Difficult situations, problems... Which of us does not ask ourselves the questions “what to do?” and "what should I do?" Let's ask. And often. And we ourselves are trying to somehow resolve the existing difficulties. And if it doesn’t work out, then we resort to the help of others. There is no money - we will get it, there is no work - we will look. But this is all external. But with internal problems it is more difficult. I often don’t want to admit them, even to myself. Hurt. And it's unpleasant. But self-criticism and self-flagellation still won’t help.
People react differently to their internal difficulties. Some suppress their inclinations, denying their existence. Others “forget” about the traumatic event. Still others are looking for a way out in self-justification and condescension towards their “weaknesses.” And still others try to distort reality and engage in self-deception. And all this is so sincere: they sincerely “don’t see” the problem, they sincerely “forget” about the reasons... But no matter what method people resort to, protecting their psyche from painful stress, defense mechanisms help them in this.
What are defense mechanisms?
Defense Mechanisms- a system of mechanisms that try to reduce negative, traumatic experiences to a minimum. These experiences are mainly associated with internal or external conflicts, states of anxiety or discomfort. Defense mechanisms help us maintain the stability of our self-esteem, ideas about ourselves and the world. They can also act as buffers, trying to prevent the too strong disappointments and threats that life brings us from getting too close to our consciousness. In cases where we cannot cope with anxiety or fear, defense mechanisms distort reality in order to preserve our psychological health and ourselves as individuals.
So, let's look at some types of defense mechanisms.
crowding out- the most universal means of avoiding internal conflict. It is a person's conscious effort to forget frustrating impressions by transferring attention to other forms of activity. In other words, repression is voluntary suppression, which leads to true forgetting of the corresponding mental contents.
One of the most striking examples of repression can be considered anorexia - refusal to eat. This is a constantly and successfully implemented displacement of the need to eat. As a rule, “anorexic” repression is a consequence of the fear of gaining weight and, therefore, looking bad. In the clinic of neuroses, anorexia nervosa syndrome is sometimes encountered, which most often affects girls aged 14-18 years.
During puberty, changes in appearance and body are clearly expressed. Girls often perceive developing breasts and the appearance of roundness in the hips as a symptom of beginning fullness. And, as a rule, they begin to struggle intensively with this “fullness”. Some teenagers cannot openly refuse food offered to them by their parents. And therefore, as soon as the meal is over, they immediately go to the toilet room, where they manually induce a gag reflex. On the one hand, this frees you from food that threatens replenishment, and on the other, it brings psychological relief. Over time, there comes a time when the gag reflex is triggered automatically by food intake. And the disease is formed. The original cause of the disease has been successfully supplanted. The consequences remain. Note that such anorexia nervosa is one of the most difficult to treat diseases.
Rationalization is finding acceptable reasons and explanations for acceptable thoughts and actions. Rational explanation as a defense mechanism is not aimed at resolving the contradiction as the basis of the conflict, but at relieving tension when experiencing discomfort with the help of quasi-logical explanations. Naturally, these “justifying” explanations for thoughts and actions are more ethical and noble than the true motives. Thus, rationalization is aimed at maintaining the status quo of a life situation and works to hide the true motivation. Motives of a protective nature appear in people who, on the one hand, do not seem to allow real motives to come to consciousness, but, on the other hand, allow these motives to be realized, but under a beautiful, socially approved façade.
The simplest example of rationalization can be the justifying explanations of a schoolchild who received a bad grade. It’s so offensive to admit to everyone (and to yourself in particular) that it’s your own fault - you didn’t learn the material! Not everyone is capable of such a blow to their pride. And criticism from others who are significant to you is painful. So the student justifies himself, comes up with “sincere” explanations: “It was the teacher who was in a bad mood, so he gave me a bad mark and gave everyone a bad grade for nothing,” or “I’m not a favorite, like Ivanov, so he gives me bad marks for the slightest mistakes in my work.” answer." He explains so beautifully, convinces everyone that he himself believes in all this.
Projection- subconscious attribution of one’s own qualities, feelings and desires to another person. This defense mechanism is a consequence of repression. Thanks to repression, drives are suppressed and driven back inside. But here they do not cease to exert their influence. This internal conflict persists, which means there is a possibility that this conflict will break out and be “made public.” But hitting yourself, crushing your desires is difficult and painful. In this case, the desires repressed from oneself are projected onto another. And the individual, “not noticing” his desires, sees them in others, ardently condemns and is indignant at their presence in another person.
Projection is easier to carry out more easily on someone whose situation is similar to the projector. So, a neighbor - an old maid - will ardently condemn dissolute youth (especially girls) with their sexual preferences (after all, she herself is deprived of this, and desires and passions roam somewhere deep in her soul). But she will condemn even more ardently her own “bench friend,” who is as lonely as herself: “Her character is so terrible that no one get married didn’t take it, and she doesn’t have any real friends, so she’s been alone all her life.”
By the same projection mechanism, a wife who is actually internally ready to cheat on her husband will be jealous of his every skirt. And she would rather declare her husband a womanizer than admit to herself her hidden desire to have an affair on the side. It’s not for nothing that the most creepy owners, suspicious of everyone and everything, are the walking people.
A person using the defense mechanism of projection is often convinced of the dishonesty of others, although he himself is secretly inclined to this. Sometimes he regrets that he did not deceive people when there was such an opportunity. Inclined to envy, to search for negative reasons for the success of colleagues and others. It is about such people that they say: “In someone else’s eye he notices a speck, but in his own he does not see a log.”
Negation- this is an attempt not to accept events that are undesirable for oneself as reality. What is noteworthy is the ability in such cases to “skip” unpleasant experienced events in one’s memories, replacing them with fiction. As a defense mechanism, denial consists of diverting attention from painful ideas and feelings, but does not make them completely inaccessible to consciousness.
So, many people are afraid of serious diseases. And they would rather deny the presence of even the very first obvious symptoms than consult a doctor. And therefore the disease progresses. The same protective mechanism is triggered when one of the married couple “does not see” and denies the existing problems in married life. And such behavior often leads to a break in relationships.
A person who has resorted to denial simply ignores painful realities and acts as if they do not exist. Confident in his merits, he tries to attract the attention of others by all means and means. And at the same time he sees only a positive attitude towards his person. Criticism and rejection are simply ignored. New people are seen as potential fans. And in general, he considers himself a person without problems, because he denies the presence of difficulties/difficulties in his life. Has high self-esteem.
Identification- unconscious transference to oneself of feelings and qualities inherent in another person and not available, but desirable for oneself. This mechanism helps in the assimilation of social norms, in the understanding of man by man, in the empathy of people with each other. So, this mechanism works when a teenager wants to be like the Hero he has chosen. He identifies the actions and character traits of the Hero with his own.
