Obviously. Dogs routinely teach philosophy and cats, as we all know, are amazing mathematicians and physicists. A little know fact was that Einstein actually got the theories of general and special relativity by looking at the notebooks of his cat while it was on the litter box!
Yes. Of course. Observable facts are delusions...
As for coping/defence mechanisms, that's your gig: you posit a world where everything is run on auto-pilot and is out of your control, so that you never have to assume responsibility for anything you do or deal with anything that happens to you.
What is an illusion? If you can can consciously override something it doesn't control you. You assert that our instincts and emotions control us. Clearly they don't. Firefighters run into burning buildings to save strangers. Soldiers risk their lives to save comrades. Both of those acts are counter to the instincts of self-preservation and procreation. And yet people do them. All the time.
Your "theory" is a joke.
The firefighter and soldier get PAID, it is is their job, they need to do it to SURVIVE.
We have choices and free-will but all decisions are ultimately tied to our SURVIVAL instinct as well as that of REPRODUCTION.
When you go to university to study and earn a degree it is part of the survival instinct, in order to have a better job and live a better life and to have better mate as well.
Humans are ANIMALS, this might be an uncomfortable and bleak reality for some to bear but their survival instincts via the EGO help provide justification, answers and meaning to the world around them.
The development of SPEECH is the clue here to the rapid development of the human mind in comparison to other animals......it allowed for transfer of knowledge as well as a different form of thinking.
We had the ability to think in WORDS.
As a result, this lead to the creating of a different kind of AWARENESS of ourselves in contrast to other animals.....a self-awareness.
How would you organise your thought without words? Not quite the same is it?