defense mechanism is a behavior or thinking in certain ways to better protect or defend them from the unpleasant situation or condition.
Ernest Hilgard, Richard Atkinson, and Rita Atkinson 1979 in Introduction to Psychology Seventh edition
categorized defense mechanism into:
a. Repression
Repression is forcing a dangerous or threatening memory or idea or feeling out of consciousness and making it unconscious with one or more defenses. In the
other word, repression is the unconscious blocking of unacceptable thoughts, feelings, and impulses. The key point of repression is that people do it
unconsciously, so people often have little control over it Hilgard, Atkinson Atkinson, 1979:446. The positive effect of repression is a positive goal for those
who successes walking through repression defense mechanism. Repression, if completely successful, results in a total forgetting – a total
absence of awareness of the personally unacceptable motive and a total absence of behavior result from such a motive Hilgard, Atkinson
Atkinson, 1979:447. The brief example of repression is clearly seen in the novel, Daughters of
Shame . One of the woman characters who implies the value of repression is
Yasmin. Yasmin is forced into a marriage to a man that she has never met yet as a tradition in her family culture. Yasmin refuses the marriage and makes a
dangerous forbidden and hidden relationship with Abdul. ”She was fifteen and he was in his early thirties. Initially they were very careful. They never walked down
the street together, if she got into his car she always pushed her seat flat back” Sanghera, 2009:119. Yasmin is a prisoner in her own house when her father
discovers her relationship with Abdul because it is a shame.
b. Displacement
Displacement is the redirecting of thoughts feelings and impulses directed at one person or object, but taken out upon another person or object. People often
use displacement when they cannot express their true feelings in a safe manner to the person they are directed. It means you are transferred your feelings into
something quite harmless or innocent that will not give you revenge because you cannot express your feeling openly to real target Hilgard, Atkinson, Atkinson,
1979: 447. The example of displacement is seen by the experience of Navjeet Sidhu.
Navjeet is one of Indian-Pakistani women who experienced forced marriage. Navjeet is really depressed facing her marriage. She has to care her children and
earn money for the family alone without her husband contribution. In her depression, Navjeet often beats her children. In the top of her depression and
loneliness, Navjeet commits to make a fatal jump by hanging around on the station platform and brought her children Sanghera, 2009:61-62.
c. Denial
