Defence Mechanisms in Psychodynamic Psychology

Introduction. Defence mechanisms

Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, initiated the exploration of defence mechanisms in the 19th century. He understood the defence mechanism as unconscious processes in relation to Id, Ego, and Super-Ego (Freud, 1894). His daughter, Anna Freud, continued to examine and to define these mechanisms in the 20th century. She described them as “unconscious resources” employed by the ego to reduce the tension between the Super-Ego and the Id.

Unfortunately Freud never provided a complete compilation of defense mechanisms or an encompassing theory of defenses. Anna Freud did make an effort to develop a methodical classification of defense mechanisms, but her list is excessively focused on psychopathology.

The aim of the psychodynamic psychotherapy is to identify the defence mechanisms to get the inside into the nature of the conflict. By acknowledging and identifying conflicts, patients enhance self-awareness and gain an understanding of the reasons of their behaviors, which caused the suffering. These insights prove valuable for individuals dealing with various mental health disorders like depression, anxiety, phobias, eating disorders, personality disorders and more. Therefore, the comprehension of defense mechanisms is crucial for clinicians to advance in their therapeutic approach.

Since Freud a century of exploration and a quarter century of empirical investigation, defence mechanisms have garnered significant attention and understanding in the field of psychodynamic psychology.

The Id, Ego and Super-Ego

According to Freud, the mind consists of three components: the Id, Ego, and Super-Ego. The Id represents basic needs and desires, acting as a pleasure center. In contrast, the Ego interacts with the external world and controls impulses and defines our conscious perception. The Super-Ego holds rules and “guide behavior.”supervises” the Ego. It’s identical with the “moral institution” controlling on the concious and unconscious level our thought, feelings and actions. The defence mechanisms serve the Ego from the “punishing” and oppressing Super-Ego.

Ideally, these components work together harmoniously. Freud suggested that in conflicts, individuals employ defense mechanisms to safeguard their self-concept or self-esteem. When self-esteem or self-image is in danger to be jeopardized, individuals employ defence mechanisms.

To uphold self-esteem, individuals unconsciously develop defense mechanisms. Despite the individuals are unaware of using these mechanisms, their presence indicates a perceived threat to self-esteem and self-concept.

The defence mechanism are only deployed to decrease the tension crated by a conflict. The main role of defence mechanisms is the Ego-protection. They help to maintain our favorable conscious perception about ourselves, protecting it from unpleasant thoughts and feelings. In the majority of cases defence mechanisms operate fully unconsciously, sometimes semi-consciously but always without our voluntary control. It means they are activated automatically and the individuals don’t even realize when they get active. During the transition from childhood to adolescence and eventually into adulthood, the defense mechanisms may endure, regress, or evolve along with the changing and challenging life circumstances.

Primitive, moderate level and mature defence mechanisms

Defense mechanisms are categorized by their level of sophistication. The less primitive ones are typical in the childhood and in adults with Borderline Personality Organization. The latter were unable to acquire more elaborated defence mechanisms during their socialization process.

The neurotic defences provide a moderate level of adaptiveness.

In “normal” people defensive mechanisms also are at work. However, they possess a high grade of maturity allowing the highest level of adaptation by promoting the integration of affects with ideas.

Primitive Defense Mechanisms

Primitive defence mechanisms can be observed in children and adults with personality disorders. They manifest as immature actions, disavowal, and image distortion. A heavier reliance on these immature defences indicates limited awareness of emotional and cognitive aspects of internal conflicts or external stressors. These mechanisms serve to block out unacceptable thoughts, emotions, and behaviours, shielding the individual from perceived threats.

The description “primitive” used for the defence mechanisms doesn’t mean that people in whom such mechanisms operate are less intelligent. As we said, the defence mechanisms work on unconscious or semi-conscious level and they can’t be influenced by individual’s will power. However, the nature of the mechanism itself is unsophisticated (“primitive”) and the person remains unaware when and how the defence mechanism activates and evolves.