Identification plays a prominent role in the Oedipus complex. Little children gradually grow up. And the most obvious examples of adults from whom you can copy behavior, manners, etc. - these are close ones. Thus, a girl unconsciously tries to be like her mother, and a boy - like his father.
Regression- this is a reduction to more primitive ways of responding (behavioral, emotional). The person experiences a regression to the personality or psychological structures that he had at an earlier age, when life was supposedly more satisfying. This mainly manifests itself in a stressful situation. Most often, this type of defense is characteristic of infantile people of the neurotic type, who are prone to regression to the oral phase of psychosexual development, i.e. to get comfort from eating, drinking, smoking, sucking something, etc. They strive to involve loved ones and people around them in solving their problems, shifting responsibility for this onto them as older ones.
Reactive formations- behavior that is opposed to desire. The emergence of reactive formation is initiated by the conflict between desire and the prohibition on its satisfaction on the part of the internal “censor”. The “censor” forbids even thinking about this desire; all work is aimed at repressing the object of satisfying the desire. Thus, an obvious or unconscious inversion of desire appears, behavior is replaced by the opposite, with the opposite sign. An example of this is the display of "tenderness" towards girls by teenagers. On the one hand, such behavior is subject to ridicule, at the same time, adolescence is a time of... That is why, according to the mechanism of reactive formation, the love and tenderness of a teenager is transformed into behavior that is outwardly opposite to falling in love, such as pulling pigtails.
Insulation- this is the separation of a traumatic situation from the emotional experiences associated with it. The replacement of the situation occurs as if unconsciously, at least not associated with one’s own experiences. Everything happens as if it were happening to someone else. The isolation of the situation from one’s own ego is especially pronounced in children. By taking a doll or toy animal, a child in play can allow it to do and say everything that he himself is prohibited from: being reckless, sarcastic, cruel, swearing, making fun of others, etc.
Sublimation- this is the most common defense mechanism when we, trying to forget about a traumatic event (experience), switch to various types of activities that are acceptable to us and society. A type of sublimation can be sports, intellectual work, creativity.
Introjection is the process by which what comes from the outside is mistakenly perceived as happening inside. Thus, young children absorb all sorts of positions, affects and forms of behavior of significant people in their lives, subsequently passing this off as their opinion.
As we see, defense mechanisms are the way we protect ourselves from internal and external stress. They are formed initially in an interpersonal relationship, then they become our internal characteristics, that is, one or another protective form of behavior. It should be noted that a person often uses not one defensive strategy to resolve conflict or relieve anxiety, but several. But despite the differences between specific types of defenses, their functions are similar: they consist in ensuring the stability and immutability of an individual’s ideas about himself.
Briling Elena Evgenievna, psychologist
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Apparently my body’s reaction to stress is stronger than I thought. On the other hand, sleep is also a protective mechanism of the psyche; the consequences of stress and nervous conditions will be less.
Discussion
I decided that no matter what happens, I will report every day.
Yesterday was not very good, but not entirely bad either :) And all because we have 3 days of holidays, and they, like weekends, unsettle...
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p: 500 g strawberries
o?: squid, salad. white wine 250g
u: almonds, coffee with milk, apple
at night: three sesame breadsticks cola-zero
I won’t report in detail, but there were a lot of violations, tomorrow there will be more. But the CD has reached its peak, these are the 2 most difficult days for me.
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Discussion
Why is this happening? In order to understand this, you need to understand what happens to a child who is not deprived of maternal care. The mother takes care of the child, she protects him, responds to his cries and smiles, and consoles him when he feels bad. The most important, basic principles of their relationship are stability and security. Based on these principles, the child develops basic trust, first in the mother, and then in people in general. After all, if a person does not trust his own mother, he cannot fully trust anyone at all. Confident in his own safety, a child can move forward, develop, and it will be easier for him to endure difficulties and cope with them. So, a child deprived of a mother, and therefore a stable relationship, loses a sense of security. He loses his sense of support, loses basic trust in people and the world as a whole. Deprived of a sense of security, a child cannot develop harmoniously.
But most importantly, he does not develop a model of close relationships based on love and trust, which he could then transfer to his adult relationships and relationships with his children. At the early stages of development, the child has not yet formed either characterological characteristics or ways of interacting with people, therefore, the earlier a violent invasion of the mother-child relationship occurs, the more serious the consequences for the child’s personality.
What happens to schoolchildren?
Their reactions depend on how they perceive the fact of adoption. If they are removed from the family, if they perceive adoption as something violent, threatening, humiliating, causing the loss of their natural parents, then these children have very serious psychological problems. Researchers point to severe emotional disturbances, depression (some children show suicidal intentions), increased anxiety and decreased self-esteem. In fact, all the symptoms described appear in people who have become victims of violence and have suffered severe psychological trauma.
According to American psychiatrist David Brodzinsky, who studied children in foster families, intellectual, behavioral and emotional disorders are 4 times more common among them than among children growing up in their families of origin. When adopted children grow up, they are much more likely than ordinary children to become criminals, and drug addiction is much more common among them.
The picture is unpleasant, but, nevertheless, one can often hear the question: what if the family of origin is so bad that the children even need to be taken away? What if parents yell at their child and spank him? What if they don't earn enough to feed him delicacies and dress him nicely? And this happens all the time. When people hear about juvenile technologies, about the fact that children are taken away from such and such parents, they often think like this: “They were probably very bad parents. It will probably be better for the children in the orphanage, because they will be well fed and clothed there, dad won’t come home drunk, mom won’t cause a scandal.” To answer these questions, it is appropriate to return again to the model of the mother-child relationship, the presence of which is the main condition for human socialization. Yes, in the case of inharmonious relationships, an inharmonious, distorted model is formed, but still this is a model of permanent, long-term, close child-parent relationships. If a child is placed in a shelter, such a model is not formed at all. Essentially, we are dealing with emotional disabilities. Therefore, it is not surprising that the overwhelming number of graduates of orphanages cannot start a family, cannot find a permanent good job, and often abandon their children themselves (that is, they cannot create permanent stable connections). It is no coincidence that in the United States one of the arguments in favor of removing a child is that the mother or father themselves lost their parents in childhood.
Of course, there are severe pathological parent-child relationships (for example, systematic sadistic torture or sexual abuse) that destroy the child’s psyche more than the loss of an attachment figure. It is very important here to distinguish between physical punishment and sadistic torture. In the case of the latter, causing pain and humiliation becomes the central, most important component of the relationship, an end in itself. As a result of such “upbringing,” a personality with very serious mental disorders is formed. However, such pathological relationships are quite rare, as is any sharp deviation from the norm. In all other cases, the loss of a mother causes much more damage to the child than living with sometimes very problematic parents. It becomes clear why children who run away from orphanages return to their parents (and it doesn’t matter that they are, at times, alcoholics or emotionally unbalanced people). Because the most important fear, next to the fear of death, for a child is the fear of losing his parents.
