Today we will look at the last three of the immature defense mechanisms.
Projection is when a person takes feelings and thoughts that he/she has and projecting them onto others. Extreme jealousy, prejudice, and or hyper-vigilance are examples of this. Think of the people that are strongly against something even though they desire it themselves. Sexual desires are some of the biggies.
Projective identification is when a person projects feelings, thoughts, and or behaviors into another. They believe their spouse is sleeping around and so they constantly harass them until they finally do and then they can say I told you so, it is self-fulfilling prophecy. Another example is the belief that others do not love me and so you fulfill that by behaving in such a way that the other person doesn’t love you.
Somatization is feeling bad about another person and instead of expressing it in a healthy manner you turn it into a negative feeling toward self, causing sickness and pain and anxiety.
These symptoms could make a great psychological thriller don’t you think? Let us all know some characters that you have seen behave this way.
It would make a great psycho-thriller!
ReplyDeleteDon't find it much in chick-lit... but let me check...
Lx
i would say projection is the most common as we probably all fall into that at some point, but then there are those that are masters of it and manipulation...
ReplyDeleteI don't know if this is a good example or not, but I was thinking of the movie Penelope. The mother seems to exhibit some of these mechanisms and it has a big effect on the daughter. Not a perfect example but this is what I thought of when I was reading about the extremes.
ReplyDeleteI think projection is the most common, I have fallen into that catagory many a time.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments.
Yvonne.
You are very good at describing me josh! Are you sure you aren't just writing a blog about your pyscho sister in law and not characters for books!? :)
ReplyDeleteGosh I was thinking the very same thing that it would make for a powerful psychological thriller. Great ideas :O)
ReplyDelete