Let us analyze nine mechanisms of psychological defense according to Freud in short, in simple words and with examples. What mechanisms of psychological defense were identified by his followers, how many psychological defenses of a person exist in total.
For the first time psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud used the concept of psychological (mental) defense in the book "Protective neuropsychoses" (1894). Currently, psychology knows more than 50 variants of psychological defenses, but in Freud's theory there were only 9. Enough of the lyrics - let's move on to the analysis. Let us describe briefly and with examples the main mechanisms of psychological defense according to Sigmund Freud.
crowding out
When something becomes too much of a shock for a person, he seems to forget it, or rather, to repress it. On a conscious level, he really cannot remember, but on an unconscious level it is still stored and periodically makes itself felt. For example, it appears in dreams (not directly, of course, but veiled in images), comes out through slips of the tongue and slip of the tongue, slips through in jokes. Or a repressed memory is manifested by unexplained mental and / or physical discomfort that occurs when a person finds himself in a situation similar to a traumatic and “forgotten” one.
Thoughts, emotions, feelings, memories, desires are repressed.
Example. The man “forgot” that once in his childhood, on New Year's Day, he heard the words of dislike from his mother (“I wish I hadn't given you at all”), and now he hates this holiday. Every year on December 31, he feels inexplicable melancholy, anger and resentment, and he himself does not understand why. She writes off this on the meaninglessness of what is happening, wastefulness, stupidity, etc. (this is how he relates to the holiday).
Projection
This is the transfer of one's "sins" to other people. The simplest and most famous defense mechanism. A person hates in others that which he does not accept in himself. Or he forbids others to do what he forbids himself to do (or he criticizes others, shames them for having the audacity to taste his forbidden fruit). Or a person transfers to other people the mistakes of tyrants from his past.
The object of the transfer can be not only some quality of the personality, but also any emotion, feeling, thought, desire. For example, those who think about cheating or are cheating often blame others for it.
Examples:
- The man was obese and lost weight, but mentally he still sees himself as full and is afraid to become big again, because of this he shows aggression towards all people in the body.
- Grandmothers on the bench criticize Masha for her bright appearance and activity in her personal life, because they yearn for their youth, activity and bright appearance.
- A woman who has been betrayed by a man no longer trusts any of the male representatives, therefore she carries the sin of her former lover to everyone.
Substitution
This is the redirection of thoughts, emotions, feelings from one object (inaccessible) to another (accessible). Why do you have to replace one object with another? There are a lot of options, for example, he is not physically available or he is physically stronger, or higher in status. I think it will become even clearer with examples.
Examples:
- A child who is beaten by a parent breaks down the aggression directed at the parent on the weaker child or on the animal.
- A man cannot be with a girl he is in love with, and starts dating a more accessible lady, but constantly compares her with that one, tries to make her look like that, sometimes calls her by a false name.
- The boss shouted at the subordinate, he came home and came off at his wife or children.
Rationalization
This is a search for a logical explanation, an excuse for what happened.
Examples:
- A man who still does not understand why he was beaten in childhood justifies this with the phrase “But he grew up as a man. They beat me a little, I still had to."
- The woman received a refusal from the man and, in order not to feel humiliated, begins to look for flaws in him. In the end, she says to herself: “Well, it's good that it didn't work out. God saved me."
Reactive education
The person suppresses the impulse that he considers shameful, and transforms it into the opposite action.
Examples:
- A person who is often sexually attracted presents himself as a hypocrite and a fighter for morality. Or a man who suppresses homosexual tendencies in himself becomes a homophobe (by the way, Freud introduced the concept of hidden homosexuality).
- A person who is used to suppressing aggression in himself promotes pacifism and peace throughout the world.
Regression
This is a rollback to the previous stage of development.
Examples:
- Instead of calmly talking and solving the problem, the person begins to scream, cry, or insult the opponent (childish reaction).
- A preschool child begins to suck his thumb, speak in syllables.
- An adult girl or a grown man behaves like a teenager.
Sublimation
It is the transformation of forbidden impulses into socially acceptable forms of activity.
Examples:
- A person who craves violence splashes out aggression in his books.
- A person transforms excess sexual energy into sports or creativity. Often, negative feelings (anger, envy, resentment) become a source of strength for self-development.
Creativity is the best option for sublimating any feelings and emotions
Negation
The person convinces himself that nothing has happened.
Examples:
- A person ignores the symptoms of the disease and convinces himself that this cannot happen to him.
- The alcoholic does not even notice the symptoms of the disease and denies the problem.
- A woman who noticed her husband on the street on the other, convinces herself that it seemed to her (she made a mistake).
Compensation
This is the desire to overcome an imaginary or real disadvantage (more often we are talking about physical defects). Or a person is trying to disguise a flaw by reaching great heights in something else.
Example: a physically weak boy is actively developing intellectually.
Later, the follower of Z. Freud A. Adler identified a similar defense mechanism - hypercompensation. This is an excessive, painful desire to succeed in a business that is hampered by a real or imagined flaw.
An example of overcompensation: by nature, a physically weak boy goes into sports and becomes a jock who abuses chemistry for muscle growth.
Now you know what types of defense mechanisms of the psyche exist according to Z. Freud. Later, his daughter Anna Freud added 3 more defense mechanisms to this classification:
- Self-turning - Perceiving yourself in a negative way to eliminate the thought of someone else being treated unfairly. For example, it is easier for a child who is regularly beaten by his mother to accept the thought “I am bad, they are beating me for the cause” than at least to admit the thought “Mom does not love me. She's the bad one. " The child thinks badly of himself and this, as it were, whitens the unfortunate mother.
- Intellectualization is a departure from solving personal everyday problems into the world of abstract reasoning about the great. For example, about children starving in Africa or about the obscurantism of the government.
- Fantasizing - moving away from reality into a fantasy world, watching TV, reading books, etc. Agree that each of us definitely refers to this mechanism from time to time?
A. Freud outlined her vision of the defense mechanisms of the psyche in the books Ego and Defense Mechanisms (1936), Psychology of the Self and Defense Mechanisms (1993). In the future, the classification was expanded both by Anna herself and by the followers of Z. Freud. According to various sources in modern psychology, Freud's defense mechanisms include from 15 to 23 defenses.
