Psychological Defence: Mental Karate?

Posted by Arsene Hodali in Personal Development & Identity on May 7th, 2010 | no responses

Threatening situations tend to produce anxiety. A person who’s anxious feels tense, uneasy, apprehensive, worried, and vulnerable. This can lead to emotion-focused coping that’s… defensive in nature. Since anxiety is unpleasant and uncomfortable, we are usually motivated to avoid it. Psychological defence mechanisms allow us to reduce feelings of anxiety caused by stressful situations or by our shortcomings.

What are psychological defence mechanisms and how do they reduce anxiety?

A defence mechanism is any mental process used to avoid, deny, or distort sources of threat or anxiety, including threats to one’s self-image.

Many of these defence mechanisms were first identified by the famous Sigmund Freud, who assumed they operate unconsciously. Often, defence mechanisms create large blind spots in awareness. For instance, an extremely stingy person might be completely unaware that he is a tightwad.

Everyone has at one time or another used defence mechanisms. Let’s consider some of the most common.

Denial

One of the most basic defences is denial (protecting oneself from an unpleasant reality by refusing to accept it or believe it). Denial is closely linked with death, illness, and similar painful and threatening events. For instance, if you were told that you only had three months to live, how would you react? Your first thoughts might be “Aw, come on, someone must have mixed up the X-rays” or “The doctor must be mistaken” or simply “You’re lying!” Similar denial and disbelief are common reactions to the unexpected death of a friend or relative. People may also deny or underestimate the real risk posed by a situation- “I can still pass the test even if I didn’t study”.

Repression

Freud noticed that his patients has tremendous difficulty recalling shocking or traumatic events from childhood. It seemed that powerful forces were holding these painful memories from awareness. Freud called this repression. He believed that we protect ourselves by repressing threatening thoughts and impulses. feelings of hostility towards a family member, the names of people we dislike, and past failures are common targets of repression.

Reaction Formation

In a reaction formation, impulses are not just repressed; they are also held in check by exaggerating opposite behaviour. For example, a mother who unconsciously resents her children may, through reaction formation, become extremely overprotective and overindulgent. Her real thoughts of “I hate them” and “I wish they were gone” are replaced by “I love them” and “I don’t know what I would do without them.” The mother’s hostile impulses are traded for “smother” love, so that she won’t have to admit she hates her children. Thus, the basic idea in a reaction formation is that the individual acts out an opposite behaviour to block threatening impulses or feelings.

Regression

In its broadest meaning, regression refers to any return to earlier, less demanding situations or habits. Most parents who have a second child have to put up with at least some regression by the older child. Threatened by a new rival for affection, an older child may regress to childish speech, bed-wetting, or infantile pay after the new baby arrives, as well as being more clingy and demanding. If you’ve ever seen a child get homesick at summer camp or on a vacation, you’ve observed regression. An adult who throws a temper tantrum or a married adult who “goes home to mother” is also regressing.

Projection

Projection is an unconscious process that protects us from the anxiety we would feel if we were to discern our faults. A person who is projecting tends to see his or her own feelings, shortcomings, or unacceptable impulses in others. Projection lowers anxiety by exaggerating negative traits in others. This justifies one’s own actions and directs attention away from personal failings.

Rationalization

Every teacher is probably familiar with this strange phenomenon: On the day of an exam, an incredible wave of disasters sweeps through the city. Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, grandparents, friends, relatives, and pets become ill or die. Motors suddenly fall out of cars. Books are lost or stolen. Alarm clocks go belly-up and ring no more.

The making of excuses comes from a natural tendency to explain our behaviour. Rationalization refers to justifying personal actions by giving “rational” but false reason for them. When the explanation you give for your behaviour is reasonable and convincing- but not the real reason- you are rationalizing. For example, Taylor failed to turn in an assignment given at the beginning of the semester in one of her classes. Here’s the explanation she gave her professor:

My car broke down two days ago, and I couldn’t get to the library until yesterday. Then I couldn’t get all the books I needed because some were checked out, but I wrote what I could. Then last night, as the last straw, the ink cartridge in my printer ran out, and since all the stores were closed, I couldn’t finish the paper on time.

When asked why she left the assignment until the last minute (the real reason it was late), Taylor gave the professor another set of rationalizations. Like many people, Taylor had difficulty seeing himself without the protection of his rationalizations.

All of the defence mechanisms described seem pretty undesirable. Do they have a positive side? People who overuse defence mechanisms become less adaptable, because they consume great amounts of emotional energy to control anxiety and maintain un unrealistic self-image. Defence mechanisms do have value, though. often, they help keep us from being overwhelmed by immediate threats. this can provide time for a person to learn to cope in a more effective, problem-focused manner. If you recognize some of your own behaviour in the descriptions here, it’s hardly a sign that you are hopelessly defensive. As noted earlier, most people occasionally use defence mechanisms.

Two defence mechanisms that have a more ‘positive‘ quality are compensation and sublimation.

Compensation

Compensatory reactions are defences against feelings of inferiority. A person who has a defect or weakness (real of imagined) may go to unusual lengths to overcome the weakness or to compensate for it by excelling in other areas. There are many examples of compensation in life. A child stutterer may excel in debating. And Stevie Wonder, Jeff Healey, and a great number of other well-known musicians are blind.

Sublimation

The defence called sublimation is defined as working off frustrated desires (especially sexual desires) through socially acceptable activities. Freud believed that art, music, dance, poetry, scientific investigation, and other creative activities can serve to re-channel sexual energies into productive behaviour. freud also felt that almost any strong desire can be sublimated. For example, a very aggressive person may find social acceptance as a professional soldier, boxer, or football player. Greed may be refined into a successful business career. Lying may be sublimated into storytelling, creative writing, or politics.

Sexual motives appear to be the most easily and widely sublimated. Freud would have had a field day with such modern pastimes as surfing, motorcycle riding, drag racing, and dancing to or playing rock music (reggae music is far more sexual though), to name a few. People enjoy each of these activities for a multitude of reasons, but it’s hard to overlook the rich sexual symbolism in each.

Freud is definitely right about one thing though, we do use a lot of psychological defences throughout our lives. I know I do.

Written by Arsene:
Hey, I'm Arsène. To sum everything up briefly I'm a krump dancer/teacher, mixed-media artiste, social media manager, writer, ex-ubervegan, ex-polyphasic sleeper, and a genocide survivor (yes, that's the brief version). If you must label me, call me "fool" or "revolutionary". I don't mind, I've been called both countless times. Find me working on my current project over at Quotes-Clothing.com <--- Quotes can change the world.