There is a great temptation to explain all the described emotional, intellectual and personality disorders in children from foster families and orphanages by genetics. Conclude that dysfunctional, maladaptive children inherited their traits from their dysfunctional parents. However, symptoms of behavioral and emotional disorders also occur in children who have lost so-called “welfare” parents as a result of accidents.
So, children who have lost their natural parents cannot subsequently build their relationships with society and have difficulty adapting to it. This happens because the most important relationships, which are the basis on which all further relationships are based, the model on which children learn to love and form attachments, were attacked or destroyed (in the case of children who lost their parents at school age) or did not have time fully harmoniously formed (in the case of children aged from several months to 3-4 years). This allows us to conclude that the safest place for a child, conducive to his harmonious development, is a traditional family consisting of natural parents.
However, we see that it is the traditional family that is now under massive attack. Juvenile technologies appeared and were developed in the West, but now they have come to us. Despite the assurances of officials that we will not have juvenile justice, it is nevertheless already here. At the moment, the State Duma is considering a law on social patronage. This is a completely juvenile law, which gives officials a free hand and makes it much easier to take children away from their parents. This law has not yet been adopted, but in the pilot regions children are already being taken away quite actively. The trend is obvious: instead of strengthening the institution of the family, another weapon is being created to destroy it. And here the question naturally arises: won’t we end up with a society of disparate individuals who are unable to love, think and work? How long will such a society last?
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Discussion
I largely agree with the author of the article. I can say that really, a lot depends on the mother and her condition. And also from those who educate (educators, teachers, grandmothers) Here you can also learn a little more about raising children: www.prozwetanie.ru/pp/2076p.php
No mom! And the protective mechanisms of the psyche did not have time to form to the new conditions.
Don’t think that everything is not right in our heads because of our experiences, it’s just that the defense mechanism of our psyche probably worked, so to speak. After all, we ourselves, better than anyone else, know how to help ourselves!
As a protective natural mechanism for procreation, along with caution. Indeed, it looks like a clear deviation in the development of the psyche. I thought, there must be serious reasons for this, perhaps...
Discussion
It is not he who is self-centered, but you who are narcissistic. Transferring your feelings and experiences onto yourself is one of the manifestations of empathy, CO-feeling and CO-experience. But you don’t exactly demand this, but the cult of your “self” - these are my feelings, and no one else’s, and don’t meddle with yours.
This is also indicated by your desire to control everything. Your husband’s humorous hints that he feels like a “child” next to you are the first signs that this can lead to conflict. however, if this role model suits everyone, then you will live like this all your life “I am both a woman and a man,” periodically lamenting how weak and helpless he is, but secretly being proud of his achievements and nurturing them.
They absolutely don’t care what happened BEFORE THEM
at a minimum, interested in today, at maximum - in the future
They are also visionaries and dreamers))
It seems to me that you and your daughter are from different groups
this is normal, you just have to be aware of it))
I didn't have time to read the whole thread, so maybe I'll repeat myself. It seems to me that if Sveta’s inadequate response relates only to this one area that is painful for her, then there is no need to worry. I also think that this is a protective mechanism of the psyche, and there is no need to interfere with its work. 16 years is a difficult age, and especially for a smart child. The injustice of the world in general is very painfully perceived, and injustice towards you - even more so... And sometimes it is easier to mentally correct this picture of the world than to come to terms with the existing state of affairs. This is just a stage of mental work on growing up, accepting yourself
He does not draw conclusions, but the protective mechanism of the psyche is triggered. Children very often use this technique: they close their eyes or hide behind their mother and it seems like there is nothing scary or unpleasant in the world.
Discussion
What a pity for the boy! I looked at your photos, what a lovely child. And for you - hang in there and don’t despair! Who knows what will happen in 2 years? And doctors can be wrong in their forecasts and miracles do happen in the world (although there are not enough for everyone). You need to believe in the best. In any case, live happily now, do everything that is necessary for the child. And you don’t need to prepare it specially for anything. Even if the worst forecasts come true, this will not happen in one day, the boy will gradually understand everything himself. The main thing is that he feels that he is still loved. And during this time, he can gradually instill in him an interest in something that does not require active movements, so that in the future the child can somehow realize himself. You yourself should have a positive attitude towards the future, whatever it may be. Good luck to you.
Maybe now you shouldn’t tell him anything until he asks? After all, such knowledge would not help him in any way at the moment. When the time comes and he thinks and asks, then tell him that scientists all over the world are now looking for ways to cure this disease. One neuropathologist professor told me about this. He said he has no doubt the problem will be solved in the coming decades. He also said that the search for treatment methods is underway in many gene laboratories around the world. Here - in the laboratory of molecular diagnostics of the Institute of Medical Genetics in Moscow, as well as in Tomsk and St. Petersburg. A temporary effect was achieved by transplanting embryonic muscle cells - this is in the USA. But a radical method would be gene therapy, when a fragment of a gene capable of producing normal muscle protein is introduced into each muscle. All the main work in this direction has already been done - the muscular dystrophy gene has been found and activated, its molecular nature has been established, it has been cloned. So such treatment has already been simulated in laboratory conditions. The last problem remains unsolved - how a normal gene can enter the human body, so as to take root in it and begin full-fledged work. They tried to “introduce” it on an adenovirus, the gene took root, but when the person recovered, the virus was destroyed along with the producing gene. But scientists continue to search. Sorry, I don’t understand much about this myself, I just retold you our conversation - perhaps this will help you in some way.
Psychological protection– these are unconscious processes occurring in the psyche, aimed at minimizing the impact of negative experiences. Defense tools are the basis of resistance processes. Psychological defense as a concept was first voiced by Freud, who initially meant, first of all, repression (active, motivated elimination of something from consciousness).
The functions of psychological defenses are to reduce the confrontation that occurs within the individual, to relieve tension caused by the confrontation of impulses of the unconscious and the accepted demands of the environment that arise as a result of social interaction. By minimizing such conflict, safety mechanisms regulate human behavior, increasing its adaptive capacity.
What is psychological protection?
The human psyche is characterized by the ability to protect itself from negative surrounding or internal influences.
Psychological protection of the individual is present in every human subject, but varies in degree of intensity.
Psychological protection guards the mental health of people, protects their “I” from the effects of stressful influences, increased anxiety, negative, destructive thoughts, and from confrontations leading to poor health.
Psychological defense as a concept was born in 1894 thanks to the famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who came to the conclusion that a subject can show two different responses to unpleasant situations. He can either detain them in a conscious state, or distort such circumstances in order to reduce their scope or deviate them in a different direction.
