Defense Mechanisms
From The SpiritWiki
Defense Mechanisms
The deployment of defense mechanisms is highly efficient when energies, specifically sexual energies of the id, cannot be satisfied or the demands conflict with reality. As a result, energies are directed to an unconscious outlet through defense mechanisms to cope with stress and to achieve a healthy mind-body balance. On the other hand, if the consciousness is overwhelemed but continues to grasp onto reality and doesn't transfer stressful incidences to the unconcious, unhealthy manifestations of psychosis and neurosis will result (Freud, 1964).
In our contemporary world, aspects of Sigmund Freud’s works remain controversial however defense mechanisms and unconscious mental processes are regaining well documented support and evidence (Buamestier, R. F., Dale, K., & Sommer, K. L., 1998; Solms, 2006). Neuroscientists are finding that “instinctual mechanisms that govern human motivation [to cope with stress and seek pleasure] are even more primitive than Freud imagined” (Solms, 2006, par. 23).
Sigmund Freud termed the concept of defense mechanisms with a few key specifics but it was his daughter Anna Freud who created a comprehensive list and in-depth description of the defense mechanisms. As a result, many of the defense mechanisms below are coined by Anna Freud (1966; 1998).
Denial: The person refuses to believe the truth or accept reality. As a result, the person avoids the demands and strain of the energies by placing them directly into the unconscious realm.
Example: An individual diagnosed with AIDS continues living life normally (without medical intervention) because he or she refuses to acknowledge the diagnosis of a chronic disease.
Displacement: Sexual, aggressive, or other impulses are directed at a safer target.
Example: A fast food restaurant employee gets yelled at by a customer and then the employee takes their built frustration out at a coworker or family at home.
Intellectualization: Rational educated approach to deal with emotional upheaval caused by the distress of the energies, which serves as an avoidance or distraction.
Example: A person diagnosed with cancer researches the internet for biological mechanical processes associated with cancer cells.
Projection: Perceiving and placing threatening impulses or undesirable traits in others that are in one self.
Example: A serial sex-offender who claims that all pedophiles should deserve the death penalty.
Rationalization: Utilizing logical reasoning to justify emotions and behaviors.
Example: A senior blames the nurse for not receiving his medication on time when, in fact, the senior had forgotten to take his or her pills.
Reaction Formation: Projecting emotions, feelings, or behaviors opposite from how one feels because those energy impulses cause stress and anxiety.
Example: A daughter who hates her mother flourishes her with gifts and hugs.
Regression: Reverting to a previous state of a developmental period that offered more comfort and peace to the mind and body.
Example: An adolescent screaming for his mommy after falling from his or her bike.
Repression: Preserving unpleasant or traumatic thoughts in the unconscious in order to prevent them from entering the conscious.
Example: A child who experienced sexual abuse is unable to recall any memory of the event existing.
Sublimation: Transforming unacceptable energy impulses into positive emotions, feeling, or behaviors to acceptable standards of society.
Example: A child who enjoys killing animals grows up to become a butcher.
Undoing: Altering past memories of events in order to feel that undesirable events did not occur due to the strain placed on the ego by the memories.
Example: An individual recalls a car accident as a fender bender, when, in actuality the car was a write-off.
See Also
Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality
References
Baumeister, R. F., Dale, K., & Sommer, K. L. (1998). Freudian defense mechanisms and empirical findings in modern social psychology: Reaction formation, projection, displacement, undoing, isolation, sublimation, and denial. Journal of Personality, 66, 1081-1124.
Freud, A. (1998). Selected writings (R. Ekins, & R. Freeman, Eds.). Toronto: Penguin Books.
Freud, A. (1966). The ego and mechanisms of defense. New York: International Universities Press.
Freud, S. (1964). The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud: Moses and monotheism, an outline of psychoanalysis and other works (Vol. XXII). London: Vintage.
Freud, S. (1958). Dictionary of psychoanalysis. Greenwich: Fawcett Publications.
Solms, M. (2006). Freud returns. Scientific American Mind, 17, 28-35.
