Some Other Mental Mechanisms in Operation

From the descriptions and examples of mental mechanisms already given it should be obvious that hidden struggles and conflicts within the unconscious mind create not only psychosomatic illness but also the wide di­versity of characters and personalities we meet in real life and in fiction. Without going into the complete details of the psychic processes involved in each, we shall give brief descriptions of generally recognizable "stock characters" whose peculiar behavior patterns are controlled by overworking ego defenses and mental mechanisms.

The extrovert. He turns to the outside world, to fierce rounds of activity, to careless and unreflective action in order to smother his inner conflicts. "The life of the party" is usu­ally running away from himself.

The introvert. He substitutes thought for action. He shrinks from his social environ­ment. He finds decision painfully difficult. He looks too long before he leaps.

 The perfectionist. He sets his goals so high that neither he himself nor others can reasonably criticize him for failing to achieve them.

The specialist. He chooses so odd or unique a line of endeavor that there is little compe­tition in it; thus he escapes the normal com­petitive struggle.

The know it all." He covers up his inner sense of inadequacy by an attitude of supe­riority. He appears too cocksure, dogmatic, and positive about his knowledge and opin­ions- He knows all the answers, he thinks; but he holds only minor jobs.

Mrs. Grundy. She viciously gossips about and criticizes others to compensate for her own feelings of inferiority. She secretly fears that, given the chance, she would behave worse than those she criticizes.

The alibi artist. He cannot face overt criti­cism. He fears that others will discover and confirm the low opinion he has about himself.

The isolationist. His unconscious mind has fashioned logic-tight compartments so that some parts of his inconsistent, paradoxical, multiple personality are completely isolated from others. This is the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde character. A more recent portrayal of the multiple personality is to be found in the well-known psychiatric study entitled Three Faces of Eve.

The symbolist. He performs symbolic acts as a bribe to his superego in order to blot out or undo even more painful thoughts lurking in his unconscious mind. A classic example is Lady Macbeth repeatedly washing her hands in the vain hope of washing away her deeper feelings of guilt about having instigated murder.

The fetishist. He displaces his stong feelings for a person onto a thing. Afraid to express openly a love for a particular woman, he holds some physical symbol of her a hand­kerchief, a lock of her hair in even higher esteem.

Pollyanna. She persistently looks at the world through rose-colored glasses. She child­ishly denies that life includes struggle and difficulty. Eventually she is tripped up and overwhelmed by it.

Sublimation

Sublimation means directing, channelizing, and converting basic emotional drives, crude instinctual impulses, into socially acceptable and useful activities It is the true taming of the id by the ego under direction of the su­perego. Sublimations are the most construc­tive compromises and the happiest solutions to the inevitable frustrations that life sets before us. Though difficult to achieve, they bring social reward and approval which rein­forces and strengthens the ego.

Sublimations take many forms. Some serve for a time; others for a lifetime. The lives of dedicated men and women scientists, art­ists, missionaries, and others devoted to great causes illuminate how satisfying and crea­tive sublimations can be Pierre and Marie Curie, discoverers of radium, offer a lofty ex­ample of beautifully sublimated lives. So does the life of Abraham Lincoln. The creative arts have served man any as a  means of sublimating their inner drives and conflicts. Most com­monly the making of a home and the rearing of a family give the opportunity for the subli­mation of feelings to a most socially useful end.

Sublimation is not entirely an unconscious process. Conscious will, thought, and effort enter into it. One deliberately chooses realis­tic goals and activities which he can step by step, in spite of frustrations and difficulties, hope to reach This is the uphill road to sus­tained personal happiness the only road there is.