Primary and Secondary Psychological Defenses

Based on the work of I. G. Malkina-Pykh, “Techniques of Positive Therapy and NLP”

Primary Defenses

Primary, immature, or primitive defenses—sometimes called “lower-order” defenses—are those that deal with the boundary between the self and the external world. Primitive defenses always have two qualities associated with the preverbal stage of development: insufficient connection to the reality principle and inadequate recognition of the separateness and constancy of objects outside the self. Common primitive defenses include isolation, denial, omnipotent control, primitive idealization and devaluation, projection, and introjection.

Isolation

Isolation allows a person to block unpleasant emotions, so the connection between an event and its emotional coloring does not appear in the individual’s consciousness. This is the most universal defense, enabling someone to “put themselves in a straitjacket.” The price for suppressing unpleasant emotions is a loss of natural feelings, weakened intuition, and ultimately, self-alienation and the development of schizoid tendencies.

Denial

Refusing to acknowledge the existence of problems is another early way of coping. A person for whom denial is a fundamental defense always insists that “everything is fine and for the best.” Most of us use denial to some extent to make life less unpleasant, and many people have specific areas where this defense dominates. Denial allows us to partially or completely ignore information that conflicts with our established self-image.

Omnipotent Control

The feeling that you have power and can influence the world is undoubtedly a necessary condition for self-respect, which originates in infantile and unrealistic, but developmentally normal, fantasies of omnipotence. A healthy remnant of this feeling remains in all of us and supports our sense of competence and success. When we effectively carry out our intentions, we experience an emotional boost.

Primitive Idealization and Devaluation

Many people retain a need to idealize others from infancy. Their behavior shows signs of archaic, desperate efforts to counter inner panic with the belief that someone they are attached to is omnipotent, all-knowing, and infinitely benevolent. Psychological fusion with this “supernatural” other provides a sense of safety. They also hope to escape shame: a side effect of idealization and the related belief in perfection is that their own imperfections are felt especially painfully; merging with the idealized object becomes a natural remedy. Primitive devaluation is the inevitable flip side of the need to idealize. Since nothing in human life is perfect, archaic idealization inevitably leads to disappointment. The more an object is idealized, the more radical its devaluation will be; the more illusions, the harder their collapse is experienced.

Projection, Introjection, and Projective Identification

Projection is the process by which internal experiences are mistakenly perceived as coming from outside. It can be understood as the unconscious rejection of one’s own unacceptable thoughts, attitudes, or desires and attributing them to others, shifting responsibility for what happens inside the self onto the outside world. Introjection is the process by which external influences are mistakenly perceived as coming from within. Everyday synonyms include suggestibility or being easily swayed. This is the tendency to adopt others’ beliefs, feelings, and attitudes without criticism or attempts to make them one’s own. As a result, the boundary between self and environment moves deep inside, and the individual becomes so preoccupied with absorbing others’ beliefs that they fail to form their own personality. When projection and introjection work together, they combine into a single defense called projective identification.

Secondary Defenses

Secondary, more mature or “higher-order” defenses work with internal boundaries—between the ego, superego, and id, or between the observing and experiencing parts of the ego. Higher-order defenses include repression, isolation, intellectualization, rationalization, moralization, compartmentalization, undoing, turning against the self (retroflection), and identification.

Repression

Repression is motivated forgetting or ignoring of thoughts, memories, or experiences. This defense mechanism usually helps avoid internal conflict by actively removing from consciousness (forgetting) not the information about an act or event as a whole, but only the true, but unacceptable, motive for one’s behavior. Repression targets what was once at least partially conscious, but has become forbidden and is therefore not retained in memory.

Intellectualization

Intellectualization is a higher-level variant of isolating emotion from intellect. A person using isolation typically says they do not feel emotions, while someone using intellectualization talks about their feelings in such a way that the listener gets the impression of an absence of emotion. Intellectualization restrains emotional overflow in the same way that isolation restrains traumatic overstimulation.

Rationalization

Rationalization is a defense that involves recognizing and using only that part of perceived information that makes one’s behavior appear well-controlled and not in conflict with objective circumstances. The unacceptable part of the situation is removed from consciousness, transformed in a particular way, and then recognized, but in an altered form. Rationalization may contradict facts and logic, but not necessarily. Its irrationality lies in the fact that the stated motive for an action is not the real one. For example, someone might claim their professional incompetence is due to physical illness: “If I got rid of my headaches, I could focus on work.” In this case, advice to rest or relax will not help if the person is ill precisely because they are ineffective at work.

Moralization

Moralization is closely related to rationalization. When a person rationalizes, they unconsciously seek reasonable justifications for their choices. When they moralize, they look for ways to feel obligated to act in a certain way. Rationalization translates what a person wants into the language of reason; moralization directs these desires into the realm of justifications or moral obligations. Where a rationalizer says, “Thanks for the lesson” (which may cause some confusion), a moralizer insists that it “builds character.”

Compartmentalization

Compartmentalization is another intellectual defense, closer to dissociative processes than to rationalization or moralization, though rationalization often supports this defense. Its function is to allow two conflicting states to coexist without conscious confusion, guilt, shame, or anxiety. While isolation implies a break between thoughts and emotions, compartmentalization means a break between incompatible mental attitudes. When someone uses compartmentalization, they hold two or more ideas, relationships, or behaviors that conflict with each other, without being aware of the contradiction. To an outside observer, compartmentalization may look like hypocrisy.

Undoing

Undoing can be seen as a natural successor to omnipotent control. Undoing refers to the unconscious attempt to balance a negative emotion (usually guilt or shame) with an attitude or behavior that magically cancels out that emotion. A classic example is a spouse returning home with a gift to make up for an outburst of anger the night before. If the motive is conscious, technically this is not undoing. But if the person is unaware of their feelings of shame or guilt and thus cannot recognize their desire to atone, the concept applies.

Retroflection (Turning Against the Self)

Retroflection shifts the boundary between the person and the environment closer to the center of the self, and the retroflective person begins to treat themselves as they would treat others or objects. If their first attempt to satisfy a need meets strong resistance, instead of directing energy toward changing the environment, they turn it inward. The retroflective person develops an attitude toward themselves as if they were an external object. The original conflict between self and others becomes an internal conflict. A linguistic indicator of retroflection is the use of reflexive pronouns, as in “I must control myself; I must make myself do this work; I am ashamed of myself,” which shows a clear division between the self as subject and the self as object.

Identification

Identification is a type of projection involving the unconscious identification with another person, adopting their desired feelings and qualities. This is an elevation of oneself to the level of the other by expanding the boundaries of the self. Identification involves a process in which a person, as if including the other within themselves, borrows their thoughts, feelings, and actions.