ASP Defense Mech Synthesis PDF

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ASP Defense Mech Synthesis (book: a separate peace)...

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Expressing feelings, especially anger, is a very crucial aspect of someone’s life, which is portrayed in “The Essential Guide to Defense Mechanisms” and in A Separate Peace  by John Knowles. The article “The Essential Guide to Defense Mechanisms” explains different variations of defense mechanisms, such as displacement. According to the article, displacement is “[transfering] original feelings…away from the person who is the target of...rage to a...harmless victim” (Whitebourne 2). An example of this can be seen in A Separate Peace . One of the main characters, Gene has a friendship with Finny for a while, which has its consequences. Over a period of time, Gene started thinking that there was some sort of competition between him and Finny, which made him insecure. One day, Finny and Gene go to the top of a tree to jump into a river. As they are about to jump, Gene goes into a trance-like state and “[jounces] the limb,” causing him to fall to the ground (Knowles 59-60). Finny leaves for recovery, and Gene starts bottling up his anger until one day when he is at practice, Coach Quackenbush pushes him a little too far and Gene unleashes his rage. He “[hits] him hard across the face…[grasps] the back of his sweatshirt...and it [comes] away in his hand” (Knowles 79). As they are fighting, they both fall into the river. Gene is angry at himself for doing what he did to Finny but is taking out his anger at Quackenbush, rather than confronting Finny. As we can see, he is trying to hide his guilt for the incident. In conclusion, “The Essential Guide to Defense Mechanisms” and A Separate Peace s how clear evidence that it is important to express intense emotions or else others (people who are not at fault) end up getting hurt....