Life As A House

            
             In Life As A House, Sam is a teenager who is forced into a relationship with his father for the summer. He was not too receptive of having to live with his father for the duration of the summer. He had already built up a wall with his own family, but here are a few ways that this boy used defense mechanism in his relationship with his father.
             He used avoidance in the relationship. For Sam to had gotten as bad off as he was, he definitely must not had addressed the issue of George not being in his life. Instead of confronting him at first to tell him that he had issues with him not being around as a father, he put his feelings on hold and avoided that subject until he tried to use it to his advantage. .
             Sam also used psychological withdrawal. His abuse of drug made him feel an escape. He used this at home with his family, as well as using it when he went to stay with George. It was nice to see that he eventually stopped using drugs when he let his guard down.
             HE also used distancing as a defense mechanism. He made it clear that he did not want his father anywhere near him physically or emotionally. He may have done this due to skeletons in his closet or just to say, "hey step back cause I don"t care".
             George tried to break down this barrier in many ways. He used a positive communication climate with his approach to Sam. The first use of this was when he told Sam that they were not much different. HE also showed this when he talked to him about his own relationship with his father.
             Equality was another way of coping with Sam's defensiveness. He wanted Sam to know that even though he was his father, he had done many of the things that Sam had done and had been through alot of the things that he had been through.
             HE used provisionalism with Sam as he left himself open to a few of Sam's ideas. George didn"t keep his mind closed with Sam. He also used empathy with Sam. He showed this when telling him about his own father and the things he went that through when he was younger.