Defence mechanism

This article is about the psychology concept. For the biology concept, see defence mechanism (biology).

Defense mechanisms are unconscious resources used by the ego to reduce conflict between the id and superego and thereby anxiety. For that reason they are more accurately referred to as ego defense mechanisms. They can thus be categorized as occurring due to the following scenarios:

• When the id impulses are in conflict with each other;
• When the id impulses conflict with superego values and beliefs;
• When an external threat is posed to the ego.

The term "defense mechanism" is often thought to refer to a definitive singular term for personality traits which arise due to loss or traumatic experiences, but more accurately refers to several types of reactions which were identified during and after daughter Anna Freud's time.

Structural model: The id, ego, and superego

The concept of id impulses comes from Sigmund Freud’s structural model. Id impulses are based on the pleasure principle: instant gratification of one’s own desires and needs. Sigmund Freud believed that the id represents biological instinctual impulses in ourselves, which are aggression (Thanatos or the Death instinct) and sexuality (Eros or the Life instinct). For example, when the id impulses (e.g. desire to have sex with a stranger) conflict with the superego (e.g. belief in societal conventions of not having sex with unknown persons), the feelings of anxiety come to the surface. To reduce these negative feelings, the ego might use defense mechanisms.

Freud also believed that conflicts between these two structures resulted in conflicts associated with psychosexual stages.

The iceberg metaphor is often used to explain the psyche's parts in relation to one another.

Definitions of individual psyche structures

We can summarize the three structures of the psyche or personality as proposed by Freud:

• Id: a selfish, primitive, childish, pleasure-oriented part of the personality with no ability to delay gratification.
• Superego: internalized societal and parental standards of "good" and "bad" and "right" and "wrong" behaviour.
• Ego: the moderator between the id and superego which seeks compromises to pacify both.

Primary and secondary processes

In the ego, there are two processes going on. First, there is the unconscious primary process, where the thoughts are not organized in a coherent way, the feelings can shift, contradictions are not in conflict or are just not perceived that way, and condensations arise. There is no logic and no time line. Lust is important for this process. By contrast, there is the conscious secondary process, where strong boundaries are set and thoughts must be organized in a coherent way. Most conscious thoughts originate here.

The reality principle

Id impulses are not appropriate for civilized society, so society presses us to modify the pleasure principle in favour of the reality principle; that is, the requirements of the external world.

Formation of the superego

The superego forms as the child grows and internalizes parental and societal standards. The superego consists of two structures: the conscience, which stores information about what is "bad" and what has been punished and the ego ideal, which stores information about what is "good" and what one "should" do or be. (Interestingly, the Freudian conscience became cognitive-behavioural therapist Albert Ellis' focus.)

The ego's use of defense mechanisms

When anxiety becomes too overwhelming it is then the place of the ego to employ defense mechanisms to protect the individual. Feelings of guilt, embarrassment and shame often accompany the feeling of anxiety. In the first definitive book on defense mechanisms, Ego and mechanisms of defense (1936), Anna Freud introduced the concept of signal anxiety; she stated that it was ‘not directly a conflicted instinctual tension but a signal occurring in the ego of an anticipated instinctual tension’. The signaling function of anxiety is thus seen as a crucial one and biologically adapted to warn the organism of danger or a threat to its equilibrium. The anxiety is felt as an increase in bodily or mental tension and the signal that the organism receives in this way allows it the possibility of taking defensive action towards the perceived danger. Defense mechanisms work by distorting the id impulses into acceptable forms, or by unconscious blockage of these impulses.

Are they pathological?

Defense mechanisms are helpful and, if used in a proper manner, are healthy. Some disorders, such as personality disorders and psychosis, may in fact be caused in part by inadequate use of appropriate defensce mechanisms. However, if misused, the defense mechanisms may also be unhealthy. The maladaptive use of defense mechanisms can occur in a variety of cases, such as when they become automatic and prevent individuals from realizing their true feelings and thoughts or when they put the person in actual danger. For example, someone who is in denial about the possibility that a new sexual partner could carry an STD may not take appropriate precautions to protect their own sexual health.

Defense mechanisms can also be maladaptive when they are continually used in a way that disrupts reality-testing. Repeated denial and paranoid projection use can cause people to lose touch with the real world and their surroundings and consequently isolate themselves from it and dwell in a ‘created’ world of their own design. For example, people with addictive behaviour are known to misuse such defense mechanisms as denial. Defense mechanisms can also be harmful if:

• There are too few defenses which can be employed in coping with threats;
• There is too much superego activity, which causes the use of too many defenses.

List of defense mechanisms

Sigmund Freud was the first person to develop the concept of defense mechanisms, however it was his daughter Anna Freud who clarified and conceptualized it. She has described various different defense mechanisms:

