4.4 The Applying of Self-Defense Mechanism Concerning Repression And Displacement by Antwone Fisher to Reduce His Anxiety
4.4.1 Displacement
Displacement is the kind of defense-mechanism that the uncomfortable impulses are attributed to other subject, not the true subject. The other subject is the thing that closest resembles the true subject or the symbolic object of the true subject. Displacement is the channeling of anger or the anxiety to a less threatening object than the real object. The uncomfortable impulses are also attributed to other subject, but to a less threatening object. Sometimes, some people drop their anxious feeling to another person or object to reduce their anxious feeling. Displacement runs by redirecting unacceptable urges onto a variety people or objects so that the original impulse is disguised or concealed.
Displacement occurs when someone
“takes it out” on someone or something less threatening than the person who caused his fear, hurt, frustration, or anger.
Antwone Fisher in the story is the navy man who has a trauma. His trauma leads him to have an anger problem and makes him suffer from anxiety. Antwone has an anger problem because he cannot channeled his anger to the real people he hates. In fact, Antwone hates his parents because they are leaves him alone, but Antwone cannot anger to them because he does not know where they are.
Antwone always finds something to do reduce his anxiety and trauma. Anwone’s first attempt to reduce his anxiety is described in the movie script is applied displacement as can be seen below:
All right, well...
my father's a navy man, Vietnam vet... and, uh, his boys were gonna grow up one day... and join and serve just like he did.
Only one little problem. He didn't have any boys.
- So you... - Mm-hmm.
So I, yep. [Chuckles] (2002:30).
The quotation above shows that Antwone applied his defense mechanism.
From the dialogue above it can be seen that Antwone was consulting to his psychiatric. Antwone admit that he joined the navy because he following his father job. Antwone is angry to his parents because they neglected him. His father was dead and he never met him, and his mother left him in the foster house so he
never knew his mother. Antwone Fisher is a young man and his life as he grows from an abandoned child to a young petty officer in the navy. But the crux of the story centers on his reactions to all of the negative effects of his life. However, despite these reoccurrences, the message are subtle and this where the out of the story resides. This situation makes Antwone anger and find that he needs to do something to release his anger. So, he decided to join the navy as his father who is navy man in Vietnam. Then, he joined American Navy and becomes navy man like his father.
Moreover, the other reasons he signed up for the Navy with its promise of travel, but more importantly, of food and a warm place to sleep. This was where his life really started to turn around. He became more successful than he ever thought possible and saw that this was a result of his own hard work. Antwone finally had control over his own destiny and he as in an environment that facilitated and acknowledged his success. He served in the navy during which he was able to not only grow, but flourish into a man of his own design. He release that one day he will miss his parents and he chooses to do the same thing as his father did to displace his anger and his feeling of missing his parents. The other quotation which shows that Antwone applies the displacement as can be seen by the following quotation below:
I mean, even if I hated the navy-- which I don't-- it's worth it just to...
just to see his eyes and the way they shine... when I put on that uniform.
So you and him are close?
Yeah. We're close.
Mm. (2002:30).
The quotation above shows that Antwone as the navy man feels that actually he hates the navy. He does not like being a navy man and he not worth it. The only reason why Antwone joined the navy is because he missing his parents, actually his father. His father is a veteran of Vietnam navy man. His biological mother leaves him when he was child and his father died when his mother was pregnant.
At birth, his father was dead, his mother was a minor and in prison, and at that time there was no prospect of her being able to take care of him. Fisher was temporarily placed in an orphanage in Cleveland. At the time, Mr and Mrs Elkins did not know that they had a grandson or that he was in an orphanage in their neighborhood.
After placed in the foster house, he get several abuses from his foster mother and as the result Antwone runaway from foster house. He then joined the U.S navy and then work as a navy man. He joined the navy because it is the way to displace his feeling of missing his father. His father as described before was a Vietnam Navy and he follows his career. He wish that if he joined the navy then he will displace the feeling of missing his parents. He says to Mr. Davenport that while joining the navy he hopes that he will see his father’s eyes and the way they shine.
By this way, Antwone feels that he is closes with his father and every time he missed his father he will displace the feeling to enjoy the situation in the navy.
Moreover, he feels that he is so proud to wear the uniform and he can imagine that his father will proud too when he used the uniform. The other quotation which shows that Antwone applies the displacement as can be seen by the following quotation below:
You okay?
Yes, I'm okay.
I just never had a real Thanksgiving...
at the Tates' before.
[Snorts] You didn't have a real one...
over here either, I guess. [Chuckles]
You have a real nice family. Thank you. (2002:54).
The quotation above shows that Antwone success to displace his lonely while Thanksgiving to a cheerful Thanksgiving. Antwone had never a good Thanksgiving before because he has no real family. He only ever had a real Thanksgiving at the Mrs. Tate foster house before, but it is not good as it was. The way Mrs. Tate treats Antwone so badly makes him does not want to remember the good things that Mrs. Tate ever gives to him. Antwone feels that everyone neglected him and no one wants him, so he never felt when he has a real nice family. In this case, Antwone tries to displace his sadness of being neglected and never have a good Thanksgiving. The lack of a family structure and abandonment issues, the racial issues and self-hatred, the lack of being in control of his life, and the sexual abuse are all points of contention within Antwone Fisher that cause him to want to fight the source of the dissonance at that particular time. Anything that can remind him of his shameful past can trigger an episode. As the result, Antwone feels so glad to have a Thanksgiving with Mr. Davenport’s family. The
other quotation which shows that Antwone applies the displacement as can be seen by the following quotation below:
Yes, you are. You are good...
