The Causal Factors of Homosexuality

21 events overwhelm the ordinary system of care that give people a sense of control, connection and meaning. Traumatic events are extraordinary, not because they occur rarely, but rather because they overwhelm the ordinary human adaptation of life 1992: 33. When Otoko is in relationship with Oki, she is powerless to deny Oki’s will. She accepts whatever Oki does to her, incuding take her as a mistress, take her virginity, take her to improper clinic while she is giving birth, and leave her. The fact that she is madly in love with Oki causes the fear of lossing him. It makes her stand still facing the hard situations and the pain it brings that Oki gives to her. Trauma is an emotional response to terrible event like an accident, rape or natural disater. Immediately after the event, shock and denial are typical. Longer-term reactions include unpredictable emotions, flashbacks, strained relationships and even physical symptoms like headache or nausea. While these feeling are normal, some people have difficulty moving on their lives 1992:34. As writen in the theory above, people tend to have difficulty moving on from the horrible traumatic events that had happened in their lives. That is exactly as Otoko undergoes in her life. After she is apart from Oki, she moves to Kyoto and starts a new life with her mother. Years after, she declares herlself as a painter and has a new life with Keiko. That facts redirect her long-term reactions of the traumatic experiences thus keep her clinging to the horrible traumatic experiences that happened in her past. Coleman also give explanation about traumatic experiences in his book, he stated that Most of us have had traumatic experiences that temporarily shattered our feelings of security, adequacy, and worth, and were important in influencing our later evaluations of ourselves and our environment Coleman, 1976:168. 22 Traumatic experiences leave psychological wounds that never completely healed. It result a tremendouss pain in which a person cannot endure. Thus affects someone’s life massively, as the example, in the way of acting, the way of thinking, and the way of feeling. Traumatic experiences can be one of the aspects that influence an individual to use defense mechanism. By the time, an individual will develop a self-system which serves to protect himher from anxiety through the use of self-defense mechanism. Self-defense mechanism specifically functions to protect an individual from both internal threats, such as guilt-arousing desires or actions, and external threats, such as devaluating failures. It is designed to deal with inner hurt, anxiety, and self- devaluation. It also typically involves some measure of self-deception and reality distortion. An individual may use more than ego-defense mechanism for coping with the problems he has Coleman, 1976: 122-123. There are kinds of self-defense mechanism: a. Denial of reality It is the simplest and most primitive ego-defense mechanism. In this mechanism, an individual will turn away, faint, deny, become so preoccupied, or refuse the disagreeable realities. Or in some extreme cases, an individual will totally refuse to acknowledge the unpleasant things or traumatic events. As it is reported in a study of persons with severe illness by Hamburg and Adams 1967 which is written in Coleman’s book: 23 At first there are efforts to minimize the impact of the event. During this acute phase there tends to be extensive denial of the nature of the illness, its seriousness, and its probable consequences Coleman, 1976: 278. The first stage of the efforts to minimize the impact of the illness is to deny the reality which are the nature of the illness, its seriouseness and its propable consequences. An individual tends to deny everything which is related to the unpleasing things he has. b. Repression Repression is an extremely important self-defense mechanism in that it affords protection from sudden, traumatic experiences until time has somewhat desensitized the individual to the shock Coleman, 1976: 125. In this mechanism, threatening or painful thoughts and desires are excluded from consciousness. Some often refer it to as “selective forgetting” and some often refer it to as selective remembering. The disagreeable realities are not really forgotten but it is just repressed to be denied admission to conscious awareness. c. Rationalization This mechanism results in being untruthful and dishonest to ourselves. The perticular reason people do this mechanism because they sometimes feel anxious and afraid at the same time to accept the truth. Instead of giving the real reason and the truth, people keep laying to themselves. This mechanism has two major values. The first one is to “help justify specific behavior” and the second is to “aid in softening the disappointment connected with unattainable goals” Coleman, 1976: 125. 24 d. Reaction formation This mechanism is not only repressing the disagreeable realities but actually developing conscious attitudes and behavior patterns that are just the opposite. As Coleman explain the example of this defense mechanism, “An individual will conceal hate with façade love, cruelty with kindness, desires for sexual promiscuity with moralistic sexual attitudes and behavior” Coleman, 1976: 126. e. Emotional insulation An individual will reduce his emotional involvement in situations which are viewed as disappointing and hurtful. He will keep his anticipations within limits. According to Coleman, “an individual may become passive recipients of whatever life brings him in order to protect himself from the bitter hurt or sustained frustration” Coleman, 1976:126. He also stated that, “it provides a protective shell which prevents a repetition of previous pain, but it reduces the individual’s healthy, vigorous participation in life” Coleman, 1976: 127. f. Sublimation Freud also adds self-denfence mechanism in Peter Barry’s book 2002:96, Beginning Theory, An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory, which is called sublimation. It is the redirection of an impulse onto a powerless substitute target. The target can be a person or an object that can serve as a symbolic substitute. It