called ―autistic intelligence‖ — an ability to see the world from a very different perspective than most people, often by focusing on details
overlooked by others. Sanders, 2009 Different from them, this study is focused on the defense mechanisms of
Sherlock Holmes that ―protect‖ him from the things that threaten him. This study focuses on when the defense mechanisms of Sherlock Holmes shows up and
categorizing his actions into what types of defense mechanisms those are. The analysis is
based on Sherlock Holmes‘s action.
B. Review of Related Theories
1. Defense Mechanisms
According to Peter Barry, psychoanalisis is a form of therapy used by a psychologist to cure hisher patient‘s problems. The method is to make the patient
talk freely so, the repressed feeling that causes trouble comes up in conscious mind and can be cured.
Psychoanalysis itself is a form of therapy which aims to cure mental disorders ‗by investigating the interaction of conscious and unconscious
elements in mind‘ as the Concise Oxford Dictionary puts it Barry, 2002: 98
Since the main thing in psychoanalysis is interaction, which needs two ways of conversation, psychoanalytic criticism is a little bit different, because the
characters in the story cannot talk to the analyst, thus the process of analyzing the character is done through images, symbols and metaphors in the stories. As Barry
states, ―The basic reason, again, is that the unconscious, like the poem, or novel,
or play, cannot speak directly and explicitly but does through images, symbols, emblems, and meta
phors 2002: 102.‖ PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Psychoanalysis is proposed by Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis is more concerned about the development of human‘s mind. For this study, the concepts in
psychoanalytic theories that will be used are about defense mechanisms. Defense mechanisms are a form of defense that protect people from an
event that threaten them because of traumatic event in the past, unwanted desire or shameful thought that they have. It is a normal thing actually, but under an
excessive anxiety, our mind can ta ke an ―extreme way‖ to dismiss the threat. It
can become more extreme and lead to other effects, like compulsive, repetitive and neurotic behavior. ―although defense mechanisms are normal and universally
used, whenever carried to an extreme they lead to compulsive, repetitive and neurotic behavior. Feist, 2006:34
.‖ Type of Defense Mechanisms are repression, reaction formation, displacement, fixation, regression, projection, introjection, and
sublimation.
Repression
It is the most basic defense mechanism because it‘s related to other
defense mechanism. Its job is to push all unwanted feelings such as unadmitted desires, shameful thoughts, and traumatic events in the past into realm of
unconsciousness. ―whenever ego is threatened by undesireable id impulse, it protects itself by repressing those mpulses; that is, it forces threatening feelings
into the unconscious Freud, 19261959a Feist, 2006:35.‖ It is keeping the threatening thoughts in our unconscious mind from becoming conscious. This
defense mechanism represses our thought that makes our mind feel endangered or repress something that cannot be fulfilled. Like Peter Barry also said in his book
The Beginning Theory, he stated that repression is ―‗forgetting‘ or ignoring
unresolved conflicts, unadmitted desire, or traumatic past event, so that problems forced out of unconscious awareness and kept in the realm of unconscious Barry,
2002:96. ‖
Reaction Formation
It is one of defense mechanisms that where a repressed feeling is realized in the opposite of what has been repressed, the way that it is realized is not usual,
and sometimes it is done too much. As stated by Feist, ―One of the ways in which
a repressed impulse may become conscious is through adopting a disguise that is directly opposite its original form 2006: 35.‖ For example, when a poor boy that
falls in love with the richest girl in campus, but he represses that feeling because her friend will mock him because he is dreaming too much, then to avoid this
painful event, the unconscious concentrate on the opposite act which is hatred so he can forget the feelings.
Displacement
Displacement is more or less similar to reaction formation. In reaction formation, it is limited towards the thing that makes them repress their feeling.
While in displacement, the subject that a person drives his repressed feeling to could be different. ―In displacement, however people can redirect their
unacceptable urges into a variety of people or objects so that the original impulse is disg
uised or concealed Feist, 2006: 36.‖ For example a person is angry at his father, but he cannot yell at his father because the society will have a negative
judgment about him, so he redirects his anger toward something else, like his son, PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
his coworker, or even a pillow. The person keeps loving his father but the way he loves his father will not be excessive like in reaction formation, it displacement
the love will be as usual.
Fixation
Taking a new step in life sometimes is not easy. It can be stressful for some people, and when it is too stressful to them, fixation happens. Fixation is
like a time when people are stuck temporarily or even permanent when they have to take the new step in their life. ―When the prospect of taking the next step
becomes too anxiety provoking, the ego may resort to the strategy of remaining at the present, more comfortable psychological stage. Such a defense called fixation.
