The concept
Sigmund Freud proposed that the ego uses defenses to reduce anxiety arising from conflicts among the id, superego and reality. Anna Freud systematised them in The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence (1936). Everyone uses defenses; problems arise when they are rigid or immature.
Common defenses
- Repression: pushing painful memories or wishes out of awareness
- Denial: refusing to accept a reality, such as a diagnosis
- Projection: attributing one's own feelings to others
- Rationalization: plausible excuses, as in sour grapes
- Reaction formation: acting opposite to true feelings
- Displacement: redirecting feelings to a safer target
- Regression: returning to earlier behaviour
- Intellectualization: handling emotion through abstract analysis
- Sublimation: channelling impulses into valued activities, such as aggression into sport
- Identification: taking on another person's traits
Vaillant's hierarchy
Using the Harvard adult development study, George Vaillant ranked defenses as pathological, immature, neurotic and mature (sublimation, humour, altruism, suppression), finding that mature defenses predicted better adaptation in later life. DSM-IV included a Defensive Functioning Scale in an appendix.
In practice
Counsellors and social workers avoid tearing down defenses abruptly, instead understanding the anxiety they guard against and helping clients move toward more adaptive coping.
References
- Freud, A. (1936/1966). The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense (Rev. ed.). International Universities Press.
- Vaillant, G. E. (1977). Adaptation to Life. Little, Brown.
- Cramer, P. (2000). Defense mechanisms in psychology today: Further processes for adaptation. American Psychologist, 55(6), 637-646.
- American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.). APA.