Description
Reply to both post min 100 words and also provide your reference to your response Post 1
1.)
Ego defense mechanisms are an aspect of personality that aid in stopping
one’s ego from becoming overawed. Displacement is one of many defense
mechanisms. Displacement occurs when a person channels an emotion or
energy towards one person and directs it towards someone else who is a
“safer target.” One example of displacement being used as a defense
mechanism is a time when I had anniversary dinner plans with my
boyfriend and then right before dinner, my mother and I got into a large
argument. At dinner, I was being hostile, moody and having an attitude
towards my boyfriend even though I was excited all week for dinner, and
he had done nothing to upset me that night. I realize now that I was
using displacement as a way to cope with my anxiety from my argument
with my mom in this instance.
2.)Alfred Adler’s view on birth order is that it increases an
individual’s probability of having a certain set of experiences (Corey,
2017). As a second and middle child, I personally find my experience
consistent regarding Adler’s take on the birth position and sibling
relationship. One reason for this, for example, is my experience of
having a competitive sibling relationship with my older sister for as
long as I can remember. Additionally, I was always a little bit of a
problem child when I was younger, and this is congruent with the middle
child’s family experience according to Adler’s theory as well.
3.) 1. The notion encompassed in Existential Therapy that the
client-therapist relationship is of primary importance to healing rather
than the techniques used is profound, in my opinion. I personally
believe that a genuine person-to-person relationship is imperative to
healing through existential therapy. This is because, “existential
therapists are primarily concerned with understanding the subjective
world of clients to help them come to new understandings and options
(Corey, 2017). Thus, once a close relationship is formed, it will be
easier for the client to open up and provide more information for the
therapist, which will aid in their further understanding of the client.
Further supporting the latter is that according to Hill (2019), “many
studies have shown that a sense of meaning contributes to psychological
well-being and that meaning-centered psychological interventions can
help.”
2. Regarding Will and his therapist’s relationship in the film, Good
Will Hunting, it had an immense effect on Will’s progress in treatment,
in my opinion. I feel that the progression of their relationship allowed
Will to gain new insights that furthered his treatment and progress. I
do not believe Will would have been able to work towards progress as
successfully had their relationship differed.
References
Corey, G. (2017). Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy (10th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning
Hill, F. (2019, January 18). What It’s Like to Visit an Existential
Therapist.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/01…
Post 2
1. Select one of the defense mechanisms from the reading and provide a description and a specific example the the defense mechanism being used. You can apply this to yourself or someone that you know.
One of the defense mechanisms that the book discusses and that
I’ve experienced personally throughout my life is the displacement
defense mechanism. When a person displaces something or someone, they
direct their energy toward another object or person when the original
object or person is inaccessible (Corey, 2017). I’ve not only
experienced this with others when an object or person is inaccessible,
but also when the person doesn’t want to confront who or what they are
really having problems with, or when they don’t know how to handle their
feelings. For example, I have a friend who tends to make everyone she’s
around feel uncomfortable or threatened when she’s upset or stressed
about something. Instead of venting in a healthy and positive way, she
makes everyone else feel like they’ve done something to her personally.
2. Compare and contrast your own family experience with
Adler’s view on birth order. Is your experience consistent regarding his
take on sibling relationship and birth position? Provide support for
your response as to why or why not.
After reading Adler’s views on birth order and how a child may
react to being born in a certain position (oldest, second, middle,
etc.), I don’t think that anything he believes is consistent with my
siblings and I. There are eleven of us, and I’m the fourth born.
However, I’m the oldest son. Thinking about it now, I don’t know if I
would be considered a “middle child”, because there are so many of us
and I don’t fall directly in the middle. I can say that I feel my mother
gave us all equal amounts of attention (as best she could) and I don’t
recall any of us trying to compete with each other. We all are all
adults now and we all have come out very different.
3. According to the text, “Existential Therapy places
central prominence on the person-to-person relationship. It assumes that
client growth occurs through this genuine encounter. It is not the
techniques a therapist uses that makes a therapeutic difference; rather
it is the quality of that client-therapist relationship that heals” (p.
157).
Question: What is your reaction related to this notion? Make sure to support your opinion with information from the textbook reading or other referenced sources.
If you viewed the video, Good Will Hunting what role did you
think the relationship between Will and his therapist play with respect
to Will’s progress in treatment?
According to an article written by Psychology Today (2020), the
existential therapy approach stresses that each person has a unique
identity that can only be known through relationships with other. I do
believe this, and I have believed it all my life. I believe that the
different people we interact throughout our life times help us grow, and
a lot of the time we don’t even realize it. In relation to what the
book said in reference to what’s important in existential therapy, I
feel that a person’s background isn’t important to your growth, it’s the
relationship you share that makes your interactions all the more
meaningful. I say this because I believe that the more you value you
place on a relationship, the more you can allow yourself to learn and
grow from it.
After viewing the clip from “Good Will Hunting”, I feel that the
relationship Will had with his therapist helped Will to let go of some
of his frustrations from his childhood and get rid of any negative
feelings he may of had about punishing himself. The clip is very short,
but I feel that Will felt that he didn’t deserve anything good in his
life, and his behavior in that scene made it clear that he needed to be
told by someone he cared about (and cared for him) that his past should
not control is present and future. If he had not developed that
relationship with his therapist he may have chosen to ignore his
therapist and go on living the way he was used to living. The
relationship they formed helped him move past that.
References
Corey, G. (2017). Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy (10th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Psychology Today, (2020). Existential therapy. Retrieved from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapy-types/existential-therapy (Links to an external site.)
