Defence mechanism


In psychoanalytic theory, defense mechanisms are unconscious psychological processes that protect the self from anxiety-producing thoughts and feelings related to internal conflicts and external stressors. We automatically use defences to protect ourselves from threats and affects to maintain psychological balance and homeostasis. Defenses are automatic responses to external stressors or internal conflicts.
Healthy people have a fully developed sense of "object constancy", knowing that bad and good can exist at the same time in the same person. A defense mechanism can become pathological when its persistent use leads to maladaptive behaviour such that the physical or mental health of the individual is adversely affected. Among the purposes of defense mechanisms is to protect the mind/self/ego from anxiety or to provide a refuge from a situation with which one cannot cope at that moment.

Examples

Examples of defense mechanisms include: repression, the exclusion of unacceptable desires and ideas from consciousness; identification, the incorporation of some aspects of an object into oneself; rationalization, the justification of one's behaviour by using apparently logical reasons that are acceptable to the ego, thereby further suppressing awareness of the unconscious motivations; and sublimation, the process of channeling libido into "socially useful" disciplines, such as artistic, cultural, and intellectual pursuits, which indirectly provide gratification for the original drives.

History

In the first definitive book on defence mechanisms, The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence, Anna Freud enumerated the ten defence mechanisms that appear in the works of her father, Sigmund Freud: repression, regression, reaction formation, isolation, undoing, projection, introjection, turning against one's own person, reversal into the opposite, and sublimation or displacement.
Sigmund Freud posited that defence mechanisms work by distorting id impulses into acceptable forms, or by unconscious or conscious blockage of these impulses. Anna Freud considered defense mechanisms as intellectual and motor automatisms of various degrees of complexity, that arose in the process of involuntary and voluntary learning.
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 signalling function of anxiety was thus seen as crucial, 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 for the possibility of taking defensive action regarding the perceived danger.
Both Freuds studied defence mechanisms, but Anna spent more of her time and research on five main mechanisms: repression, regression, projection, reaction formation, and sublimation. All defence mechanisms are responses to anxiety and how the consciousness and unconscious manage the stress of a social situation.
  • Repression: the exclusion of unacceptable desires and ideas from consciousness, though in certain circumstances they may resurface in a disguised or distorted form
  • Regression: falling back into an early state of mental/physical development seen as "less demanding and safer"
  • Projection: possessing a feeling that is deemed as socially unacceptable and instead of facing it, that feeling or "unconscious urge" is seen in the actions of other people
  • Reaction formation: acting the opposite way that the unconscious instructs a person to behave, "often exaggerated and obsessive". For example, if a wife is infatuated with a man who is not her husband, reaction formation may cause her to – rather than cheat – become obsessed with showing her husband signs of love and affection.
  • Sublimation: seen as the most acceptable of the mechanisms, an expression of anxiety in socially acceptable ways
Robert Plutchik's theory views defences as derivatives of basic emotions, which in turn relate to particular diagnostic structures. According to his theory, reaction formation relates to joy, denial relates to acceptance, repression to fear, regression to surprise, compensation to sadness, projection to disgust, displacement to anger and intellectualization to anticipation.
Different theorists have different categorizations and conceptualizations of defence mechanisms. Large reviews of theories of defence mechanisms are available from Paulhus, Fridhandler and Hayes and Cramer. The Journal of Personality published a special issue on defence mechanisms.

DSM-IV-TR classification

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association includes a tentative diagnostic axis for defence mechanisms. This classification is largely based on Vaillant's hierarchical view of defences, but has some modifications. Examples include: denial, fantasy, rationalization, regression, isolation, projection, and displacement. However, additional defense mechanisms are still proposed and investigated by different authors. For instance, in 2023, time distortion was proposed in a publication as a newly identified ego defense.
  • High adaptive level
  • *Ancitipation
  • *Affiliation
  • *Altruism
  • *Humor
  • *Self-Assertion
  • *Self-Observation
  • *Sublimation
  • *Suppression
  • Mental inhibitions level
  • *Displacement
  • *Dissociation
  • *Intellectualization
  • *Isolation of Affect
  • *Reaction Formation
  • *Repression
  • *Undoing
  • Minor image-distorting level
  • *Devaluation
  • *Idealization
  • *Omnipotence
  • Disavowal level
  • *Denial
  • *Projection
  • *Rationalization
  • Major image-distorting level
  • *Autistic fantasy
  • *Projective identification
  • *Splitting of self-image or image of others
  • Action level
  • *Acting Out
  • *Apathetic withdrawal
  • *Help-rejecting complaining
  • *Passive aggression
  • Level of defensive dysregulation
  • *Delusional projection
  • *Psychotic denial
  • *''Psychotic distortion''

    PDM-2 classification

  • Healthy level of organization
  • *Flexibility
  • Neurotic level of organization
  • *Rigidity
  • *Inner conflict
  • Borderline level of organization
  • *Defenses
  • **Splitting
  • ***Identity diffusion
  • **Projective identification
  • **Denial
  • **Withdrawal
  • **Omnipotent control
  • **Acting out
  • **Somatization
  • **Dissociation
  • **Primitive idealization
  • **Primitive devaluation
  • *Emotional dysregulation
  • *Relational problems
  • *Self-destructive behavior
  • *Impulsivity
  • Psychotic level of organization
  • *Defenses to terrifying anxieties
  • **Psychotic denial
  • **Autistic withdrawal
  • **Distortion
  • **Delusional projection
  • **Fragmentation
  • **Concretization
  • *Thought disorder
  • *Inappropriateness
  • *Annihilation anxiety
  • *Certainty
  • *Identity diffusion
  • *Severe deficits in reality testing
  • *Delusions

    Transference-focused psychotherapy classification

developed a theory of borderline personality organization of 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 helpful and harmful mental objects together. Kernberg views the use of primitive defence mechanisms as 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.
  • Mature defenses
  • *Suppression
  • *Anticipation
  • *Altruism
  • *Humor
  • *Sublimation
  • Repression-based defenses
  • *Repression
  • *Isolation of affect
  • *Intellectualization
  • *Reaction formation
  • *Neurotic projection
  • *Displacement
  • Splitting-based defenses
  • *Splitting
  • *Projective identification
  • *Lower-level idealization
  • *Devaluation
  • *Omnipotent control
  • *''Lower-level denial''

    Gabbard's classification

  • Most adaptive
  • *Humor
  • *Altruism
  • *Sublimation
  • *Suppression
  • More adaptive
  • *Isolation of affect
  • *Intellectualization
  • *Rationalization
  • *Displacement
  • *Somatization
  • *Undoing
  • *Reaction formation
  • *Identification
  • *Excessive emotionality
  • *Externalization
  • *Sexualization
  • *Repression
  • *Turning against the self
  • Less adaptive
  • *Splitting
  • *Projection
  • *Pathological idealization and devaluation
  • *Projective identification
  • *Denial
  • *Dissociation
  • *Acting out
  • *''Regression''

    Vaillant's categorization

Psychiatrist George Eman Vaillant introduced a four-level classification of defence mechanisms. Much of this work is derived from his observations while overseeing the Grant Study, a longitudinal investigation that began in 1937 and continues to the present. In monitoring a cohort of Harvard men from their freshman year through late adulthood, Vaillant sought to determine which psychological mechanisms influenced long-term adaptation and life outcomes. The hierarchy of defences was found to correlate with overall psychological maturity and the capacity to adapt effectively to life’s challenges. The overarching aim of the study was to define the characteristics of mental health rather than psychopathology.
  • Level I – pathological defences
  • Level II – immature defences
  • Level III – neurotic defences
  • Level IV – mature defences