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In psychoanalytic theory, defence 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 defence mechanisms. They can thus be categorized as occurring due to the following scenarios: Image File history File links Mergefrom. ... Anxiety is a physiological state characterized by cognitive, somatic, emotional, and behavioral components (Seligman, Walker & Rosenhan, 2001). ... This article or section may be confusing or unclear for some readers, and should be edited to rectify this. ...

• 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 "defence 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. This article or section may be confusing or unclear for some readers, and should be edited to rectify this. ... In his theory of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud sought to explain how the unconscious mind operates by proposing that it has a particular structure. ... For other uses of ego and id, see EGO and ID. The ego is not sharply separated from the id; its lower portion merges into it. ... Anna Freud (December 3, 1895 - October 9, 1982) was the sixth and last child of Sigmund and Martha Freud. ...

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 sexual relations 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 defence mechanisms. Sigmund Freud (IPA: ), born Sigismund Schlomo Freud (May 6, 1856 – September 23, 1939), was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology. ... Pleasure principle may refer to: The pleasure principle, a psychoanalytical term coined by Sigmund Freud The Pleasure Principle, a 1987 single by Janet Jackson The Pleasure Principle (album), 1979 album by Gary Numan Pleasure Principle (album), a 1978 album by Parlet This is a disambiguation page—a list of articles... In Greek mythology, Thanatos (in Ancient Greek, θάνατος – Death) was the Daimon personification of Death and Mortality. ... Eros ( érōs) is passionate love, with sensual desire and longing. ...

Freud also believed that conflicts between these two structures resulted in conflicts associated with psychosexual stages. In Freudian psychology, an individual progresses through psychosexual stages as they develop. ...

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

Definitions of individual psyche structures Image File history File links Structural-Iceberg. ... Image File history File links Structural-Iceberg. ...

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.
• Ego: the moderator between the id and superego which seeks compromises to pacify both.
• Superego: internalized societal and parental standards of "good" and "bad" and "right" and "wrong" behaviour.

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.) François Chifflart (1825-1901), La Conscience (daprès Victor Hugo) Conscience is an ability or faculty or sense that leads to feelings of remorse when we do things that go against our moral values, or which informs our moral judgment before performing such an action. ... In Freudian psychology, the ego ideal (or ideal ego) is an image of the perfect self towards which the ego should aspire. ...

The ego's use of defence mechanisms

When anxiety becomes too overwhelming it is then the place of the ego to employ defence mechanisms to protect the individual. Feelings of guilt, embarrassment and shame often accompany the feeling of anxiety. In the first definitive book on defence mechanisms, Ego and mechanisms of defence (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. Defence mechanisms work by distorting the id impulses into acceptable forms, or by unconscious blockage of these impulses.

Are they pathological?

Defence mechanisms are helpful and, if used in a proper manner, are healthy. However, if misused, the defence mechanisms may also be unhealthy. Some disorders, such as personality disorders and psychosis, may in fact be caused in part by inadequate use of appropriate defence mechanisms. The maladaptive use of defence 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. Personality disorders form a class of mental disorders that are characterized by long-lasting rigid patterns of thought and behaviour. ... Psychosis is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a loss of contact with reality. Stedmans Medical Dictionary defines psychosis as a severe mental disorder, with or without organic damage, characterized by derangement of personality and loss of contact with reality and causing deterioration... STD is a three-letter abbreviation used in several different contexts that stand for different terms. ...

Defence 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 defence mechanisms as denial. Defence mechanisms can also be harmful if: In psychology, a behavior or trait is adaptive when it helps an individual adjust and function well within their environment. ...

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

List of defence mechanisms

Sigmund Freud was the first person to develop the concept of defence mechanisms, however it was his daughter Anna Freud who clarified and conceptualized it. She has described various different defence mechanisms: Sigmund Freud (IPA: ), born Sigismund Schlomo Freud (May 6, 1856 – September 23, 1939), was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology. ... Anna Freud (December 3, 1895 - October 9, 1982) was the sixth and last child of Sigmund and Martha Freud. ...

• Compensation. Compensation occurs when someone takes up one behaviour because one cannot accomplish another behaviour.
• Denial. Unconsciously refusing to perceive the more unpleasant aspects of external reality (feelings, events, or both), replacing it with a less threatening but inaccurate one.
• Displacement. An unconscious defence mechanism, whereby the mind redirects emotion from a ‘dangerous’ object to a ‘safe’ object. In psychoanalytic theory, displacement is a defence mechanism that shifts sexual or aggressive impulses to a more acceptable or less threatening target; redirecting emotion to a safer outlet;
• Dissociation. Separation or postponement of a feeling that normally would accompany a situation or thought.
• Humour. 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.
• Intellectualization (isolation). Concentrating on the intellectual components of the situations as to distance oneself from the anxiety provoking emotions associated with these situations;
• 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.
• Isolation. separating feelings and thoughts that are connected
• 'minimizing. writing off problematic events of behaviors as being too minor to worry about.
• 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. The painful feelings are initially conscious and then forgotten. They are stored in the unconscious and, under certain circumstances, can be retrieved. Repression can range from momentary memory lapses to complete amnesia of a catastrophic event, such as a murder or an earthquake.
• Somatisation. Manifestation of emotional anxiety into physical symptoms.
• Splitting. Repressing, dissociating or disconnecting important feelings that are "dangerous" to psychic well-being. Causes the person to get out of touch with her/his feelings; fragmented self. An example is Anna Nicole Smith's bizarre reaction to her son's death as she believed he was still alive.
• Substitution. When a person replaces one feeling or emotion for another.
• 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 rechannelled. 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 defence mechanism the most productive compared to the others that he identified. Sublimation is the process of transforming libido into ‘socially useful’ achievements, mainly art. Psychoanalysts often refer to sublimation as the only truly successful defence mechanism;
• Suppression. The conscious process of pushing thoughts into the preconscious.
• Undoing. A person tries to 'undo' a negative or threatening thought by their actions.
• Escapism. A person uses fantasy, litterature or other forms of culture to escape real-world problems or perhaps to deal with difficult emotional problems within the laws of a safe, but imaginary world. This can both be constructive and developing or limitting if the real problems are never faced.