• Compensation. Compensation occurs when someone takes up one behavior because one cannot accomplish another behavior.
• Denial. An ego defense mechanism that operates unconsciously to resolve emotional conflict, and to reduce anxiety by refusing to perceive the more unpleasant aspects of external reality;
• Displacement. An unconscious defense mechanism, whereby the mind redirects emotion from a ‘dangerous’ object to a ‘safe’ object. In psychoanalytic theory, displacement is a defense mechanism that shifts sexual or aggressive impulses to a more acceptable or less threatening target; redirecting emotion to a safer outlet;
• Intellectualization (isolation). Concentrating on the intellectual components of the situations as to distance oneself from the anxiety provoking emotions associated with these situations;
• Projection. Attributing to others, one’s own unacceptable or unwanted thoughts and/or emotions. Projection reduces anxiety in the way that it allows the expression of the impulse or desire without letting the ego recognize it;
• Rationalization. The process of constructing a logical justification for a decision that was originally arrived at through a different mental process;
• Reaction formation. The converting of unconscious wishes or impulses that are perceived to be dangerous into their opposites;
• Regression. The reversion to an earlier stage of development in the face of unacceptable impulses;
• Repression. The process of pulling thoughts into the unconscious and preventing painful or dangerous thoughts from entering consciousness;
• Sublimation. The refocusing of psychic energy (which Sigmund Freud believed was limited) away from negative outlets to more positive outlets. These drives which cannot find an outlet are rechanneled. In Freud’s classic theory, erotic energy is only allowed limited expression due to repression, and much of the remainder of a given group’s erotic energy is used to develop its culture and civilization. Freud considered this defense mechanism the most productive compared to the others that he identified. Sublimation is the process of transforming libido into ‘social useful’ achievements, mainly art. Psychoanalysts often refer to sublimation as the only truly successful defense mechanism;
• Undoing. A person tries to 'undo' a negative or threatening thought by their actions.
• Suppression. The conscious process of pushing thoughts into the preconscious.
• Dissociation. Separation or postponement of a feeling that normally would accompany a situation or thought.
• Humor. Refocuses attention on the somewhat comical side of the situation as to relieve negative tension; similar to comic relief.
• Idealization. Form of denial in which the object of attention is presented as "all good" masking true negative feelings towards the other.
• Identification.The unconscious modeling of one's self upon another person's behavior.
• Introjection. Identifying with some idea or object so deeply that it becomes a part of that person.
• Inversion. Refocusing of aggression or emotions evoked from an external force onto one's self.
• Somatization. Manifestation of emotional anxiety into physical symptoms.
• Splitting. Primitive defense mechanism-when a person sees external objects or people as either "all good" or "all bad."
• Substitution. When a person replaces one feeling or emotion for another.

Different theories and classifications of defense mechanisms

The list of particular defense mechanisms is huge and there is no theoretical consensus on the amount of defense mechanisms. It has been attempted to classify defense mechanisms according some of their properties (ie. underlying mechanisms, similarities or connexions with personality). Different theorist's have different categorizations and conceptualizations of defense mechanisms. Large reviews of theories of defense mechanisms are available from Paulhus, Fridhandler and Hayes (1997) and Cramer (1991). Also Journal of Personality (1998) has a special issue on defense mechanisms.

O.F. Kernberg's view of borderline defense mechanisms

Otto Kernberg (1967) has developed a theory of borderline personality organization (which one consequence may be borderline personality disorder). His theory is based on ego psychological object relations theory. Borderline personality organization develops when the child cannot integrate positive and negative mental objects together. Kernberg views the use of primitive defense mechanisms central to this personality organization. Primitive psychological defenses are projection, denial, dissociation or splitting, and they are called borderline defense mechanisms. Also devaluation and projective identification are seen as borderline defenses.

G.E. Vaillant's hierarchy of defence mechanisms

In George Vaillant's (1977) categorization defenses form a continuum regarding to their psychoanalytical developmental level . Levels are:

• Level I - psychotic defenses (ie. psychotic denial, delusional projection)
• Level II - immature defenses (ie. fantasy, projection, passive aggression, acting out)
• Level III - neurotic defenses (ie. intellectualization, reaction formation, dissociation, displacement, repression)
• Level IV - mature defenses (ie. humor, sublimation, suppression, altruism, anticipation)

R. Plutchik's psychoevolutionary theory of emotions and defence mechanisms

Robert Plutchik's (1979) theory views defenses as derivates of basic emotions. Defense mechanisms in his theory are (in order of placement in circumplex model): reaction formation, denial, repression, regression, compensation, projection, displacement, intellectualization.

Classification in diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-IV)

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) published by American Psychiatric Association (1994) includes tentative diagnostic axis for defense mechanisms . This classification is largely based on Vaillant's hierarchical view of defenses, but has some modifications. Levels of defense are:

• Defensive dysregulation (ie. delusional projection and psychotic denial)
• Action Level (ie. passive aggression, acting out)
• Disavowal or image-distorting (ie. projection, fantasy)
• Compromise formation level (ie. dissociation, displacement)
• High adaptive (ie. altruism, sublimation)

References

• Fonagy, P. and Target, M. (2003). Psychoanalytic Theories: Perspectives from Developmental Psychopathology. London: Whurr Publishers.
• Freud, A. (1937). The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense. London: Hogarth Press and Institute of Psycho-Analysis.
• "The Complete Guide to Social Work". Independent Study for the ASWB exam

Online papers

• Garrett, F. (2002). Addiction and Its Mechanisms of Defense.
• Schafer, Roy (1968). The Mechanisms of Defence. Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 49:49-62. - access requires online subscription
• Heffner, C.L. (2001). Psychology 101.
• Niolon, R. (1999). PsychPage: Defenses.
• Stanescu, C. and Morosanu, P. (2005). Neuroticism, Ego Defense Mechanisms and Valoric Types: a Correlative Study.
• Tucker-Ladd, C.E. (1996-2000). Psychological Self-Help.
• Wagner, K., van (2006). Psychology About.