Acting Out

Acting Out involves engaging in extreme behaviours to express thoughts or emotions that seem inexpressible otherwise. Instead of saying, “I’m angry”, an individual who acts out may throw objects or punch the wall. This release of pressure often brings a sense of calm and peace. For instance, a child’s temper tantrum reflects acting out when they don’t get their way with parents. Self-injury common in personality disorders can also serve as a form of acting out, expressing emotional pain through physical means.

Splitting

Another primitive defence mechanism is “splitting,” where both positive and negative impulses are compartmentalized. The individual simplifies experiences into rigid categories of all-good and all-bad, devoid of any shades of grey. By combining “splitting” with “projecting,” the individual unconsciously disowns their undesirable qualities, attributing them consciously to someone else. Splitting occurs in individuals with Borderline Personality Organization. The other two primitive defences, idealization and devaluation, serve the defence mechanisms in splitting reflect individual’s difficulties in maintaining a balanced view of others.. The hidden defence mechanism behind those two is projection.

Idealization

In Idealization the individual is projecting excessive positive qualities into an object (other person). Such projection protects him from emotional conflicts, preserving the illusion of perfection. However, idealization swiftly shifts to intense anger, known as devaluation, towards the once idealized person.

Devaluation

In Borderline Personality patients, idealization can quickly turn into devaluation due to the incapability to differentiate perception. Such individual can’t create a differentiated picture of other human being, seeing only its extreme qualities: good and bad, perfect or imperfect.

Devaluation characterizes an object as worthless, exaggerating its negative qualities. Challenged or disappointed, the patient swiftly devalues the formerly idealized object, avoiding the stress of ambiguity.

Interacting with individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), people experience confusion as they shift from being idealized to devalued. These cycles make it difficult for individuals with BPD to maintain stable relationships.

Projection

occurs when one attributes their undesired thoughts, feelings, or impulses to another person who doesn’t possess them. Projection is used to avoid expressing unacceptable thoughts or to alleviate discomfort associated with those thoughts. For instance, a spouse may feel angry at their partner for not listening, while it is the angry spouse who struggles with attentive listening. Lack of insight and self-awareness contribute to projection.

Projective identification

Projective identification was introduced by psychoanalyst Melanie Klein. It is a defence mechanism allowing individuals to distort reality for a socially acceptable self-image. Unlike projection, projective identification can alter the behaviour of the person being projected onto. This occurs through interpersonal interaction, where the projector pressures the projected to think, feel, and act in line with his projection. The person being projected onto may experience subtle pressure to conform to the desired behaviour or belief. Projective identification is closely linked with splitting and omnipotent control, where the individual tries to maintain control over their environment.

Denial

involves rejecting reality and acting as if painful events, thoughts, or feelings wouldn’t exist. Denial is a highly primitive defence mechanism commonly observed in early childhood development but also in patients with Borderline Personality Organization, or severe addictions. Such individuals employ denial in their daily lives to avoid confronting uncomfortable emotions or aspects they refuse to acknowledge. For example, a heavy alcoholic may deny having a drinking problem as not existent.

Intellectualization

refers to an excessive emphasis on rational thinking when faced with unacceptable impulses, situations, or behaviours, devoid of emotional engagement. Rather than dealing with associated painful emotions, individuals rely solely on intellectual analysis to distance themselves from the impulse, event, or behaviour. For example, a person receiving a terminal medical diagnosis might focus on discussing futile medical procedures instead of expressing sadness and grief.

Neurotic defence mechanisms

The neurotic defensive category falls in the middle range of adaptiveness, encompassing neurotic and obsessional defences. These defences allow individuals to address either the emotional or cognitive aspects of internal or external stressors one by one. By keeping the conflict out of awareness, these defences mechanism prevents overwhelming anxiety.

Displacement

involves redirecting thoughts, feelings, and impulses meant for one target onto another person or object. People resort to displacement when they cannot express their emotions directly to the intended recipient safely. A common example is a man who gets angry with his boss but suppresses it for fear of job loss. Instead, he comes home and takes out his anger on the dog or starts an argument with his spouse. Displacement proves ineffective as it causes additional problems by misdirecting emotions.

