Psychological Defense Mechanisms

Psychological defense mechanisms serve to eliminate or minimize negative, traumatic experiences. These experiences may be related to internal or external conflicts, feelings of anxiety, or discomfort. Ultimately, the purpose of defense mechanisms is to maintain a person’s self-esteem, self-image, and worldview.

Repression

Repression is the process of excluding from consciousness thoughts, feelings, desires, and urges that cause pain, shame, or guilt. This mechanism can explain why people often forget to fulfill certain obligations that, upon closer inspection, are unpleasant for them. Memories of unpleasant events are often suppressed. If a period of a person’s life is filled with particularly difficult experiences, amnesia may cover those segments of their past.

Projection

With projection, a person attributes their own undesirable traits to others, thus protecting themselves from recognizing these traits in themselves. Projection allows individuals to justify many of their actions, such as unfair criticism or cruelty toward others. In this case, the person unconsciously attributes cruelty and dishonesty to those around them, and since others are “like that,” their own similar behavior seems justified—“they deserve it.”

Denial

Denial is the refusal to accept as reality events that are undesirable, whether current or long past. For example, many people are terrified of serious illnesses. A person using denial will not notice obvious symptoms of illness in themselves. This mechanism allows them to ignore traumatic aspects of reality. Denial is often seen in family relationships, where one spouse completely ignores problems with their partner.

Reaction Formation

This is behavior that is directly opposite to what is actually desired. A classic example is adolescent boys’ “flirting” with girls, which often involves hitting or pulling hair. In adolescent culture, tenderness is seen as shameful, so boys try to express their feelings through actions that, in their view, are the opposite of affection.

Rationalization

Rationalization involves finding acceptable reasons and explanations for unacceptable thoughts or actions. This defense mechanism aims to relieve tension caused by internal conflict. A simple example is a student who justifies a bad grade by blaming the teacher’s mood, rather than admitting they didn’t study enough, which would be too painful for their ego.

Splitting

In splitting, an individual unconsciously divides their life into “good” and “bad” imperatives, as if removing anything ambiguous that could complicate their analysis of a problem or critical situation. Splitting distorts reality, just like other defense mechanisms, allowing the individual to escape reality by replacing the real world with a false one.

Sublimation

Sublimation is one of the most common defense mechanisms. When trying to forget a traumatic event or experience, a person shifts their focus to activities that are acceptable to themselves and society. Examples of sublimation include sports, intellectual work, or creative pursuits.

Regression

Regression is a return to more primitive emotional or behavioral responses that were typical at an earlier age. For example, pouting, turning away, and staying silent all day. To resolve internal conflict, a person usually uses several defense mechanisms at once. However, they all serve the same purpose: to preserve the integrity of one’s self-image and worldview.