DEFENSE MECHANISMS

INTRODUCTION:
• Defence mechanisms are those adaptive responses identified by Anna Freud in 1953 and that are
employed by the ego in the face of threat to biological or psychological integrity.
• Some of these ego defense mechanisms are more adaptive than others, but all are used either
consciously as a protective device for all the ego in an effort to relieve mild to moderate anxiety.
• Defence mechanisms become maladaptive when they are used by an individual to such a degree that
there is interference with the ability to deal with reality, with effective interpersonal relationships or
with occupation performance.
• Maladaptive use of defense mechanisms promotes disintegration of ego.

DEFINITION:
A defense mechanism is a strategy used to cover up or change unconscious desires and wishes that may be
inappropriate or difficult to express. These are the various automatic, involuntary and unconsciously instituted
psychological activities by which the unacceptable urges or impulses are excluded from conscious awareness.

CHARACTERISTICS OF DEFENCE MECHANISM:

• A major means of managing conflict and effect.
• Often the hallmarks of major psychiatric syndromes, defenses are reversible.
• Defenses are adaptive as well as pathological.
• Socially acceptable
• When used moderately, they are harmless.
• They are not used deliberately, rather they are unconscious.

USES OF DEFENCE MECHANISM:

• Helps reduce anxiety.
• help us face conflicts and frustrations easily.
• protect our ego from being hurt.
• help the individual to make adaptations to distressing experiences.

TYPES OF DEFENCE MECHANISM:

The major ego defense mechanisms identified by Anna Freud are:

1. Compensation: It is the covering up of a real or perceived weakness by emphasizing a trait one considers
more desirable.
E.g., a. A student who fails in his studies may compensate by becoming the college champion in sports.
b. A young man who is shortest among the members of his peer group views this as a deficiency and
compensates by being overly aggressive and daring.

2. Denial: It is the refusal to acknowledge the existence of a real situation or the feeling associated with it.
Eg a. A patient who is newly diagnosed with lung cancer may not admit even though there are confirmatory
laboratory findings.
b. Individual continues to smoke cigarettes even though they have been told about the risk involved.

3. Displacement: It is the transfer of feeling from one target to another that is considered less threatening or
neutral.
Eg a. A client is angry with his physician, does not express it, but becomes verbally abusive with the nurse.
b. A husband comes home after a bad day at work and shouts at her wife or children.

4. Rationalization: Attempting to make excuses or formulate logical responses to justify unacceptable

feelings or behaviours.
Eg a. John tells the rehabilitation nurse, "I drink because it's the only way I can deal with my bad marriage
and my worse job."
b. A student who comes late to the class may complain that the hostel mess served the food late.
5. Reaction formation: Preventing unacceptable or undesirable thoughts or behaviour from being expressed
by exaggerating opposite thoughts or types of behaviour.
E.g., a. A woman who actually dislikes her mother-in-law hides her feeling by being always very nice to her.
b. A jealous boy who hates his elder brother may show exaggerated respect and affection towards him.

6. Regression: Retreating in response to stress to an earlier level of development and the comfort measures
associated with the level of functioning.
E.g., a. The elder child may regress and start behaving like an infant when a new sibling is born and he feels
neglected.
b. An adult throws a temper tantrum when he does not get his own way.

7. Identification (Hero worship): An attempt to increase self-worth by acquiring certain attributes and
characteristics of an individual one admires.
Eg a. A teenager who required lengthy rehabilitation after an accident decides to become a physical therapist
as a result of his experiences.
b. After hospitalization for a minor surgery, a girl decides to become a nurse because she developed an
admiration for the nurse who looked after her.

8. Intellectualization: An attempt to avoid expressing actual emotions associated with a stressful situation by
using the intellectual processes of logic reasoning and analysis.
Eg a. A husband is being transferred to a city far away from her parents, she hides anxiety by explaining to
her parents the advantages associated with the move.
b. Person shows no emotional expression when discussing serious car accident, he just goes through.

9. Introjections: Integrating the beliefs and values of another individual into one's own ego structure.
Eg a. Children integrates their parent's value system into the process of conscience formulation. A child says
to friend, "Don't cheat. It's wrong."
b. Mahatma Gandhi identified with the ideas of nonviolence.

10. Isolation: Separating a thought or memory from the feeling tone or emotion associated with it.
Eg a. A young woman describes being attacked and raped, without showing any emotions.
b. Wife describing the murder of her husband with graphic details with no emotional response.

11. Projection: Attributing feelings or impulses un-acceptable to one's self to another person.
Eg a. A student who has been caught in the examination for cheating may satisfy himself by saying that others
have also cheated.
b. A surgeon, whose patient does not recover as he anticipated, may tend to blame the scrub nurse who
helped at the time of surgery.

12. Repression: Involuntary blocking unpleasant feelings and experiences from one's awareness.
Eg a. An accident victim can remember nothing about his accident.
b. A person unconsciously forgets memories related to the death of his parents over the time and move on.

13. Sublimation: Rechannelling of drives or impulses that are personally

Eg, aggressiveness might be transformed into competitiveness in studies and sports.

14. Suppression: the voluntary blocking of unpleasant feelings & experiences from one’s awareness.
Eg a. A voluntary decision not to think about his argument with his girlfriend while going for an interview.
b. An adolescent girl when scolded by mother in front of friends may try to forget by ringing up to her
friends about the class notes.

15. Undoing: Symbolically negating or cancelling out an experience that one finds intolerable.
Eg Joe is nervous about his new job and yells at his wife. On his way home he stops and buys her some
flowers.
16. Substitution: the replacement of highly valued unacceptable object with an object that is more acceptable
to the ego.
E.g., A person who could not get admission to MBBS chose BDS.

17. Dissociation: the unconscious detachment from immediate surroundings or physical and emotional
experiences that causes anxiety.
E.g., Amnesia that prevents recall of previous day's car accident.

18. Conversion: Psychological or interpersonal conflicts manifest themselves in physical symptoms.

E.g., A student awakens with the migraine headache in the morning of a final examination and feels too ill to
take the test.

19. Retroflexion: It is the turning back of something onto the self. this could be any emotion such as anger,
blame, guilt, etc.
E.g., Blaming oneself for the death of a friend.

20. Schizoid fantasy: Withdrawal into self to gratify frustrated wishes by fantasy.
E.g., A child may refuse to participate in game for fear of failure and deceive himself by believing that he
could have done well if he had participated.

DEFENSE MECHANISM AND THEIR ORIGIN:

• Origin in oral period (0-2 years): Compensation, Displacement, Denial, Substitution

• Origin in habit training period (1-3 years): Introjection, Identification, Reaction Formation,
Sublimation
• Origin in later period of childhood (3-6 years): Repression, Regression, Rationalization
• Origin in latency period (6-12 years): Projection, Isolation and Fantasy
• Other commonly used Defense mechanism: Intellectualization, Undoing