What is a Defense Mechanism

What is a Defense Mechanism?

Defense Mechanisms

Most notably used by Freud in his psychoanalytic theory, a defense mechanism is a tactic developed by the ego to protect against anxiety. Defense mechanisms are thought to safeguard the mind against feelings and thoughts that are too difficult for the conscious mind to cope with. In some instances, defense mechanisms are thought to keep inappropriate or unwanted thoughts and impulses from entering the conscious mind.

For example, if you are faced with a particularly unpleasant task, your mind may choose to forget your responsibility in order to avoid the dreaded assignment. In addition to forgetting, other defense mechanisms include rationalization, denial, repression, projection, rejection, and reaction formation.

Because of anxiety provoking demands created by the id, superego, and reality, the ego has developed a number of defense mechanisms to cope with anxiety. Although we may knowingly use these mechanisms, in many cases these defenses occur unconsciously and work to distort reality.

While all defense mechanisms can be unhealthy, they can also be adaptive and allow us to function normally. The greatest problems arise when defense mechanisms are overused in order to avoid dealing with problems.

ID

Definition: According to Freuds psychoanalytic theory of personality, the id is the personality component made up of unconscious psychic energy that works to satisfy basic urges, needs, and desires. The id operates based on the pleasure principle, which demands immediate gratification of needs.

Ego Definition: According to Freud, the ego is the largely unconscious part of personality that mediates the demands of the id, the superego, and reality. The ego prevents us from acting on our basic urges (created by the id), but also works to achieve a balance with our moral and idealistic standards (created by the superego).

The ego operates based on the reality principle, which works to satisfy the ids desires in a manner that is realistic and socially appropriate. For example, if a person cuts you off in traffic, the ego prevents you from chasing down the car and physically attacking the offending driver. The ego allows us to see that this response would be socially unacceptable, but it allows us to know that there are other more appropriate means of venting our frustration.Super Ego

Definition: According to Freuds psychoanalytic theory of personality, the superego is the component of personality composed of our internalized ideals that we have acquired from our parents and from society. The superego works to suppress the urges of the id and tries to make the ego behave morally, rather than realistically.

Ego Defense Mechanisms

We stated earlier that the ego's job was to satisfy the id's impulses, not offend the moralistic character of the superego, while still taking into consideration the reality of the situation. We also stated that this was not an easy job. Think of the id as the 'devil on your shoulder' and the superego as the 'angel of your shoulder.' We don't want either one to get too strong so we talk to both of them, hear their perspective and then make a decision. This decision is the ego talking, the one looking for that healthy balance.

Before we can talk more about this, we need to understand what drives the id, ego, and superego. According to Freud, we only have two drives; sex and aggression. In other words, everything we do is motivated by one of these two drives.

Sex, also called Eros or the Life force, represents our drive to live, prosper, and produce offspring. Aggression, also called Thanatos or our Death force, represents our need to stay alive and stave off threats to our existence, our power, and our prosperity.

Now the ego has a difficult time satisfying both the id and the superego, but it doesn't have to do so without help. The ego has some tools it can use in its job as the mediator; tools that help defend the ego. These are called Ego Defense Mechanisms or Defenses. When the ego has a difficult time making both the id and the superego happy, it will employ one or more of these defenses:

Ego defenses are not necessarily unhealthy as you can see by the examples above. In face, the lack of these defenses or the inability to use them effectively can often lead to problems in life. However, we sometimes employ the defenses at the wrong time or overuse them, which can be equally destructive.While Sigmund Freud described a number of defense mechanisms, it was his daughter Anna Freud who provided the clearest and most comprehensive look at mechanisms of defense in her book The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense (1936).

Rationalization

Rationalization is a defense mechanism that involves explaining an unacceptable behavior or feeling in a rational or logical manner, avoiding the true explanation for the behavior. For example, a person who is turned down for a date might rationalize the situation by saying they weren't attracted to the other person anyway, or a student who blames a poor exam score on the instructor rather than his or her lack of preparation.

Rationalization not only prevents anxiety, it may also protect self-esteem and self-concept. When confronted by success or failure, people tend to attribute achievement to their own qualities and skills while failures are blamed on other people or outside forces.

Rationalization is a post-hoc (after the fact) defense mechanism.

Rationalization allows finding logical reasons for inexcusable actions.

For Example: Cheating on Taxes

Possible Rationalization: It is better that I hold onto this money or the government will spend it on weapons of mass destruction.

Fail to get into Med school (law school) :

Possible Rationalization: I didn't want to pursue that career, anyway.

Rationalization helps to protect our sense of self-esteem

Rationalization is closely tied to the Self-serving Bias: The tendency to interpret success as inwardly achieved and to ascribe failure to outside factors.

