What is Defense Mechanism?

Defense Mechanism is one of the biggest contributions of Sigmund Freud. He said that defense mechanism is the way to Un-consciously avoid the anxiety. The Ego must reduce conflict between the demand of the ID and SUPEREGO.

According to Freud, this conflict is ever present because the urge is always present in the many forms and pressing for satisfaction. We typically defend our self against anxiety by using different Defense Mechanism at the same time.

Recollections banished to the subconscious, or unacceptable drives or urges do no longer disappear.  They continue to exert effectively have an impact on conduct.  The forces, which try to preserve painful or socially undesirable thoughts and memories out of the conscious thoughts, are termed defense mechanisms.

Now we’ll discuss some main Defense Mechanisms that are used in daily life.

  • Affiliation

Affiliation is the form of Defense Mechanism that individuals use to deal with the emotional conflict. In the stress, they share their problem with others and ask to help.

  • Autistic Fantasize

The defense mechanism which one might also try and clear up an emotional friction by substitution of fantasy for actual relationships or activities. An individual use daydreaming and fantastical thinking for reducing anxiety.

  • Denial

In denying latent feelings of homosexuality or hostility, or intellectual defects in one’s child, a person can escape intolerable mind, feelings, or events. Denial is the refusal to accept the painful reality fact and acting like the painful thought, feelings, and events didn’t occur.

  • Displacement Defense Mechanism

In this type of defense mechanism, the person displaces their aggression.  When an individual face the anxiety/ stress, they will reduce their stress over them the less threatening person. For example: when a boss in stress, he will reduce his stress over the employ, and employment will reduce over his wife, a wife will reduce it to the child, and child will kick the door at the result of reducing the aggression.

  • Humor

Freud believed that cultivating an experience of humor ought to help carry repressions but could also be harmful, specifically in sure types of sarcasm and irony, directed at the self. Find any enjoyable aspect in the particular situation, in which you ell stress. Think the enjoyable piece of the moment again and again.

  • Idealization

Tending to understand every other character as having more appropriate characteristics than she or he might also truly have. Make the image of your idea, or idealize the things. Think the positive quality of others and make some future planning.

  • Omnipotence

Through this defense mechanism may attempt to resolve an emotional conflict by pretending superiority over others and possession of special power.

  • Projection

This also a defense mechanism, in which unwanted thoughts and feeling deplaned onto other. For example, when the student fails in the exams, they often fall it over the teacher that they didn’t teach properly.

  • Rationalization

When an individual present behavior and feeling in a logical manner to press or avoid the true explanation. For example, as the above example when the student fails, they will never tell the truth why they fail. They will say that the paper was difficult or the teacher didn’t check properly.

  • Reaction Formation Defense Mechanism

In the form of Defense Mechanism, the use of the reaction formation the demand of ID is satisfied at the same time as maintaining the ego in lack of know-how of the genuine reasons.  Aware feelings are the opposite of the unconscious.  Love – hate.  Shame – disgust and moralizing are reaction formation against sexuality. Format the reaction in the exact opposite manner.

  • Sublimation

In the form of sublimation, those feelings and need that you cannot fulfill you will canalize them. Like if someone is aggressive and can’t show aggression at all the time, he will canalize it and join the boxing.

  • Reaction Formation

To avoid the unacceptable thoughts, feelings, and events, take own self into the earlier stage of the development where there was no stress. Like the adult take them in the childhood and imagined the playful life.

So these are the basic defense mechanisms that are presented by Sigmund Freud. Hope so these are helpful for you. for more detail, visit this site

Don’t forget the feedback and also tell us which defense mechanism you use to reduce anxiety.

I'm Alana Wade, a psychologist with over five years of experience working with relationships. I've dedicated my career to helping couples and families create lasting, meaningful connections.