Sigmund Freud is the most influential theoretician in the study of human behavior. He critically examines human behavior and interaction. After an exhaustive examination of individuals’ character, thoughts, perceptions, dreams, and ways of interacting with themselves and the environment, he found that human beings are the result of their psychological experience. He argued that human beings are not free from their formative-years practices. Freud said, “None of us are completely free of psychological problems.”
Among the basic psychological pillars, defense mechanisms stand out in the theory. According to the theory, defense is understood as follows. Our unconscious mind desires not to recognize or change our negative or wrong behavior. Freud said “because we have formed our identities around them and because we are afraid of what we will find if we examine them too closely. Our defenses serve them.” Instead of recognizing and admitting their destructive behaviors people prefer to defend them since they are that behavior’s result.
Lois Tyson in her Critical Theory book wrote the following. “Defenses are the processes by which the contents of our unconscious are kept in the unconscious. In other words, they are the processes by which we keep the repressed expressed to avoid knowing what we feel we can’t handle knowing.” Sigmund Freud divides defense into six elements. The first one is selective perception (hearing and seeing only what we feel we can handle). The second is selective memory (modifying our memories so that we don’t feel overwhelmed by them or forgetting painful events entirely). The third one is denial (believing that the problem doesn’t exist, or the unpleasant incident never happened).
The fifth one is avoidance (staying away from people or situations that are liable to make us anxious by stirring up some unconscious. The last one is displacement (“taking it out” on someone or something less threatening than the person who caused our fear, hurt, frustration, or anger), and projection (ascribing our fear, problem, or guilty desire to someone else and then condemning him or her for it, to deny that we have it ourselves). This psychological trait is reflected in the novel Altezewaworechim. Extracts are posited as instances in the following paragraphs. A good read.
In this novel, the protagonist Mahdreselam and her best friend Haymanot exhibit defense in various degrees. The ex-boyfriend of Mahdereselam, Abereham is also portraying defense. Extracts as instances are presented below.
“ምንድን ነህ ብባል መልሴ ጅል ነኝ የሚል ነው፡፡ ጅል ብቻ፤ ማንም በእኔ ምክንያት በጥቂትም ይሁን በብዙ ተጎድቶ ከሆነ የጎዳሁት በክፋቴ ሳይሆን በጅልነቴ ነው፡፡” This is to mean that “if someone asked to define myself, I will say I am simply foolish. I am not only silly but if there is someone who might have been disappointed by me, it is not because of my evilness rather it is because of my foolishness. (p: 01).
In this extract it is seen that Abraham does not want to admit his evilness since that could be part of his personality, thus he displaces the actual personality and expression with another better expression to make it normal. Foolishness is a better term than evilness. This is said because there are instances that showed his wrongness on some issues. But he never wanted to accept that as a problem; rather he mentioned it with another light expression.
The other incident that showed his defense is seen in the following extract, “እኔ እና እሷ በፍቅር ቆየን ማለት አሻሚ ነገር ነው፡፡ ፍቅር በሙሉ ልብ ሁለንተናን የመውደድ እና የመቀበል የነፍስ ስሜት ከሆነ፣ በአራት አመት ቆይታችን ለአንዲት ደቂቃ እንኳን እንደዚያ አይነት ስሜት የተሰማብኝን ጊዜ አላስታውስም፡፡ አፈቅርሻለሁ ያልኩበት ጊዜም ትዝ አይለኝም፡፡” She and I were in love is an ambiguous issue. Love is about accepting and adoring everything of the lover. It emanates from the soul. But I didn’t feel such things in those four years. I don’t remember whether I said to her ‘I love you’ (P: 06).
Though he said that the time that he was with Mahdereselam was feeling as four months, he never wanted to accept this fact himself. He denied his feelings because he wanted to keep holding the personality he had rather than another revisited personality it logically is.
After the departure of the couple, Abreham was not willing to accept the memory of their first meeting. Since he wanted or adored his carelessness, he said contradicting things. Here is the sample. “እንዴት እንደተዋወቅን አሁን ላይ ትዝ አይለኝም ብል ማን ያምነኛል?” (p: 07). “Who could believe me, If I said I can’t remember how we first met ?” following this expression, he mentioned lots of memories that are related to their first meeting. He had many more to be recalled as he said, “…ሌላም ነገር አስታውሳለሁ” (p: 09). “I remember many more incidents.” Thus, he is defending his memory or his personality by denying facts.
After a four-year relationship, Mahdereselam had decided to depart from Abreham and marry another man since she confirmed that Abreham could not marry her. She told him that she was going to marry after two weeks. He never says something except to ask about the exact date of her wedding. Though he was too disappointed and worried by her decision, he doesn’t want to admit that. Here is the extract. “ሐዘን አይደለም፣ ምንም አይደለም… ሰው አያምንም እንጂ የዚያን ቀን ለሦስት ወይም ለአራት ሰዓታት ሞቼ – ከሞት ተነስቻለሁ፡፡” (p: 31). “I didn’t worry, nothing has happened. No one might believe that I died and resurrected for three or four hours.” He is still denying the truth.
As the story of the two couples showed, Abreham was not the committed person that planned their destiny. He simply wanted her body. Mahderselam loved him so much, but his carelessness forced her to marry another man.
On the eve of her wedding, she ran to Abreham and slept with him. After some days, Abreham called her and asked her to see him. But she relied on “ላገኝህ አልፈልግም፡፡” “I don’t want to see you again” (37). This answer made him perceive himself as a good person. That is, he misread her response that she was the one who spoilt their relationship. Though she was telling him all these things, he never said anything in front of her. Even he never showed any reaction. Thus, he believed that he was a good man. He didn’t want to look out for the root cause of her decision. Thus, he is protecting himself from accepting his failure. He is free from such bad responses. So, he is a rational man. That is how he pictured himself.
After she tied the knot, he became disturbed. He recalled her beauty, character, and how she was good at love. He was burning inside as he on page 41. But he never admitted his love to her. “እንደዚህ የሚያነጫንጨኝ ሐዘን ነው ቅናት? አሁንም እራሴን አላምነውምና እጠይቃለሁ ቅናት ነው? መሆን አለበት፡፡ የቀናው ግን ልቤ አደለም ነፍሴ አይደለችም….ሰውነቴ ነው፡፡ (p: 41). “What makes me depressed this much? Is that jealousy? I don’t trust myself, thus I ask. Is that jealousy? It should be. But it is not my heart or my soul, it is my body.” This is the protection of himself from accepting his falling in love. This is said because he was regretting the situation. He showed all the signs of love. But he didn’t want to confess it since that may be a sign of weakness. Thus, he had a problem of admitting the truth. This made him miss his soul mate. His life did not end up with meaningful association. Owing to this, he proved a looser. The enclosure is people are not evil on some issues by nature. The mystery resides in their psychological background which is shaped by their childhood experiences (formative years). Thus, the aim of Sigmund Freud psychoanalysis is to identify the problem and treat the issue psychologically.
Other characters’ defense mechanisms will be examined in the coming articles.
BY MEKDES TAYE (PhD)
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD WEDNESDAY 27 NOVEMBER 2024
