PSYCHOLOGY ASSIGNMENT

CASE STUDY OF THE EGO DEFENSE

MECHANISM IN RAMAN RAGHAV 2.0

Raman Raghav 2.0’s is psychological thriller piece directed by

Anurag Kashyap. On the forefront, the reputation of the film may
seem as an ordinary- cop and killer chase; but the reality which
encompasses the directors vision is -- two individuals who are on
the opposite spectrum of the material world, but similar in ‘psyche’.
The objective of this assignment is to explain the Defense
Mechanism by analyzing and exemplifying the behavior of the
character that accounts for it.

Repression
Repression has been a reoccurring theme of the film which has been
shown as a common undertone between the two protagonists.
Wikipedia states it as
‘ the psychological attempt to direct one's own desires and impulses toward
pleasurable instincts by excluding them from one's consciousness and holding
or subduing them in the unconscious ‘ .

Both the characters showed these traits. Ramana exemplified in his

anthology for the reason of his killing – to Ramana the path to
pleasure was seated through the act of fulfilling his destiny – to be
like Raman Raghav and find his soulmate, to achieve this he would
lead the cause of death for many and in his own words attributed to
pleasure high for him. While Raghavan as a means to bury the
baggage and suppress his feelings abused horrendous amount of
drugs, to the point his purpose of life became limited to party,
sexual activity and drugs. Everything he did was in order to sustain
that lifestyle.

Regression
Regression was another defense mechanism that was evident and
exemplified by both the characters. Regression in Freud’s words
stated – a physical and psychological stress that may sometimes
lead people to return to an earlier or more childlike form of defense.
It was evident in Raman’s Behavior when he was ambushed by the
police officers, duly beaten up and locked in the room. He returned
to a primitive state where he talked to himself and whined in front
of a bunch of kids, in order to gain sympathy and escape from the
room. Similarly Raghavan showed the regressive behavior in one of
the scenes where he is crying and assumes the fetal position,
probably cause of the guilt.

Projection
Projection is heavily used defensive mechanism exhibited in the
film. Projection is an unconscious discomfort that can lead people to
attribute difficult feelings or impulses to someone else to avoid
confronting them. Raghavan and Simmi had relationship, where
raghavan was frequently projecting his anger (due to his abusive
relationship with his father and the self hate) onto simmi. By the
end of the film his projection ends up taking away her life, whilst in
Ramana’s case his constantly projection is reason for killings,
Ramana exhibited this attitude when his sister brought up old
suppressed memories, ended up killing her entire family.