The defense mechanisms They form an important part of the psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud and the successors of this psychological trend and therapeutic practice.
Under this name are included a set of psychological processes that have the function of regulating the way in which the contents of the unconscious manifest themselves in people’s consciousness and in their behavior.
Defense mechanisms, strategies to maintain psychological balance
These mechanisms are the strategies that, according to the psychoanalytic psychic structure, the “ego” manages to satisfy the impulses of the “id” based on the pleasure principle, without offending the “superego”, governed by its moral character. In this way you defend yourself from thoughts or emotions that could cause certain disorders (anxiety, depression, etc.).
In short, defense mechanisms are responsible for maintaining psychological balance to deal with the anguish or anxiety caused by certain situations. They are mechanisms to filter unconscious content that would be too disturbing if it emerged into consciousness.
They are considered absolutely normal and natural in the psychic activity of the human being, and are present in all people, although they can be pathological if they are abused or manifested with excessive rigidity.
Classification of defense mechanisms
Primary: belonging to the first stages of childhood life, they are the most primitive and related to the denial of reality.
Secondary: They appear in later periods of development, they are more elaborate and evolved mechanisms and they tend to preserve the criterion of reality.
5 examples of primary defense mechanisms
Denial
It involves the refusal to accept that something happens, in relation to an egocentric and primitive phase of evolution as a person. Faced with an unpleasant event, the subject pretends that it has not happened or that it does not exist (“If I do not accept it, it does not exist”). It is a defense mechanism that is adaptive in certain situations, although if it extends over time it represents serious psychopathology.
Retreat
A distancing from reality occurs through dreams, fantasies… to avoid unpleasant stimuli. A clear example is the stressed or overstimulated baby who protects himself by falling asleep. It is not a denial of reality itself, but a distancing from it.
Projection
Given the inability to recognize certain feelings as their own, the subject projects them onto others. In this way he releases his discomfort with a distortion of reality. There may be a positive projection (of virtues) and a negative one (of defects).
Omnipotent control
Based on the belief that everything you want can be achieved. The person is not capable of recognizing the existence separated from the rest with a will different from his own. In its most extreme manifestations, unrealistic goals can be the cause of disorders such as depression.
Dissociation
The subject disconnects from the situation to cope with the traumatic experience, even creating a representation of himself. In this way he manages to isolate himself from reality. When it is not temporary and persists over time, it can cause serious personality disorders.
5 examples of secondary defense mechanisms
Repression
It consists of the voluntary forgetting of the traumatic experience or the associated feelings or desires that were disturbing. This fact or its affects are excluded from consciousness and buried in the unconscious.
Regression
It is the unconscious process that the subject sets in motion to return to childhood stages of development that have already been overcome. In this way, it avoids the conflict that changes and development itself entail. If this defense mechanism is prolonged over time, it can be very problematic. A typical example is the child who wets the bed again when a sibling is born.
Displacement
It consists of the redirection and focusing of emotions on an aspect or object different from the real reason that causes our concern, since it would be too unpleasant. It allows you to discharge your emotions with less danger. It is one of the main defense mechanisms that appear in phobias.
Sublimation
It is based on the unconscious search for alternative ways to achieve the discharge of prohibited or socially frowned upon desires or impulses. It is an adaptive escape for such impulses. Instead of fighting against them, the discharge occurs through another socially acceptable impulse. Classic examples are satisfaction through art as a new destination for sexual drives or the surgeon who channels his sadistic impulses in the operating room.
Compensation or reactive training
It works by transforming an impulse or emotion into its opposite: for example, hate into love. Common in people who fear their aggressive emotions.
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