Repression:

Repression is the most basic defense mechanism. Sometimes referred to as: defensiveness Repression acts to keep information out of conscious awareness. However, these memories don't just disappear; they continue to influence our behavior. For example, a person who has repressed memories of abuse suffered as a child may later have difficulty forming relationships.

Repression can be conscious but is most commonly unconscious.

Advantages :It can prevent inappropriate ID impulses from becoming behaviors.

It can prevent unpleasant thoughts from becoming conscious.

Can prevent memories of things we have done wrong from resurfacing.

Repression does not have to be total, partial memories where only the single piece of damaging information is "forgotten" is common.

What an individual represses depends upon cultural expectations and the particular development of an individuals super-ego.

Regression

When confronted by stressful events, people sometimes abandon coping strategies and revert to patterns of behavior used earlier in development. Anna Freud called this defense mechanism regression, suggesting that people act out behaviors from the stage of psychosexual development in which they are fixated. For example, an individual fixated at an earlier developmental stage might cry or sulk upon hearing unpleasant news.

Behaviors associated with regression can vary greatly depending upon which stage the person is fixated at. Because of partial fixations in any of the psychosexual stages of development, regression can occur when an individual is faced with high levels of stress in their life.

Regression is the giving up of mature problem solving methods in favor of child like approaches to fixing problems.An individual fixated at the oral stage might begin eating or smoking excessively, or might become very verbally aggressive. Someone with an oral fixation may increase their cigarette smoking of lollipop licking behavior when stressed at work.A fixation at the anal stage might result in excessive tidiness or messiness. Someone who is anal retentive might become more detail oriented and fastidiously neater as a result of anxiety.This regression represents a way of relating to the world that was formerly effective.

Regression is a way to try to recapture some childhood satisfaction.

Denial is probably one of the best known defense mechanisms, used often to describe those who seem unable to face reality or admit and obvious truth (i.e. "He's in denial."). Denial is an outright refusal to admit or recognize that something has occurred or is currently occurring. Drug addicts or alcoholics oftenDenials functions to protect the ego from things that the individual cannot cope with. While this may save us from anxiety or pain, denial also requires a substantial investment of energy. Because of this, other defenses are also used to keep these unacceptable feelings from consciousness. When people are overwhelmed by the anxiety present within a situation, they can engage an even more severe form of memory repression:

When a person is in Denial, the individual denies that the threatening event even took place!

In war, a mother receives word that her Son has been killed, and yet refuses to believe it, still setting the table for him, keeping his room and clothes current.

At school, a student seeing a grade of "C" next to their name, and automatically assuming the professor made a grading error.

Alcoholics and other Substance Abusers who refuse to admit they have a problem, despite it being very apparent to everyone around them.

Denial becomes more difficult with age, as the ego matures and understands more about the "objective reality" it must operate within.

People engaging in Denial can pay a high cost is terms of catheter psychic energy which is used to maintain the denial state.

Repression and Denial are the two main defense mechanisms which everybody uses.

Projection

Projection is a defense mechanism that involves taking our own unacceptable qualities or feelings and ascribing them to other people. For example, if you have a strong dislike for someone, you might instead believe that he or she does not like you. Projection functions to allow the expression of the desire or impulse, but in a way that the ego cannot recognize, therefore reducing anxiety.

For example, lets say that you do not like someone.

Your mother and father always told you to treat other people well, and to be friendly to everyone.

These thoughts from your parents become embedded in your super ego.

You discover that you do not like this person.

If you allow this thought to consciously surface, you will experience moral anxiety in terms of guilt feelings, because this conscious thought goes against the moral prohibitions of your super ego.

So, instead of consciously thinking the anxiety provoking thought " I do not like this person" , this defense mechanism allows for the non-anxiety provoking thought

"This person does not like me "

Displacement

If you have ever had a bad day at work, then gone home and taken out your frustration on family and friends, you have experienced the ego defense mechanism of displacement. Displacement involves taking out our frustrations, feelings, and impulses on people or objects that are less threatening. Displaced aggression is a common example of this defense mechanism. Rather than express our anger in ways that could lead to negative consequences (like arguing with our boss), we instead express our anger towards a person or object that poses no threat (such as our spouses, children, or pets).Displacement is the shifting of intended targets, especially when the initial target is threatening.

The classic use of displacement is in the understanding of displaced aggression.

An individual is "dressed down" by the supervisor at their job.

They feel anger and hostility toward their supervisor.

Their Id, driven by aggressive impulses, would like to tear the boss's head off.

The Ego, being reality based and very much in favor of continued paychecks, realizes that this is not a good idea and therefore does not remove boss's head.

The person goes home, but still has this aggressive impulse.

The Ego allows for the individual to scream at the spouse, since it feels this will not threaten future paychecks.

The spouse, now angry and upset, displaces their anger on their child, who then becomes angry and kicks their pet dog, a further displacement of anger.