Understanding Psychological Defense Mechanisms: Key Types and Examples

denial denial is when a person refuses to accept the reality about something because it's too uncomfortable or

painful to acknowledge they ignore what's really happening around them and come up with their own madeup reasons to

avoid facing the truth a heavy smoker may deny the evidence that smoking is harmful to their health or imagine

someone drowning in debt because they spend too much money on fancy clothes instead of admitting they have a problem

they keep buying more expensive clothes saying things like I deserve to treat myself or I'll figure out the money

stuff later repression repression involves subconsciously pushing distressing thoughts memories impulses

or feelings into the unconscious mind making them inaccessible to conscious awareness a person who experienced a

traumatic event in childhood might have no conscious memory of the event because their mind has buried it deep down even

though they were conscious and aware during the event they may have vague feelings of unease or anxiety without

understanding why projection projection occurs when a person attributes their own unacceptable thoughts feelings or

impulses to someone else usually without realizing it someone who struggles with jealousy might accuse their partner of

being jealous and controlling when in reality it's their own feelings of jealousy that they're projecting onto

their partner they might say you're always so suspicious of me why can't you trust me or a cheating spouse might

accuse their partner of being unfaithful displacement displacement is when someone takes out their feelings on

someone or something else rather than dealing with the actual source of those feelings after a tough day at work

someone might come home and snap at their family members or pets over minor things because they're feeling stressed

and frustrated from work but can't express those feelings there reaction formation this defense mechanism

manifests when someone behaves in a way that's opposite to how they truly feel because expressing their true feelings

would be too anxiety-provoking or unacceptable someone who Harbors strong feelings of dislike towards a coworker

might go out of their way to be over friendly and complimentary towards that coworker masking their true feelings

with exaggerated friendliness regression regression is reverting to a more childlike or immature way of behaving in

response to stress or anxiety this serves as a way of protecting yourself from confronting the actual situation a

college student facing overwhelming academic pressure might start clinging to their parents for comfort and support

in a way they haven't done since childhood in a younger child a stressful event may cause it to regress to bed

wedding even though they have already outgrown this Behavior rationalization rationalization involves coming up with

seemingly logical explanations facts or justifications for behaviors thoughts or feelings that are actually driven by

unconscious motives or desires after a breakup someone might rationalize their ex partner's Behavior by saying they

were never right for me anyway to avoid confronting their own feelings of rejection and sadness or someone who

steals something feels justified in doing so because they needed it more than the the person from whom they stole

sublimation sublimation is when someone redirects their unacceptable impulses or emotions into socially acceptable

activities or Outlets instead of acting out their aggression by getting into fights someone might channel that energy

into playing intense sports like boxing or rugby injection injection also known as identification or internalization is

when someone takes on the beliefs or qualities of another person because they feel anxious and unsure about themselves

or to deal with emotional difficulty a child might internalize their parents critical voice and constantly criticize

themselves even when the parent isn't present and without conscious realization of this process splitting

splitting involves viewing people situations or things as either all good or all bad with no middle ground or

Nuance someone might see their boss as either a perfect Flawless leader or a completely incompetent Tyrant without

acknowledging any complexity or gray areas it's like painting everything with just two colors no Shades in between

this often happens in borderline personality disorder compensation compensation involves overemphasizing or

focusing on strengths or abilities in one area to make up for perceived deficiencies or failures in another

someone who feels insecure about their physical appearance might become overly focused on their academic achievements

or Career Success to compensate for their perceived shortcomings another example is a student who receives poor

grades and devotes more time and effort to extracurricular icular activities undoing undoing is attempting to reverse

or negate an unacceptable thought feeling or action through symbolic gestures or rituals after snapping at a

friend in Anger someone might apologize profusely and go out of their way to do something nice for them as a way to undo

the harm they caused undoing is like trying to make up for something bad you did by doing something good afterward it

sounds like the defense mechanism reaction formation but there's a difference reaction formation is tending

to feel the opposite of how you really feel while undoing involves actions to undo a negative action or feeling

intellectualization intellectualization involves focusing excessively on abstract thinking overanalyzing or

rationalization to avoid confronting or experiencing the emotions associated with a painful situation this mechanism

kicks in to block out conflicting or disturbing feelings and thoughts so instead of acknowledging their feelings

of grief after a loved one's death someone might Focus solely on organizing funeral arrangements and discussing

logistical details suppression suppression is consciously pushing unwanted thoughts feelings or memories

out of conscious awareness as opposed to repression which is a subconscious process it's like putting a lid on your

feelings for now so you can deal with them later when you're ready it's considered a form of motivated

forgetting during a stressful exam someone might consciously push aside distracting thoughts about a recent

argument with a friend so they can focus on studying dissociation dissociation involves mentally separating oneself

from thoughts feelings memories or even identity as a way to escape or avoid overwhelming or traumatic experiences

it's like mentally checking out for a while to avoid feeling upset during a traumatic event someone might feel like

they're watching the scene unfold from outside their body as if it's happening to someone else dissociation is

considered neurotic but fairly common in adults conversion conversion also called somatization involves expressing

psychological distress through physical symptoms or ailments often with no identifiable medical cause an example is

experiencing sudden paralysis or blindness in response to extreme stress or trauma despite no apparent physical

injury or medical explanation this defense mechanism is often seen in conversion disorder which is also

referred to as functional neurological symptom disorder avoidance avoidance or withdrawal is when someone deliberately

avoids thinking about discussing or confronting a situation thought feeling or memory that causes discomfort or

distress it also entails avoiding persons events and places ignoring phone calls from a creditor or avoiding

opening bills to avoid facing the reality of mounting debt and financial troubles is one example this defense

mechanism can also be observed in post-traumatic stress disorder where individuals may avoid the location of a

traumatic accident or refrain from driving altogether acting out acting out is when individuals Express their

unconscious emotions wishes or impulses through their actions rather than consciously verbalizing them it is also

when people do things without realizing why they're doing them it's like their emotions are driving their actions but

they don't understand why for example someone might act out their anger by yelling or breaking things instead of

talking about what's bothering them temper tantrums of toddlers can also be understood as episodes of acting out

since they haven't developed the means to communicate their feelings yet isolation of affect isolation of affect

is when someone disconnects their emotion from their thoughts or experiences it's like talking about

something sad or scary without feeling any sadness or fear for example if someone talks about a traumatic event

like their house burning down and describes it very detailed and graphical without showing any emotion it might be

because they've isolated their feelings from the memory it's like they're describing it as if it happened to

someone else this can happen in conditions like obsessive compulsive disorder or in people who've been

through very traumatic events and there you have them the major defense mechanism explained hit that like button

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