Because you're honest.
You're more honest than most people... even in your anger.
The only thing you're not honest with yourself... about is your need to find your own family.
Your natural family.
I don't feel like I need to look for them. (2002:55).
The quotation above shows that after some session, Mr. Davenport and Antwone has a close relationship. It is at this point when Dr. Davenport realizes that the risk he took to allow Antwone to breach the client or therapist relationship may have unintended consequences that he failed to consider. Antwone has become comfortable in knowing and meeting Dr. Davenport’s family, but this is not what he needs to keep growing into the person he needs to become. To keep growing into that person, Antwone needs to seek out his own biological family so that all of the unanswered questions can be answered. Dr. Davenport realizes this now and knows what he must do. Dr. Davenport meets Antwone aboard the ship to tell him that the time has come to end their sessions.
As a member of the military, Antwone is mandated to report to therapy sessions with Mr. Davenport after an altercation with a fellow serviceman. The relationship between Antwone and Dr. Davenport evolves beyond their mandated sessions and allows for the exploration of personal issues for both individuals.
However once again Antwone displace his feeling of missing his parents with cover his feeling to become a does not care about his parents. He seems to have no respect when any one asked him about his parents. It is proven by when Mr.
Davenport asked him to look for his parents, he definitely says that he do not need to find them because he has live alone for a long time. The other quotation which shows that Antwone applies the displacement as can be seen by the following quotation below:
You understand me?
It don't matter...
what you tried to do.
You couldn't destroy me.
I'm still standing.
I'm still strong.
And I always will be. (2002:67).
The quotation above is the conversation between Antwone and his biological mother, Mrs. Eva. After a deep thought of what should he do, and he receive a lot of suggestion for people around him, he finally decide that he needs to meet his parents, actually mother who still alive. Though he was happier than he had ever been, he had began wonder about his biological family. Antwone start looking for his mother by asked to his ex-foster mother, Mrs. Tate. After a miraculously short search, he found his aunts and uncles on his father's side, which then helped him to find and finally meet his mother. He developed close relationships with his aunts and uncles, but was unable to find enough common ground to have a relationship with his mother. Finding people with whom he shared DNA meant a good deal to him, and helped him to obtain the answers to questions that had been taunting him his entire life. Now he was truly able to move on.
Antwone Fisher was an individual that endured so many things. He faced a lot of challenges that may have seemed impossible to recover from. Antwone was not raised in an upper crust home. He did not grow up in a home in which his mother and father was present. Instead of having positive role models, he had to live with individuals that were abusive to him. But when he met his biological mother, his mother seems does not care to him and neglected him even he has a long ride to come to her. Antwone feels so disappointed to what happens to his biological mother’s behavior. However, Antwone is the strong man and he decides to apply displacement to cover this bad situation. This displacement is by changing his disappointed feeling becomes the strong words. In front of his mother, he said that he is the strong man and will always be. Even anything tried to destroy him, he wil still stand and still stronger. It means that he tried to make his mother regret about what she did in the past. This mechanism used by Antwone to defense himself from his trauma and anxiety. The other quotation which shows that Antwone applies the displacement as can be seen by the following quotation below:
For all these years I wondered about you.
I dreamed about you. Didn't you miss me?
On the way to school each day...
I imagined you were just around the next corner... and when I'd get there, you'd be there. (2002:74).
The quotation above shows that after met with his biological mother, Antwone confesses his honest feeling to his mother. He says that he is wondering about her all the time, he also dreamed about her in every night. He always feels so worried because of thinking about his parent. He knew that his mother neglected him, but he wonder if his mother miss him too. He disappointed that his mother does not care even he has struggle to come so far to looking for her.
Antwone Fisher realizes that he was an individual that was resilient and had endured so much in his life. As a young child, he did not live in the best environment. He lacked the guidance that is recommended that a child should have. In Antwone’s childhood, he seemed to not have many positive influences in his life. Even as an infant, Antwone was not born into the ideal situation. When Antwone’s mother was pregnant with him, in a correctional facility. This was where he was born. Also, his father was murdered. Due to the bad decisions of both of his parents, he was left under the supervision of his foster mother Ms.
Tate. His foster mother mistreated him by being verbally and physically abusive.
Then, the way to cope his trauma and anxiety of being neglected again by his mother he does displacement. In this time, he displace his feeling of missing his mother by imagine his mother were just around the next corner when he was on the way to school each day. Actually, Antwone feels thatiIt is not easy to cope after a loved one is neglected him. He will mourn and grieve. Mourning is the natural process you go through to accept a major loss. However, the way Antwone did displacement is the right one because this circumstance makes him feels better than missing his mother all day.