Cognition and psychological defense: the relationship between defense and the recall of oral material

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityThe purpose of this study is to test some deductions from a partial postulate system derived from psychoanalytic theory. Within psychoanalytic theory there are statements which assert a relationship between cognitive functions and defense. Cognitive functions refer to such processes as thinking, remembering, perceiving, and learning; defense refers to an adjustive mechanism activated by anxiety and operating to reduce the state of anxiety. In psychoanalytic theory explicit statements are made about the relationship of cognitive functioning to two defenses, repression and intellectualization. Repression is said to reduce anxiety by effecting an exclusion from consciousness of ideas associated with unacceptable impulses. Intellectualization is s aid to reduce anxiety by effecting a detachment of the anxiety while the idea itself remains in consciousness. The postulate system is a set of ordered statements which affirms the relationship between one cognitive function, memory, and defense. It contains, as well, statements which lead to the deductions that repression is related to ineffective memory and intellectualization is related to effective memory