DEFENCE MECHANISM

PSYCHOLOGY

DEFENCE MECHANISM

By

Prof.M. Thanga Darwin

Introduction

                         Défense mechanisms are psychological strategies that are unconsciously used to protect a person from anxiety arising from unacceptable thoughts or feelings.

                   Sigmund Freud (1894, 1896) noted a number of ego defences which he refers to throughout his written works.  His daughter Anna (1937) developed these ideas and elaborated on them, adding five of her own.  Many psychoanalysts have also added further types of ego defences. Because of anxiety provoking demands created by the id, superego and reality, the ego has developed number of defence mechanisms to cope with anxiety.    

Freud once said, "Life is not easy!" The ego -- the "I" -- sits at the centre of some pretty powerful forces: reality; society, as represented by the superego; biology, as represented by the Id. When these make conflicting demands upon the poor ego, it is understandable if you feel threatened, fell overwhelmed, feel as if it were about to collapse under the weight of it all.  This feeling is called anxiety, and it serves as a signal to the ego that its survival, and with it the survival of the whole organism.

Types of Defence Mechanism

1.            Repression:

                                 Forcing a threatening memory/feeling/wish out of consciousness and making it   unconscious. This was the first defence mechanism that Freud discovered, and arguably the most important.  Repression is an unconscious mechanism employed by the ego to keep disturbing or threatening thoughts from becoming conscious.  Thoughts that are often repressed are those that would result in feelings of guilt from the superego.  For example, in the Oedipus complex, aggressive thoughts about the same sex parents are repressed. This is not a very successful defines in the long term since it involves forcing disturbing wishes, ideas or memories into the unconscious, where, although hidden, they will create anxiety.

2. Displacement:

                Transferring feelings from their true target onto a harmless substitute target. Displacement is the redirection of an impulse (usually aggression) onto a powerless substitute target.  The target can be a person or an object that can serve as a symbolic substitute.  Someone who feels uncomfortable with their sexual desire for a real person may substitute a fetish.  Someone who is frustrated by his or her superiors may go home and kick the dog, beat up a family member, or engage in cross-burnings.

3. Denial:

                Failing/refusing to acknowledge/perceive some aspect of reality. Denial involves blocking external events from awareness.  If some situation is just too much to handle, the person just refuses to experience it.  As you might imagine, this is a primitive and dangerous defence - no one disregards reality and gets away with it for long!  It can operate by itself or, more commonly, in combination with other, more subtle mechanisms that support it.  For example, smokers may refuse to admit to themselves that smoking is bad for their health.

4. Rationalization:

                Finding an acceptable excuse for some unacceptable behaviour. Rationalization is the cognitive distortion of "the facts" to make an event or an impulse less threatening.  We do it often enough on a conscious level when we provide ourselves with excuses.  But for many people, with sensitive egos, making excuses comes so easy that they never are truly aware of it.  In other words, many of us are quite prepared to believe our lies.

5.Reaction– formation:

                Consciously feeling/thinking the opposite of your true unconscious feelings/ thoughts. This is a movement back in psychological time when one is faced with stress.  When we are troubled or frightened, our behaviours often become more childish or primitive.  A child may begin to suck their thumb again or wet the bed when they need to spend some time in the hospital.  Teenagers may giggle uncontrollably when introduced into a social situation involving the opposite sex.

6. Sublimation:

                A form of displacement in which a substitute activity is found as a way of expressing some unacceptable impulse. This is like displacement, but takes place when we manage to displace our emotions into a constructive rather than destructive activity.  This might for example be artistic.  Many talented artists and musicians have had unhappy lives and have used the medium of art of music to express themselves.  Sport is another example of putting our emotions (e.g. aggression) into something constructive.

For example, fixation at the oral stage of development may later lead to seeking oral pleasure as an adult through sucking one’s thumb, pen or cigarette.  Also, fixation during the anal stage may cause a person to sublimate their desire to handle faeces with an enjoyment of pottery.

7. Identification:

                Incorporating/introjecting another person into one’s own personality – making them part of oneself. According to Freud’s concept of the Oedipus Complex, a child may experience feelings of resentment towards their father as they compete for the affection of their mother and the resulting castration anxiety - an irrational fear directed towards the father - may lead them to feel the need to appease the father. In order to pacify a person whom, we perceive to be a threat, we may emulate aspects of their behaviour. By adopting their mannerisms, repeating phrases or language patterns that they tend to use and mirroring their character traits, a person may attempt to appease a person. This defence mechanism was described by Anna Freud as identification with an aggressor.

