abnormal psychology
DEFENSE MECHANISM
Defense mechanisms are the "automatic" mental behaviors all of us employ to protect or defend ourselves from the "threat" of some emotional pain. More specifically, ego defense mechanisms are mental behaviors we use to "defend" our self-images from "invitations" to feel ashamed or guilty about something.
Defense mechanisms in and of themselves are neither good nor bad; it is only in how appropriately they are used and how adaptive they are that determines if they are problematic. Defenses are viewed as a means of dealing with anxiety or resolving conflict.
When anxiety occurs, the mind first responds by an increase in problem-solving thinking, seeking rational ways of escaping the situation. If this is not fruitful (and maybe anyway), a range of defense mechanisms may be triggered. In Freud's language, these are tactics which the Ego develops to help deal with the Id and the Super Ego.
All Defense Mechanisms share two common properties:
• They often appear unconsciously.
• They tend to distort, transform, or otherwise falsify reality.
In distorting reality, there is a change in perception which allows for a lessening of anxiety, with a corresponding reduction in felt tension.
Sigmund Freud first coined the idea of defense mechanisms in 1894, but it was his daughter, Anna Freud, who perhaps best articulated the concept in her 1936 book, The Ego and The Mechanisms of Defense. She claimed that everyone, normal as well as neurotic, uses a set of defense mechanisms to varying degrees. Each theorist posited that most mental processes occur unconsciously - that is beyond our conscious awareness - and that when various drives, wishes, or fantasies become too painful, we must use unconscious processes to ward off what would otherwise be overwhelming psychic anguish. However, this unconscious resistance has a cost; Sigmund Freud used the analogy of soldiers having to be split from the main body of an army to guard against the unwanted
Defense mechanisms are the "automatic" mental behaviors all of us employ to protect or defend ourselves from the "threat" of some emotional pain. More specifically, ego defense mechanisms are mental behaviors we use to "defend" our self-images from "invitations" to feel ashamed or guilty about something.
Defense mechanisms in and of themselves are neither good nor bad; it is only in how appropriately they are used and how adaptive they are that determines if they are problematic. Defenses are viewed as a means of dealing with anxiety or resolving conflict.
When anxiety occurs, the mind first responds by an increase in problem-solving thinking, seeking rational ways of escaping the situation. If this is not fruitful (and maybe anyway), a range of defense mechanisms may be triggered. In Freud's language, these are tactics which the Ego develops to help deal with the Id and the Super Ego.
All Defense Mechanisms share two common properties:
• They often appear unconsciously.
• They tend to distort, transform, or otherwise falsify reality.
In distorting reality, there is a change in perception which allows for a lessening of anxiety, with a corresponding reduction in felt tension.
Sigmund Freud first coined the idea of defense mechanisms in 1894, but it was his daughter, Anna Freud, who perhaps best articulated the concept in her 1936 book, The Ego and The Mechanisms of Defense. She claimed that everyone, normal as well as neurotic, uses a set of defense mechanisms to varying degrees. Each theorist posited that most mental processes occur unconsciously - that is beyond our conscious awareness - and that when various drives, wishes, or fantasies become too painful, we must use unconscious processes to ward off what would otherwise be overwhelming psychic anguish. However, this unconscious resistance has a cost; Sigmund Freud used the analogy of soldiers having to be split from the main body of an army to guard against the unwanted