Reaction Formation

involves transforming unwanted or dangerous thoughts, feelings, or impulses into their opposites. For instance, a person who hates its boss and desires to quit the job may instead display excessive kindness and express a desire to work there indefinitely. Inability to express negative emotions leads to an exaggerated display of positivity to mask anger and dissatisfaction.

Dissociation

refers to losing track of time, personhood, and adopting an alternate representation of oneself to carry on. Those who dissociate frequently lose connection with their usual thought processes, memories, and even their sense of time. Individuals with a history of childhood abuse often experience some form of dissociation. In extreme cases, dissociation can lead to a belief in multiple selves (commonly known as “multiple personality disorder”). Dissociative individuals often hold a disconnected view of themselves and their world. Their experience of time and self-image may lack continuous flow, allowing them to detach from the real world temporarily and seek solace in an alternate realm devoid of overwhelming thoughts, emotions, or memories.

Repression

entails unconsciously blocking unacceptable thoughts, feelings, and impulses. Repressed memories are inaccessible due to unconscious suppression. However, memories are not carved in stone; they can be influenced and distorted by life experiences, external influences, and individual perception.

Regression

occurs when individuals revert to an earlier stage of development to cope with unacceptable thoughts or impulses. For instance, an overwhelmed adolescent experiencing fear, anger, and burgeoning sexual desires may exhibit behaviours from their earlier childhood, such as bedwetting. Similarly, adults facing immense stress may regress by retreating to their beds, avoiding everyday activities.

Undoing

is the attempt to retract an unconscious behaviour or thought that is deemed unacceptable or hurtful. For instance, after unintentionally insulting your partner, you may spend the next hour complimenting their attributes to counterbalance the damage caused by your remark.

Rationalization

involves reframing perceptions or offering alternative explanations to justify one’s thoughts or actions when faced with changing circumstances. For example, a woman who is dumped by a man she admires might reinterpret the situation as “I knew he was not right for me.”

Isolation of affect

this defence mechanism was already observed and described by Sigmund Freud. Isolation of affect is a defence based on separating emotions from ideas. In such way affects gets unconscious and emotionally neutral. This mechanism plays a significant role in OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) and is commonly observed in non-disordered individuals after a traumatic experience, often causing PTSD. Detachment is achieved through repetitive intrusive thoughts and ritualistic behaviours.

Compartmentalization

involves separating parts of oneself, behaving as if separate sets of values exist without awareness of their integration. For example, an honest person cheats on their income tax return, keeping their two value systems distinct and unconnected, unaware of the cognitive dissonance.

Mature Defense Mechanisms

The mature defensive category represents a high-adaptive level, comprising the most effective defence mechanisms operating in “normal” individuals. Emphasizing the use of mature defences enables individuals to integrate and partially acknowledge their feelings, ideas, desires, and thoughts related to internal conflicts. By integrating emotions with thoughts, these defences optimize and potentially resolve psychological distress.

Suppression

is a defence mechanism helping to deal with distressing mental contents (conflicts). Individuals consciously push these contents out of awareness until they can cope with them adaptively. Suppression resembles repression, but in repression, the conflict remains inaccessible to consciousness, while in suppression the temporarily unconscious conflict, gets conscious and gets solved when the opportunity arises. Unlike repression, suppression does disrupt self-awareness but only temporarily.

Sublimation

is the redirection of libido from unacceptable impulses, thoughts, or emotions into socially acceptable actions. For instance, channelling sexual impulses into artistic activities or increased professional performance provides a productive outlet, preventing destructive actions and anxiety.

Sublimation can also manifest through humor or fantasy. Humor is a “vehicle” of sublimation, acting as a defence mechanism by transforming unacceptable impulses into jokes, reducing the inner tension. The nature of humor contains aggressive impulses which can be related to external objects, making jokes about someone else or about the individual himself. Fantasy, on the other hand, involves channelling unattainable desires into imaginative scenarios. Th action doesn’t happen in real but only in the fantasy of the subject.