  8. Projection:

                Displacing your own unacceptable feelings/ characteristics onto someone else. When we experience feelings or desires that cause anxiety, or that we are unable to act on owing to the negative impact that they would have on us or those around us, we may defend the ego from resulting anxieties by projecting those ideas onto another person. A person who is afraid of crossing a bridge with a friend might accuse them of having a fear of heights, for example, and in doing so, avoids accepting their own weaknesses. In the case of Daniel Schreiber, who accused his therapist of attempting to harm him.

9. Regression:

                                    Reverting to the behaviour characteristic of an earlier stage of development. This is a movement back in psychological time when one is faced with stress.  When we are troubled or frightened, our behaviours often become more childish or primitive.  A child may begin to suck their thumb again or wet the bed when they need to spend some time in the hospital.  Teenagers may giggle uncontrollably when introduced into a social situation involving the opposite sex.

10.  Isolation:

                Separating contradictory thoughts/feelings into ‘logic thoughts’ compartments. The defence mechanism of isolation can lead a person to separate ideas or feelings from the rest of their thoughts. In distinguishing an emotion or impulse from others in this way, a person attempts to protect the ego from anxieties caused by a specific situation. For example, a person with a particularly stressful job may use isolation to separate their work life from their family life, avoiding the stress affecting their relationships.

Other types of Defence Mechanisms

                Since Freud first described the original defence mechanisms, other researchers have continued to describe other methods of reducing anxiety. Some of these defence mechanisms include.

Acting out: The individual copes with stress by engaging in actions rather than reflecting upon internal feelings. When the id component of the human psyche signals the desire to act on an impulse, the ego and super ego will often counteract it if they feel that that behaviour would be counterproductive or immoral. A person may want to curse after falling over in a busy street, but the ego, perceiving this as contradicting social etiquette, will often lead to them holding back on the expletives. On some occasions, however, we may not be able to balance the impulses of the id and will defend the ego by simply acting out the irrational desires.

Affiliation: Involves turning to other people for support. Acceptance of a situation that has been causing anxiety is one technique that we might use to live with an undesirable circumstances or feelings. For instance, someone may acknowledge that they have behaved unreasonably towards their father owing to an Oedipus Complex, or accept their new circumstances after separating from a partner.

Aim inhibition: The individual accepts a modified form of their original goal (i.e. becoming a high school basketball coach rather than a professional athlete.)

Altruism: Satisfying internal needs through helping others. An act of goodwill towards another person, known as altruistic behaviour, can be used as a way of diffusing a potentially anxious situation. Altruism may be used as a defence mechanism, for example, by being particularly helpful to a person who we feel might dislike us or neutralising an argument with kind words and positivity.

Introjection:  Introjection occurs when a person takes stimuli in their environment and adopts them as their own ideas. This may involve internalising criticism from another person and believing the other person’s points to be valid. A person may introject religious ideas that they have heard at church, or political opinions that friends espouse. Behaviour can also be introjected - the mannerisms of a father may be observed by his son and then replicated.

Humility: Showing humility involves lowering our expectations and view of our self-importance, sacrificing our pride and often focussing on others. Humility can enable us to pacify those around us in tense conflicts and encourage cooperation with other people to take place. For example, someone who is known to boast about their abilities may show humility whilst trying to complete a challenging task. This might encourage others to empathise with, and help, them.    

Idealisation: Idealisation involves creating an ideal impression of a person, place or object by emphasising their positive qualities and neglecting the those that are negative. Idealisation adjusts the way in which we perceive the world around us and can lead us to make judgement that support our idealised concepts. People often idealise their recollections of being on holiday or memories from childhood, seeing them as ‘happier times’, but fail to recollect arguments or stresses during those periods. We often idealise the image we hold of people we admire - relatives, partners or celebrities, making excuses for their failures and emphasising their more admirable qualities.

Fantasy: When life seems mundane or distressing, people often use fantasy as a way of escaping reality. They may fantasise about winning the lottery or idealised outcomes of their lives changing for the better in some way. Fantasies help us to explore alternatives to situations that we are unhappy with but unrealistic expectations of them being fulfilled can lead to us losing touch with reality and taking more viable actions to improve our lives.

Avoidance: Refusing to deal with or encounter unpleasant objects or situations. When a perceived situation creates anxiety, one convenient option is sometimes to avoid it. Although avoidance can provide an escape from a particular event, it neglects to deal with the cause of the anxiety. For example, a person might know that they are due to give a stressful presentation to colleagues at work, and take a sick day in order to avoid giving it. Avoidance in this situation might be only a short-term option, however, if the presentation is rescheduled to another day. Someone may also avoid thinking about something which causes anxiety, preferring to leave it unresolved instead of confronting it.