In psychology, compensation is a strategy whereby one covers up, consciously or unconsciously, weaknesses, frustrations, desires, feelings of inadequacy or incompetence in one life area through the gratification or (drive towards) excellence in another area. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... In psychology, the term displacement is an unconscious defence mechanism, whereby the mind redirects emotion from a dangerous object to a safe object. ... Dissociation is a state of acute mental decompensation in which certain thoughts, emotions, sensations, and/or memories are compartmentalized because they are too overwhelming for the conscious mind to integrate. ... For other uses, see Humour (disambiguation). ... Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character or scene or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension. ... // When an individual is unable to integrate difficult feelings specific defences are mobilised to regulate these unbearable feelings. ... Intellectualization is a defense mechanism where reasoning is used to block confrontation with an unconscious conflict and its associated emotional stress. ... Introjection is a psychological process where the subject replicates in itself behaviors, attributes or other fragments of the surrounding world, especially of other subjects. ... Look up isolation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... In psychology, rationalization is the process of constructing a logical justification for a decision, action or lack thereof that was originally arrived at through a different mental process. ... In Sigmund Freuds psychoanalytic theory, reaction formation is a defense mechanism in which anxiety-producing or unacceptable emotions are replaced by their direct opposites. ... Regression, in psychoanalysis, is a defense mechanism leading to the reversion to an earlier stage of development in the face of unacceptable impulses. ... Psychological repression, or simply repression, is the psychological act of excluding desires and impulses (wishes, fantasies or feelings) from ones consciousness and attempting to hold or subdue them in the subconscious. ... Somatization is to feel physical symptoms, most commonly painful, with no known aetiology. ... Splitting was first described by Sigmund Freud, and was later more clearly defined by his daughter Anna Freud. ... In psychology, sublimation is a coping mechanism. ... Undoing is a defence mechanism in which a person tries to undo an unhealthy, destructive or otherwise threatening thought by engaging in contrary behaviour. ...

Different theories and classifications of defence mechanisms

The list of particular defence mechanisms is huge and there is no theoretical consensus on the amount of defence mechanisms. It has been attempted to classify defence mechanisms according to some of their properties (i.e. underlying mechanisms, similarities or connections with personality). Different theorists have different categorizations and conceptualizations of defence mechanisms. Large reviews of theories of defence mechanisms are available from Paulhus, Fridhandler and Hayes (1997)^[1] and Cramer (1991)^[2]. Also Journal of Personality (1998)^[3] has a special issue on defence mechanisms.

O.F. Kernberg's view of borderline defence 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 defence mechanisms central to this personality organization. Primitive psychological defences are projection, denial, dissociation or splitting, and they are called borderline defence mechanisms. Also devaluation and projective identification are seen as borderline defences. ^[4] Otto F. Kernberg, was born in Vienna in 1928 and in 1939 his family left Germany to escape the Nazi regime and emigrated to Chile where he later studied biology and medicine and afterwards psychiatry and psychoanalysis with the Chilean Psychoanalytic Society. ... Borderline Personality Disorder (DSM-IV Personality Disorders 301. ...

G.E. Vaillant's hierarchy of defence mechanisms

In George Vaillant's (1977) categorization defences form a continuum regarding to their psychoanalytical developmental level ^[5]. Levels are: George Vaillant is a name shared by two notable people: George Clapp Vaillant (1901-1945), an American anthropologist. ...

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

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

Robert Plutchik's (1979) theory views defences as derivatives of basic emotions. Defence mechanisms in his theory are (in order of placement in circumplex model): reaction formation, denial, repression, regression, compensation, projection, displacement, intellectualization. ^[6] The feeling component of emotion encompasses a vast spectrum of possible responses. ...

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 defence mechanisms ^[7]. This classification is largely based on Vaillant's hierarchical view of defences, but has some modifications. Levels of defence are: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association, is the handbook used most often in diagnosing mental disorders in the United States and other countries. ... Due to the epidemic of medical errors, readers are cautioned to be aware that the American Psychiatric Association isnt immune to this. ...

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

Notes

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 Defence. London: Hogarth Press and Institute of Psycho-Analysis.
• "The Complete Guide to Social Work". Independent Study for the ASWB exam

External links

• 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.