Compensation

is a psychological process that counterbalances perceived weaknesses by emphasizing strengths in other areas. Recognizing that one cannot excel in all aspects of life, a person may compensate for a lack of skill in one area by emphasizing their proficiency in another. For example, someone with not very appealing appearance compensate this deficiency trough extraordinary professional success.

Other non-typical defence mechanisms

Identification with the aggressor

refers to a defence mechanism in depth psychology where a person who is physically and/or emotionally abused or oppressed by an aggressor unconsciously identifies with them. The person internalizes and adopts personality traits, values, and behaviours of the aggressor without their conscious knowledge and often against their conscious will, turning them into self-parts/ego states.

Starting with submission to a repressive and authoritarian upbringing structure, this reaction safeguards one’s psychological system as a last resort. It protects against a potential collapse in the face of overwhelming attacks. Paradoxically, while it maintains self-functioning temporarily, the consequences of identifying with the aggressor undermine self-integrity and well-being. Personal autonomy development is suppressed.

The well-known example of the identification with the aggressor is the so-called Stockholm Syndrom.

Conversion

The term conversion is on the one side a defence mechanism on the other a DSM 5 approved diagnosis.

Conversion as defence mechanism means a process where psychological conflict manifests through somatic symptoms. According to Freud, conversion in hysteria occurs when the unbearable idea’s excitation is transformed into a physical manifestation, which he proposes calling “conversion.”

In conversion, individuals exhibit seemingly physical symptoms, but without any diagnostic findings supporting such symptoms. However, a connection between the symptoms and distressing events can be presumed. This means that a conflict is not accepted by the Ego (consciousness) and is “converted” into a physical manifestation, often symbolically representing the conflict. Symptoms can include blindness, deafness, seizures, or paralysis.

A frequently cited example involves a woman who is being betrayed by her husband and “wants to close her eyes to this fact.” She becomes blind without any organic findings.

Dissociation

This term also encompasses dissociation as defence mechanisms and certain psychiatric diagnosis with dissociative symptoms.

Dissociation is the phenomenon of a temporary gap in consciousness. In dissociation the consciousness “switches off” certain contents to safeguard the Ego. It shields individuals from integrating highly distressing thoughts, feelings, or memories into the consciousness.

For instance, during therapy, a patient recounts a deeply traumatic event to his therapist. As he recalls the experience, he suddenly feels overwhelmed, exhausted, and momentarily “switched off” for several seconds. This dissociative episode shields the individual from re-experiencing the traumatic event.

Dissociative conditions often manifest as symptoms of various mental health disorders, such as:  

• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

• Dissociative amnesia: This involves an inability to recall personal details or events from one’s life. Typically, the amnesia is limited to a specific time period, although rare cases may entail complete identity loss.

• Depersonalization, Derealization Disorder (DDD): Depersonalization refers to feeling detached from oneself, as if observing actions from a third-party perspective. Derealization, on the other hand, involves a sense of the surrounding world being unreal, akin to a dream-like state.

• Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID): Individuals with Dissociative Identity Disorder experience a fragmented sense of self, perceiving themselves as different people in varying contexts or possessing multiple identities within one body.

Conclusion

Defense mechanisms are learned behaviours, developed during the childhood and early adolescence. The concept was originally developed by Sigmund Freud trough the careful observation of his patients.

The main aim of the psychodynamic psychotherapy is to create awareness of the defence mechanisms and the conflict behind it. By doing so, the individual gets access to the “lumber room” of his psyche, hidden under the threshold of consciousness. During the psychotherapeutic process the conflict will be gradually solved, making the defence mechanism obsolete.

The first ever scientific, evidenced based proof of their existence was delivered by Carl Gustav Jung in his word association experiment. Understanding the defence mechanism is the central aim of the psychodynamic psychotherapy.

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