Undoing: When we act on an idea or impulse that we later regret, we may adopt a defines mechanism of attempting to “undo” that action in order to protect the ego from feelings of guilt or shame. A person may intentionally push past someone in a shop, but realising that the person was frail, feel guilty with regards to their behaviour. They may try to undo their action by apologising or offering to help the person.

Compensation: Overachieving in one area to compensate for failures in another.

Social Comparison: When people feel that they have been victims of unjust actions, they may defend the ego by comparing themselves to those worse off. Similarly, we may see similarities between ourselves and others in a better position to improve our self-image. These defines mechanisms are known as download or upward social comparisons. For example, a man who has broken a leg and confined to a wheelchair may make a downwards social comparison with a person who has been diagnosed with a more serious condition to make their own situation seem less troublesome. Alternatively, a person might seek to identify with a person of a perceived higher social position,

Self-Serving Bias: The self-serving bias arises from our need to protect the ego from self-criticism and to defend ourselves from the complaints of others. We show a self-serving bias when we exaggerate the importance of our own achievements - after passing a test, we might over-estimate the significance of that particular exam, and take credit for completing it without acknowledging the role that tutors played in our success. Similarly, when faced with potential criticism we might deflect blame, apportioning responsibility for failure to anybody but ourselves. Whilst many of us show signs of this self-serving bias, it can be an ineffective method of defence as it distorts our view of reality and our ability to rationalise and interpret events effectively.

Humour: Pointing out the funny or ironic aspects of a situation. George Vaillant described the use of humour as a “mature” defines mechanism - a primarily adaptive technique to help us to cope with tense or stressful situations. Looking for a funny aspect in an environment in which we lack control can help us to endure it, and can even be an altruistic act in helping others to better cope as well.

Passive-aggression: Indirectly expressing anger. Displays of aggression are considered unsociable and undesirable in many societies, so when aggressive or violent impulses are experienced, people tend to avoid them as much as possible. However, the remaining energy driving such aggression may prove to be more difficult contain, and may manifest in other forms, known as passive aggression. A passive aggressive person may be uncooperative in carrying out their duties or other tasks, may deliberately ignore someone when spoken to and might adopt a negative view of their situation, such as their job, and of those around them (e.g. colleagues).

Somatization: The somatization defence mechanism occurs when the internal conflicts between the drives of the id, ego and super ego take on physical characteristics.

Josef Breuer, a colleague of Sigmund Freud, observed this in the case of Anna O, who sought help from Breuer for hysteria. Breuer discovered that Anna’s anxieties had resulted from traumatic events that had been repressed, but later manifested themselves physically. For example, she experienced paralysis on one side, which Breuer linked to a dream in which she felt paralysed whilst trying to fend off a snake from her bed-bound father.

Splitting: Splitting occurs when the ego attempts to reconcile multiple aspects or rationales, but resorts to understanding the world in “black and white” terms. A person who experiences splitting may take an “either-or” approach when making evaluations of the world around them, including objects, situations, and people. They tend to view ideas as either right or wrong, with no middle ground or compromise. Similarly, they may take a “good versus bad” approach in relationships, admiring one group of people whilst completely rejecting those who do not live up to their expectations.

Wishful thinking: We all engage in wishful thinking to some extent to avoid facing undesirable realities. A football fan might deceive themselves that the ailing team that they support will miraculously turn themselves around and win all of the future matches of the season. Such wishful thinking enables the person to avoid disappointment and sadness for as long as possible.

References

1)      Freud, A. (1937). The Ego and the mechanisms of defense, London: Hogarth Press and Institute of Psycho-Analysis.

2)      Freud, S. (1894). The neuro-psychoses of defence. SE, 3: 41-61.

3)      Freud, S. (1896). Further remarks on the neuro-psychoses of defence. SE, 3: 157-185.

4)      Freud, S. (1933). New introductory lectures on psychoanalysis. London: Hogarth Press and Institute of Psycho-Analysis. Pp. xi + 240.

5)      Paulhus, D. L., Fridhandler, B., & Hayes, S. (1997). Psychological defense: Contemporary theory and research. In R. Hogan, J. A. Johnson, & S. R. Briggs (Eds.), Handbook of personality psychology (pp. 543-579). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-012134645-4/50023-8