Feist, 2006: 36.‖ For example when a kid is going to elementary school for the first time, he has too many worries, then he asks his mother to be close to him
during school time. It can make him always depend to his parents and keep him away from learning to be independent.
Regression
Regression is related to the fixation. It is the time when someone has already passed the fixation process and he faces a stressful event that is excessive
for him. When he faces that kind of event, he tends to get back to the earlier stage, the fixation stage. ―Once the libido has passed a developmental stage, it may,
during times of stress and anxiety, revert back to the earlier stage. Such a reversion is known as regression Feist, 2006: 36.‖ What people do in regression
is usually related to the fixations that happen to them before. For example after the kid in the fixation example grows up, becomes independent, then one day he faces
a stressful event, that is excessive to him. He will go to his parents‘ house to run
from the problem.
Projection
Projection is an act to reduce threatening event by relating the threatening feeling to something. It is like a person diverts his unwanted feeling that lies in the
unconscious to something else. ―When an internal impulse provokes too much anxiety, the ego may reduce anxiety by attributing the unwanted impulse to an
external object, usually another person. This is the defense mechanism of projection Feist, 2006: 37.‖ For example when a person does not like his
parents, instead of saying he hates his parents, he says that his parents hates him.
Introjection
It is a defense mechanism where a person does not feel good about himself, so he is ―imitating‖ positive things from someone else to make him feel
better, more confident about himself. ―Introjection is a defense mechanism
whereby people incorporate positive qualities of another person into their own ego Feist, 2006: 37.‖ The person that they imitate could be anyone, like their parents,
idol, or friends. For example a man that imitates style from a movie star, or their father
‘s leadership
Sublimation
It is a defense mechanism where someone expresses himself or something in his unconsciousness to something that is more acceptable to the society or have
a positive effect. ―Sublimation is a repression of the genital aim of Eros by PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
substituting a cultural or social ai m Feist, 2006: 38.‖ Here, in sublimation, what
is repressed is expressed in a way that is more acceptable in the society. The reason why someone does a defense mechanism to something is based
on what is in his unconsciousness are. The unconsciousness itself is an uncontrolled part of our mind. It is the place where we unconsciously put our
secret desires, unpleasant feelings, or shameful thoughts that we have. As Ryan stares,
We all have unconscious, a realm from which feelings well up or thoughts emerge
unexpectedly. It is a part of ―us‖ but we do not control its operations. Psychoanalysts believe it is where banished feelings, desires,
and thoughts go that our conscious mind or ego cannot accept for one reason or another personal history, social preasures, cultural norms, etc.
2012: 43-44.
Unconscious realm itself cannot be accessed by consciousness. Even though cannot be accessed by consciousness, sometimes unconsciousness is the reason
behind our unintended action towards something. As stated, ―To him Sigmund
Freud the unconscious is the explanation for the meaning behind dream, slip of the tongue, and certain kinds of forgetting, called repression Feist, 2006: 24
In order to understand a defense mechanisms there are usually ―sign‖ that someone uses a defense mechanisms. There are denial and parapraxis. The denial
and parapraxis can be used to analyzed someone‘s unusual action. Like, their action is contradictive to their words.
Denial, it is a process where the subject tries to ignore or deny because of some reasons. It is an action of rejecting an event out of consciousness that is
done by someone due to traumatic past experiences or it is too shameful to be expressed. When the subject denies the feeling, heshe forces that feeling or
thought out of consciousness and enter to the realm of unconscious. As stated by Mcleod
―Denial involves blocking external events from awareness. If some situation is just too much to handle, the person just refuses to experience it
2009 .‖ It is like when a boy who is attracted to a girl, but because of some
reasons like the girl is too beautiful or too rich for him, he feels ashamed to introduce himself to her. When his friend asked him whether is he likes her or not,
he says no. The answer that he gives is a denial. He actually likes her but he denies that feeling, and when he denies that feeling, unconsciously the feelings are
brought into unconscious mind that result into a repression. Parapraxis, it is also a psychological term which means an unintended
action that caused by repressed material. It is where the repressionrepressed feeling found its way out of unconsciousness into reality and is not realized by the
person who represses the feeling. As Barry states, ―whereby repressed material in
unconscious finds an outlet through such everyday phenomena as slip of the tongue, slips of the pen, or unintended action 2002: 98.‖
2. Mistery Genre
