Oates' "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been": Defense Mechanisms The story, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been" by Joyce Carol Oates is truly littered with conventions of Psychoanalysis. Freud developed a list of defense mechanisms used by the human subconscious in order to deal with issues too intense for the conscious mind. These strategies of the psyche are translated into symbols scattered throughout this work. These symbols are expressed through the characters of Connie, and Arnold Friend. The first convention is denial. Denial is when the subconscious cannot handle an issue or event