All protective mechanisms are characterized by two features connecting them. First of all, they are unconscious. activates protection spontaneously, without understanding what it is doing. Secondly, the main task of protective tools is to distort reality as much as possible or completely deny it, so that the subject stops perceiving it as alarming or unsafe. It should be emphasized that human individuals often use several protection mechanisms simultaneously in order to protect themselves from unpleasant, threatening events. However, such a distortion cannot be considered intentional or an exaggeration.
At the same time, despite the fact that all available protective acts are aimed at protecting the human psyche, preventing him from falling into depression, and helping him endure stress, they often cause harm. The human subject cannot exist constantly in a state of renunciation or blaming others for his own troubles, replacing reality with a distorted picture that has fallen out of reality.
Psychological defense, in addition, can hinder human development. It can become an obstacle to the path of success.
The negative consequences of the phenomenon under consideration occur with the stable repetition of a certain defense mechanism in similar situations of life, however, individual events, although similar to those that initially provoked the activation of the defense, do not need cover-up, since the subject himself can consciously find a solution to the problem that has arisen.
Also, defense mechanisms turn into a destructive force when a person uses several of them at the same time. A subject who frequently resorts to defense mechanisms is doomed to be a failure.
Psychological protection of the individual is not an innate skill. It is acquired as the baby goes through it. The main source of the formation of internal defense mechanisms and examples of their use are parents, who “infect” their own children with their example of using protection.
Mechanisms of psychological defense of the individual
A special system of personality regulation aimed at protecting against negative, traumatic, unpleasant experiences caused by contradictions, anxiety and a state of discomfort is called psychological protection, the functional purpose of which is to minimize intrapersonal confrontation, relieve tension, and relieve anxiety. By weakening internal contradictions, psychological hidden “safeties” regulate the behavioral reactions of the individual, increasing its adaptive ability and balancing the psyche.
Freud had previously outlined the theories of the conscious, unconscious and the concept of the subconscious, where he emphasized that defensive internal mechanisms are an integral part of the unconscious. He argued that the human subject is often confronted with unpleasant stimuli that are threatening and can generate stress or lead to a breakdown. Without internal “safeties,” the ego of the individual will undergo disintegration, which will make it impossible to make decisions in everyday life. Psychological protection acts as shock absorbers. It helps individuals cope with negativity and pain.
Modern psychological science identifies 10 internal defense mechanisms, which are classified according to the degree of maturity into defensive (for example, isolation, rationalization, intellectualization) and projective (denial, repression). The first ones are more mature. They allow negative or traumatic information to enter their consciousness, but interpret it for themselves in a “painless” way. The second ones are more primitive, since traumatic information is not allowed into consciousness.
Today, psychological “safeties” are considered reactions that an individual resorts to unconsciously in order to protect his own internal mental components, the “Ego,” from anxiety, confrontation, sensation, guilt, and feelings.
The fundamental mechanisms of psychological defense are differentiated by such parameters as the level of conflict processing within, the reception of reality distortion, the level of the amount of energy spent on maintaining a certain mechanism, the level of the individual and the type of probable mental disorder that appears as a result of addiction to a certain defense mechanism.
Freud, using his own three-component model of the structure of the psyche, suggested that individual mechanisms arise in childhood.
Psychological protection, examples of it are found all the time in life. Often, in order not to vent anger on the boss, a person pours out streams of negative information on employees, since they are less significant objects for him.
It often happens that the safety mechanisms begin to work incorrectly. The reason for this failure lies in the individual’s desire for peace. Hence, when the desire for psychological comfort begins to prevail over the desire to comprehend the world, minimizing the risk of going beyond the boundaries of the familiar, well-functioning defense mechanisms cease to function adequately, which leads to.
Protective defense mechanisms constitute the security complex of the personality, but at the same time they can lead to its disintegration. Each individual has his own favorite variation of protection.
Psychological defense is an example of this: the desire to find a reasonable explanation for even the most ridiculous behavior. This is how the tendency towards rationalization manifests itself.
However, there is a fine line that runs between adequate use of the preferred mechanism and a violation of the equivalent balance in their functioning. Troubles arise for individuals when the chosen “fuse” is absolutely inappropriate for the situation.
Types of psychological protection
Among the scientifically recognized and frequently encountered internal “shields,” there are about 50 types of psychological defense. Below are the main defense techniques used.
First of all, we can highlight sublimation, the concept of which was defined by Freud. He considered it a process of transformation of libido into sublime aspiration and socially necessary activity. According to Freud's concept, this is the main effective defense mechanism during personality maturation. The preference for sublimation as the main strategy speaks of mental maturation and personality formation.
There are 2 key variations of sublimation: primary and secondary. With the first, the original task towards which the personality is directed is preserved, which is expressed relatively directly, for example, infertile parents decide to adopt. In the second, individuals abandon the initial task and choose another task, which can be achieved at a higher level of mental activity, as a result of which sublimation is indirect.
An individual who has failed to adapt using the primary form of the defense mechanism can switch to the secondary form.
The next frequently used technique is, which is found in the involuntary movement of unacceptable impulses or thoughts into the unconscious. Simply put, repression is motivated forgetting. When the function of this mechanism is insufficient to reduce anxiety, other defense techniques are used that help the repressed information appear in a distorted light.
Regression is an unconscious “descent” into an early stage of adaptation, allowing the satisfaction of desires. It can be symbolic, partial or complete. Many problems of an emotional nature have regressive characteristics. In its normal manifestation, regression can be detected in game processes, during illnesses (for example, a sick individual requires more attention and increased care).
Projection is a mechanism for assigning to another individual or object desires, feelings, thoughts that the subject consciously rejects. Individual variations of projection are easily detected in everyday life. Most human subjects are completely uncritical of personal shortcomings, but easily notice them in those around them. People tend to blame the surrounding society for their sorrows. At the same time, projection can be harmful, since it often causes an erroneous interpretation of reality. This mechanism mainly works in vulnerable individuals and immature individuals.
The opposite of the technique described above is introjection or inclusion of oneself. It plays an important role in early personal maturation, since parental values are learned on its basis. The mechanism is updated due to the loss of a close relative. With the help of introjection, the differences between one's own person and the object of love are eliminated. Sometimes or towards someone, negative impulses are transformed into devaluation of oneself and self-criticism, due to the introjection of such a subject.
Rationalization is a mechanism that justifies the behavioral response of individuals, their thoughts, feelings, which are actually unacceptable. This technique is considered the most common psychological defense mechanism.
Human behavior is determined by many factors. When an individual explains behavioral reactions in the most acceptable way for his own personality, then rationalization occurs. An unconscious rationalization technique should not be confused with a conscious lie or deliberate deception. Rationalization helps maintain self-esteem, avoid responsibility and feelings of guilt. In every rationalization there is some amount of truth, but there is more self-deception in it. This makes her unsafe.
