte charges why you did not deserve tear gases. One of the police constables died in that episode and then there was two version these are interesting dynamics that you find in rationalization. People who are on contrasting sides have their interesting justifications and it goes to the extent of saying as an individual because these are defense mechanisms are supposed to cater to your need. So, at a larger level what you intend to say to others is let us see I know did it because this was worth doing in this type of situation and you give reason for that and you also know advocate that this is how things should be done. So, next time others should also know replicate my form of behavior. Then comes the next defense mechanism that is projection. Projection is equivalent to this mechanism know where the actual content lies somewhere else, but it is shown somewhere else. Now, if you look at this mechanism right from my external drive to my laptop to the LCD projector to the screen. So, there are intermediate you know systems that has been put in, but the real content which lies somewhere else is projected somewhere else. Projection is know as a defense mechanism is also exactly the same know where you put blame upon others or you attribute your own unethical desire to others. Why am I like this because you did so to me? This is projection know every time in the case of you know projection when it is used as a defense what people do is that they will know choose somebody who was somewhere associated in some form for the type of attribute that the individual is showing and then you project the blame. You remember when we were looking at the range of reactions in one given situation at that time also we had discussed rationalization, we had discussed projection, we had also discussed fantasy do you remember? At episode when we said that relatively older woman who has not been able to produce an offspring which is desired by at most very highly desired by her family and the society. Fantasy you fantasize that children of your neighborhood belongs to you remember this was the example that was quoted there. Then rationalization you rationalize know the benefits of being childless. Why was I able to achieve this much in my life because I never had to care for a child. So, childlessness you prove know that how important it was to be in that state. Similarly projection was also discussed there that you are not able to conceive why your mother did not know take care of you when you were a growing adolescent. She did not know cater you properly you were not given proper nutrients by your family members your mother did not tell you x your mother did not tell you y. So, the full blame is shifted to somebody else you do not get the grade that you expect a recent tendency that has been seen in the student community here know since last one or two years I would say that a small segment will come up saying that fine I thought I would get this grade, but I do not know why I had slide it back and you have all reasons for that. Occasionally we do come across students know who will put their demand before hand. Last semester there was a student in this course who wrote after seeing the end same sheets where he had performed utterly badly. Immediately wrote a mail to me know that how hard he has been working throughout the semester and the rational for getting at least a b, but unfortunately he got the grade which usually nobody would expect to get the lowest on the continuum, but there is a mechanism of grading and based on that mechanism you have fallen in the category x and therefore you get it, but you yourself know say that I deserved this and then you say that you know why I did not get it because this, because that and finally the blame is shifted to x or y. So, you select somebody who could not be available usually to defend her or his position and then you project the entire blame on him or her that is the mechanism of projection, but interesting part of know the defense mechanisms are unconsciously used you are not aware of it and therefore you use it and you are extremely happy. You are able to achieve what you wanted and final attainment would be that you want to attain a state where the integrity of your ego remains the way it was. We will continue with defense mechanism tomorrow also.