Intellectualization involves the exaggerated use of intellectual potential in order to eliminate emotional experiences. This technique is characterized by a close relationship with rationalization. It replaces the direct experience of feelings with thinking about them.
Compensation is an unconscious attempt to overcome real or imagined defects. The mechanism under consideration is considered universal, because acquiring status is the most important need of almost every individual. Compensation can be socially acceptable (for example, a blind person becomes a famous musician) and unacceptable (for example, compensation for disability is transformed into conflict and aggression). There is also a distinction between direct compensation (in an obviously unwinnable area the individual strives for success) and indirect compensation (the tendency to establish one’s own personality in another area).
Reactive formation is a mechanism that replaces unacceptable impulses for awareness with exorbitant, opposing tendencies. This technique is characterized by two stages. In the first turn, the unacceptable desire is repressed, after which its antithesis increases. For example, overprotection may hide feelings of rejection.
The mechanism of denial is the rejection of thoughts, feelings, impulses, needs or reality that are unacceptable at the level of consciousness. The individual behaves as if the problem situation does not exist. The primitive way of denial is inherent in children. Adults more often use the described method in situations of serious crisis.
Displacement is the redirection of emotional responses from one item to an acceptable substitute. For example, subjects take out aggressive feelings on the family instead of the employer.
Methods and techniques of psychological defense
Many eminent psychologists argue that the ability to protect yourself from the negative emotional reactions of envious people and ill-wishers, the ability to maintain spiritual harmony in all sorts of unpleasant circumstances and not respond to annoying, offensive attacks, is a characteristic feature of a mature personality, an emotionally developed and intellectually formed individual. This is a guarantee of health and the main difference between a successful individual. This is precisely the positive side of the function of psychological defenses. Therefore, subjects who experience pressure from society and take on negative psychological attacks from spiteful critics need to learn adequate methods of protecting themselves from negative influences.
First of all, you need to realize that an irritated and emotionally depressed individual cannot restrain emotional impulses and adequately respond to criticism.
Methods of psychological defense that help cope with aggressive manifestations are given below.
One of the techniques that helps repel negative emotions is the “wind of change.” You need to remember all the words and intonations that cause the most painful intonation, understand what can be guaranteed to knock the waters off, unbalance or plunge you into depression. It is recommended to remember and vividly imagine the circumstances when an ill-wisher tries to make you angry using certain words, intonation or facial expressions. You should also say inside yourself the words that hurt you the most. You can visualize the facial expressions of your opponent uttering offensive words.
This state of powerless anger or, on the contrary, loss, must be felt inside, sorted out by individual sensations. You need to become aware of your own sensations and changes occurring in the body (for example, your heartbeat may become faster, anxiety may appear, your legs may become “numb”) and remember them. Then you should imagine yourself standing in a strong wind, which blows away all the negativity, hurtful words and attacks of an ill-wisher, as well as reciprocal negative emotions.
It is recommended to do the described exercise several times in a quiet room. It will help you subsequently be much calmer about aggressive attacks. When faced with a situation in which someone is trying to insult or humiliate, you should imagine yourself as being in the wind. Then the words of the spiteful critic will sink into oblivion without reaching their goal.
The next method of psychological defense is called an “absurd situation.” Here a person is advised not to wait for aggression, an outburst of offensive words, or ridicule. We need to adopt the well-known phraseology “making a mountain out of a molehill.” In other words, it is necessary to bring any problem to the point of absurdity using exaggeration. If you feel ridicule or insult from your opponent, you should exaggerate this situation in such a way that the words that follow only generate laughter and frivolity. This method of psychological defense can easily disarm your interlocutor and permanently discourage him from offending other people.
You can also imagine your opponents as three-year-old babies. This will help you learn to treat their attacks less painfully. You need to imagine yourself as a teacher, and your opponents as a kindergarten child who runs, jumps, and screams. He is indignant and capricious. Is it possible to be seriously angry with a three-year-old, stupid little girl?!
The next method is called “ocean”. The expanses of water, which occupy a huge part of the land, constantly absorb the seething flows of rivers, but this cannot disturb their majestic steadfastness and calm. Likewise, a person can take an example from the ocean, remaining confident and calm, even when streams of abuse pour out.
A psychological defense technique called “aquarium” involves imagining yourself behind the thick edges of an aquarium when you sense the environment’s attempts to unbalance you. You need to look at your opponent, who pours out a sea of negativity and endlessly hurls offensive words, from behind the thick walls of the aquarium, imagining his face distorted by anger, but not feeling the words, because they are absorbed by the water. Consequently, negative attacks will not achieve their goal, the person will remain balanced, which will further disperse the opponent and force him to lose balance.
Question No.28 . Personal defense mechanisms and their characteristics.
In an effort to get rid of unpleasant emotional states, a person, with the help of “I,” develops so-called “defense mechanisms.” This term was first introduced into psychology by the famous Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud. The concept of psychological defense mechanisms is more fully presented by Anna Freud, in particular in her work “Psychology of the Self and Defense Mechanisms.” She believed that the defense mechanism is based on two types of reactions:
blocking the expression of impulses in conscious behavior;
distorting them to such an extent that their original intensity noticeably decreases or deviates to the side.
In domestic psychology F.S. Bassivny considered psychological defense as the most important form of response of the individual’s consciousness to mental trauma. B.D. Karvasarsky considers psychological defense as a system of adaptive reactions of the individual, aimed at protectively changing the significance of maladaptive components relationships – cognitive, emotional, behavioral– in order to weaken their psycho-traumatic impact on the I-concept.
Psychological protection - This is a natural confrontation between man and the environment. She unconsciously protects him from emotionally negative overload. In the process of socialization, protective mechanisms arise, change, and are rebuilt under the influence of social influences. All PMPs have two common characteristics:
they operate on an unconscious level and are therefore means of self-deception;
they distort, deny, transform, or falsify perceptions of reality to make anxiety less threatening to the individual.
Functions of psychological defenses , on the one hand, can be considered as positive, since they protect the individual from negative experiences, eliminate anxiety and help maintain self-esteem in a situation of conflict. On the other hand, they can also be assessed as negative. If the state of emotional well-being is fixed for a long period and essentially replaces activity, then psychological comfort is achieved at the cost of distorting the perception of reality, or self-deception.
Personal defense mechanisms can be divided into three groups:
I . "natural" - the psychological defenses included in it mediate and shape the perceptual processes of the individual, the peculiarities of the perception of various information about oneself and the world around us. What this group of defenses has in common is the lack of demand for analyzing the content of information. The main thing here is blocking information, unconsciously excluding it from the sphere of consciousness.
crowding out – Freud considered repression as the most direct way to escape anxiety. Repression is the process of removing thoughts and feelings that cause suffering from consciousness. By repressing, a person ceases to be aware of the reasons that cause anxiety, and also does not remember tragic past events.
Suppression - more conscious avoidance of disturbing information than during repression. Suppression occurs consciously, but its causes may or may not be realized. The products of repression are in the preconscious, and do not go into the unconscious, as can be seen in the process of repression. One of the options for the development of suppression is asceticism. Most often, those thoughts and desires that contradict the moral values and norms accepted by a person are suppressed.
Asceticism - was defined by A. Freud as the denial and suppression of all instinctive impulses. This mechanism is more typical for adolescents, an example of which is dissatisfaction with one’s appearance and the desire to change it. Negative feelings about this can be “removed” with the help of asceticism.
N igilism - denial of values. The approach to nihilism as one of the mechanisms of psychological defense is based on the conceptual provisions of E. Fromm. The development of man and his personality occurs within the framework of the formation of two main trends: the desire for freedom and the desire for alienation.
II . "integrative" – the protective mechanisms included in this group are associated with an unconscious assessment of the content of information that is undesirable for the individual, its change, and inadequacy of the assessment. Distortion and transformation of information can be carried out in various ways using: generalization, omission, categorization, etc. As a result of these defenses, the person begins to have information that is inadequate to reality and lives in a world of illusions.
A regression occurs when a person cannot overcome barriers to his goal and experiences frustration. It takes the form of a direct attack on other people, and sometimes is expressed in rudeness, threats, and hostility. Types of aggression:
A) Direct aggression– usually directed at others. It can manifest itself in behavior (fighting, killing) or in verbal form (swearing, sarcasm, rude remarks). It is possible to turn aggression onto oneself (auto-aggression): self-accusation, deep feelings of guilt, suicide, starving oneself, “mortification of the flesh.”
b) Indirect (displaced) aggression– is directed not directly at an unwanted or unpleasant object (face), but at an accessible object. A person can simply “pour out” a bad mood on the first person they come across.
V) Removal– PML, directing a negative emotional reaction not to a traumatic situation, but to an object that has nothing to do with it. This mechanism creates a kind of “vicious circle” of mutual influence of people on each other.
G) Passive aggression. In this case, the subject unites himself with the external aggressor and “takes on” his role. An example of this type of aggression is treason, betrayal, or “indulgence” in the cruelties of another.
Desacralization - ZML is described by A. Maslow. With desacralization, the individual is skeptical and does not want to see his purpose, opportunities for self-realization and self-actualization. The way to remove this protection is resacralization - the desire and readiness to look at Man with the “eyes of eternity.”
Idealization - is associated primarily with inflated emotional self-esteem or assessment of another person. Idealization is also associated with the process of forming a personal ideal. K. Horney noted that the protective mechanism of idealization performs a number of functions important for personal stability:
Replaces a person’s real self-confidence;
Creates conditions for a feeling of superiority, a feeling that one is better, more worthy than others; replaces genuine ideals;
Denies the presence of intrapsychic conflicts (rejects everything that is not part of the behavior pattern he himself created);
It generates a new line of splits in the personality, forming a barrier to its true development, forms alienation from itself, creates new life illusions - a protective mechanism of the personality that serves as the basis for the further development of identification and self-identification.
P projection - PML, associated with the perception of a mental image created by a person as an objective reality, with the help of which unconscious personal characteristics (drives, needs, etc.) are projected onto other objects. The projection mechanism manifests its effect in the fact that a person unconsciously attributes his own negative qualities to another person, and, as a rule, in an exaggerated form.
Transformation - a form of psychological defense in which repressed negative character traits in a person’s mind turn into positive ones.
AND identification - carried out on the basis of an emotional connection with another person. It is accompanied by a person’s desire to be like the one he loves.
AND role boundary - it is based on establishing control over others in order to relieve oneself of responsibility, obtain a certain benefit (reward), increase one’s own importance and ensure one’s own safety and tranquility by establishing a pattern of behavior that does not change in new conditions.
(a woman in the role of an Alcoholic’s Wife, no matter how many times she marries, will still live with an alcoholic). Playing a role allows a person to use an external resource to defend an internal problem in order to protect himself and even gain some benefit when the individual identifies himself with the role he plays. (E. Berne believes that each person has his own set of specific behavioral patterns (roles), which correlates with the person’s mental state (Adult, Parent, Child)).
AND inversion - ZML, based on manifestations of “reverse processes”. Such tendencies manifest themselves in various areas of personality - behavior, motivation, thinking, affective area. All psychological defenses of the individual based on inversion are characterized by the presence of a tendency to a fixed “turn”, the reversal of one or another direction of mental activity in some other direction, usually directly opposite to the original one. There are different types of inversion defense mechanisms:
1. Ractive education one of the forms of a mental attitude or habit that is opposite to a repressed desire, a reaction to it, although the object that caused negative emotions remains the same (unlike projection, where the object itself changes), but here the attitude towards it changes.
2. Obrotherly feeling- one of the ways of manifesting the reversal of attraction into its opposite; this is a process in which the goal of the drive is transformed into a phenomenon with the opposite sign, and passivity is replaced by activity.
3. Fshaping the reaction- defense, with the help of which, instead of unpleasant information repressed into the unconscious, directly opposite ideas are manifested and perceived. The boy insults the girl for whom he has sympathy in every possible way. This happens unconsciously. Having failed to achieve reciprocity, the boy feels resentful. It, along with a feeling of sympathy, is repressed into the unconscious and instead, a feeling of hostility arises in consciousness, which manifests itself in corresponding behavior.
4. Marticulation- a psychological mechanism with the help of which a person achieves the desired results by dramatizing the situation, crying, groaning, fits, evoking pity from others, “working for the public.” One example of extreme cases of manifestations of martyrization is the so-called false suicide.
5. Oformation of symptoms- ZML, characterized by the occurrence of various symptoms of psychosomatic disorders, activated during the action of psychotraumatic factors. For example, a young man gets a job after winning a big competition. But he has no work experience. This naturally excites and worries him. On the eve of going to work, he felt fine in the evening, but at night he had a sore throat, a fever, and chills - all signs of a psychosomatic illness. But all these symptoms disappeared when he came to work, and everything turned out favorably there.
Humor - a protective mental mechanism, manifested as an individual’s hiding from himself and others of unattained goals repressed into the unconscious.
E emotional burnout - A psychological defense mechanism developed by the individual in the form of complete or partial exclusion of emotions in response to traumatic influences. It manifests itself as a state of physical and mental exhaustion caused by emotional overstrain, which is reduced due to the formation of a stereotype of emotional behavior by the individual. Often, emotional burnout is considered as a consequence of the phenomenon of professional deformation in the field of human-human professions.
ABOUT depreciation – a personal defense mechanism based on reducing the value of goals, the achievements of other people and one’s own failures in order to avoid unpleasant experiences.
R nationalization – a form of psychological defense in which an individual explains morally unacceptable actions with false motives that are welcomed in society. At the same time, self-respect, a sense of independence are preserved, and anxiety does not arise
TO compensation - a psychological defense mechanism aimed at correcting or replenishing one’s own real or imagined physical or mental inferiority. The author of the description of the protective mechanisms of compensation and overcompensation is A. Adler. Feelings of inferiority for various reasons can become overwhelming. In response to feelings of inferiority, an individual develops two forms of defense mechanisms: compensation and overcompensation. Overcompensation manifests itself in the fact that a person tries to develop those abilities that are poorly developed. Compensation is manifested in the fact that instead of developing the missing quality, a person begins to intensively develop the characteristic that is already well developed in him, thereby compensating for his deficiency. This type of compensation is called indirect, reducing the severity of unpleasant experiences. Some authors consider several types of compensation as indirect compensation:
1. Cublimation- a protective mechanism of the psyche, with the help of which the energy of unrealized need, repressed into the unconscious, is transformed into another activity by changing its direction.
2. Substitution- change in the object of application of energy (having not entered one educational institution, a person enters another; having not received an invitation to a significant party, he organizes his own, etc.). The difference between substitution and sublimation is that here there is a change in the object capable of satisfying the drive. For example, the phenomenon of displaced aggression. With substitution, if a person experiences aggression and cannot realize it on the object that causes it (this person), he will “pour” it on another person.
3. Facade, mask, shielding- defense, with the help of which a person closes the inner emptiness with an external impressive facade (does not like to read, but collects a library, acquires expensive things, a car, a cottage, strives to occupy high positions, etc.), which is usually associated with depersonalization of the individual.
Intellectualization - PML, based on a person’s verbalization of his own emotions and contradictions, through which the subject seeks to express his conflicts and experiences in a discursive form. Intellectualization is often compared to rationalization, since both are the result of intellectual processes. But intellectualization is the neutralization of emotion, and rationalization is a person’s pseudo-reasonable explanation of his desires, actions that are actually caused by reasons, the recognition of which would threaten the individual with loss of self-esteem.
AND ntrojection - ZML (assimilation), which includes external standards, values, relationships, concepts into the structure of the “I” without critical verification and assimilation in order to reduce the threat of negative experiences.
Rethroflexion- ZML, which helps an individual stop trying to influence others by returning feelings back into a closed intrapersonal system and directly against himself.
III . "retro protection"
ABOUT- this group unites those psychological defense mechanisms that are based on and use mechanisms that arose in childhood, practically without changing them. Resorting to this type of defense indirectly indicates a certain personal and social infantilism of a person, personal immaturity. retreat
- a mechanism for liberating the individual from traumatic negative experiences by refusing activities if it is impossible to achieve the desired goal. Exit from the field of activity is usually accompanied by a refusal of activity, which can manifest itself in various forms, for example, a decrease (or refusal) of communications, accumulation of behavior that contributes to the symbolic nullification of the previous action, which is usually accompanied by severe anxiety, feelings of guilt, etc. Self-closing
– ZML, close to retreat, but having a slightly different source. It is associated with nonconformity, and not with conformity, as in retreat, with an “from” orientation. The connection between nonconformism and suggestibility sometimes gives a paradoxical effect - an individual tendency towards hermitism, asceticism, nihilism, and reactive formation is manifested.D eflexion
- a special type of psychological defense associated with the individual’s withdrawal from both direct contact with himself (i.e., from his own strong experiences) and from contacts with others. Petrification
- a protective absence of external manifestation of feelings, “numbness of the soul” with relative clarity of thought, often accompanied by a switching of attention to phenomena of the surrounding reality that are not related to the traumatic event. This mechanism is externally manifested by corresponding facial masks. Entering virtual reality/virtuality
- a psychological defense mechanism when an individual unconsciously avoids a traumatic situation. In the literature, this type of protection is sometimes called "ostrich". Departure from psychological trauma gives the individual short-term relief, but at the same time, essential needs and desires remain unsatisfied, goals remain unfulfilled, which is the reason for further spiritual quests and experiences.- characterized by fear of one’s own greatness, evasion of one’s destiny, flight from one’s talents, fear of success.
Regression- the process, mechanism, result of a person’s return to previously passed (possibly childhood) stages, states, forms and methods of functioning of emotional and intellectual activity, object relations, behavioral patterns, psychological defenses. Z. Freud identified three types of regression:
1. topical, caused by the functioning of the mental apparatus;
2. temporary, in which the previous methods of mental organization come into play again;
3. formal, replacing conventional methods of expression and figurative representation with more primitive ones.
The specificity of regressive defense mechanisms is the predominance of her passive position and indicates uncertainty in making her own decisions. In this case, it is the personal I that regresses, demonstrating its weakness and leading to simplification (infantilization) or mismatch of behavioral structures. An example of regression is primitive mechanisms :
Negation - One of the most common forms of such behavior is rejection, denial, and criticism from other people. A sick person may deny this fact. Thus, he finds the strength to continue to fight for life. However, more often than not, denial prevents people from living and working, because by not recognizing criticism addressed to them, they do not strive to get rid of existing shortcomings that are subject to fair criticism.
Split - S. Freud used this term to designate a peculiar phenomenon when two paradoxical mental attitudes in relation to external reality coexist within the personal Self: the first takes reality into account, the second ignores it.
Projective identification – a protective mechanism studied by M. Klein. Splitting into the “good self” and the “bad self,” starting from infancy, is an attempt to protect one’s good parts from the bad ones, to get rid of the intolerable qualities of one’s own self, to turn them into one’s own “persecutors.” In everyday life, this can manifest itself in an exam situation in the form of fear of the teacher, hostility of representatives of different nationalities, rejection of the views and positions of other people, etc.
Partial perception - a defense mechanism characterized by the fact that the subject is inclined to perceive only what he wants, likes, is beneficial, valuable or significant. The rest of the information is not recorded by the individual, thereby forming unique limited ideas about the world around him and about himself, based primarily on the “necessary” material, “cutting out” everything else from his perception.
Physical activity - reducing anxiety caused by a forbidden impulse by allowing its direct or indirect expression without developing feelings of guilt. Motor activity includes involuntary, irrelevant actions to relieve tension. Motor activity is a protective mechanism that also involves counteraction. It arises in those situations and with those defenses when other people not only attribute their own motives (projection), but also attack. This mechanism often manifests itself in people with antisocial activity - hooligans, rapists, bandits, etc.
Stun- a mechanism for eliminating conflicts, fears, frustration associated with psychological trauma and achieving a feeling of strength and calm due to the influence of pharmacological substances (alcohol, drugs, etc.). This is due to the fact that alcohol and drugs change the state of consciousness, cause pleasant emotions, calmness, and in large doses, signals of trouble cease to reach consciousness. The negative side of this protective mechanism is the formation of alcoholism and drug addiction as properties of the individual and the body. A person with a defense mechanism of stunning perceives alcohol or drugs as means that change his mental state in the direction he desires.
Defense mechanisms in Gestalt therapy.
MLPs are viewed as ambivalent: both obstacles and sources of personal growth. The problem of the subject as an individual is to experience himself included in society, as part of a field, but also to differentiate himself in this field.
1. Pathological fusion I am with We - contact and care with the environment is impossible or difficult, because does not differentiate itself as a whole, itself and others. The subject is not entirely aware of the reasons for his behavior, does not raise the question of the reasons for what is happening, and speaks not “I”, but “we”.
2. Retroflexion - self-referral - a person makes himself the subject and object of his own actions, confuses the reasons for behavior, his own and those of others, turning everything onto himself (for example, blame for everything). He does for himself what he would really like to do for others. "I am responsible for everything."
3. Introjection - “swallowing unchewed” is the appropriation / assimilation without understanding of standards, norms, attitudes, ways of thinking and behavior that do not become one’s own, are not digested. There is contact with the world here, but not genuine.
4. Projection - division of personality into parts. This is a tendency to shift onto others responsibility for what comes from oneself (impulses, desires, etc.), the desire to place outside what belongs to oneself. Therapeutic options: group therapy, exteriorize the internal parts and then reassemble into the whole. Projective work is a condition for the object’s contact with the world.
In Gestalt therapy - focus on the present moment, in psychoanalysis - analysis in the past, explanation of the symptom.
Mental defense mechanisms are psychological strategies used unconsciously by a person to protect himself from anxiety arising from intolerable thoughts and feelings. A person also inevitably resorts to defense mechanisms in an attempt to get rid of feelings of fear or guilt. Defense mechanisms, as a rule, are not amenable to conscious control; they are completely natural and normal. However, if they are used too often, the person develops neurosis, which can look like anxiety, phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder or histrionic disorder.
The term “psychological defense mechanism” was introduced by Sigmund Freud, who identified and described the main defense mechanisms. His daughter Anna added ten more mechanisms to this list. This list was then expanded by other psychoanalysts.
Let's consider the main protective mechanisms:
Identification with the aggressor
If a person is afraid of someone, he can overcome this fear by becoming like the one who appears to him as an aggressor.
One of the most striking examples of this mechanism is the so-called Stockholm syndrome, due to which victims identify themselves with their persecutors. Thus, Patricia Hearst, who was kidnapped in 1974 by an American left-wing terrorist group and suffered physical, psychological and sexual violence, joined a group of bandits and voluntarily committed a robbery with them. Patricia was acquitted at trial because she was a victim suffering from Stockholm syndrome.
crowding out
The first defense mechanism described by Freud. It is the involuntary repression of unwanted memories, thoughts and feelings into the unconscious. Thus, there is protection from intolerable feelings of anxiety, guilt or shame. This strategy is not successful in the long term, since feelings repressed into the unconscious will still provoke anxiety.
Projection
Represents the attribution of one's thoughts, feelings and motives to other people. Typically, socially disapproved thoughts and behaviors, such as aggressive or sexual fantasies, are projected onto others. A person can hate someone, but consider hatred an unacceptable feeling. To deal with the guilt of hating, he may convince himself that the one he hates also hates him. The common phrase “Everyone does it” to justify one’s unpleasant actions is another example of projection.
Removal
Displacement is the redirection of an impulse (usually aggression) to a defenseless target that serves as a symbolic replacement (this can be a person or an object). For example, a person feels uncomfortable having sexual desire directed at another person and directs this desire to an object (fetishism). A person who is being bullied by his superiors may come home and hit his dog or his family member.
Sublimation
Sublimation is similar to displacement, but in the case of sublimation, emotions are redirected into a constructive rather than destructive direction, for example, into creativity.
The creations of many great musicians and artists are examples of sublimation. Sports are another good way to channel your emotions (such as aggression) into constructive activities. According to Freud, sublimation is the basis of civilized life, and science and art represent sublimated sexuality.
Negation
At a conscious level, a person rejects events, thoughts and feelings that he cannot accept. This mechanism is very primitive and dangerous, since denial of reality cannot last forever. Denial can act on its own or in combination with other defense mechanisms, which tend to be weaker and support denial.
An example of denial: a smoker who refuses to admit that smoking is harmful to his health. At the same time, he can resort to rationalization, convincing himself that the polluted environment causes him more harm than his own action - smoking.
Regression
Represents a return to one of the previous stages of psychological development under the influence of stress. When a person is scared or offended, he often begins to behave like a child.
A child who finds himself in a stressful situation, such as being in a hospital, may start sucking his thumb or wetting the bed again. Teenagers start laughing stupidly when interacting with people of the opposite sex.
Rationalization
Rationalization is a cognitive distortion of facts in order to make an event or impulse less threatening. A person often resorts to this strategy, both consciously and unconsciously, when trying to come up with excuses for himself.
For many people, excuses and justifications are so natural and unconscious that they are not aware of when and why they use them. In other words, they are willing to believe their own lies.
Jet formation
Consists of a person's attempt to behave in a way that is the opposite of what he really thinks or feels. As a rule, a person does not understand his true motives. With reactive formation, conscious feelings are directly opposite to unconscious ones: love - hatred, shame - disgust, the need to look and behave decently - sexuality. This psychological defense mechanism is usually accompanied by ostentatious actions and compulsive behavior. An example of reactive formation is latent homosexuality, when a man openly condemns homosexuals, but in fact defends himself from his own unconscious feelings towards men. Severe homophobic behavior is designed to convince others and oneself of one’s heterosexuality. Other examples: a caring daughter who tries to please her mother in everything, but in fact has negative feelings towards her due to an unhappy childhood; a stingy person trying to prove his generosity, etc.
Adapted from: Freud, A. (1937). The Ego and the mechanisms of defense, London: Hogarth Press and Institute of Psycho-Analysis.
Freud, S. (1894). The neuro-psychoses of defense. SE, 3: 41-61.
Freud, S. (1896). Further remarks on the neuro-psychoses of defense. SE, 3: 157-185.
Freud, S. (1933). New introductory lectures on psychoanalysis. London: Hogarth Press and Institute of Psycho-Analysis. pp. xi + 240.
Translation: Eliseeva Margarita Igorevna
Editor: Simonov Vyacheslav Mikhailovich
Key words: psyche, psychology, defense mechanisms, psychological defense mechanisms
