Defenses
Definition
English & English
- Any psychological instrumentality by which a person automatically protects his self or ego against unpleasantness, shame, anxiety, or loss of self-esteem.
- The defense is usally (if not always) fully unconscious—that is, it is not intentionally acquired, and it operates automatically, without voluntary inception or control and without a conscious signal that it is operating.
- Its presence is betrayed by an otherwise unexplainable lack of relation between the circumstances and the behaviour. 1
Freud, Anna
Love, longing, jealousy, mortification, pain, and mourning accompany sexual wishes; hatred, anger, and rage accompany the impulses of aggression; if the instinctual demands with which they are associated are to be warded off, these affects must submit to all the various measures to which the ego resorts in its efforts to master them, i.e. they must undergo a metamorphosis. 2
Examples
Denial
Perhaps the most famous defense, denial is literally that: you deny that something is true. This is often the response to a Freudian slip, but can also be more serious, as in the case of someone who denies that they are dependent on alcohol.
Denial also plays out through overlooking unpleasant details of a larger phenomenon. For example, the person who expresses happiness at unseasonably warm autumn weather while making no comment on the potentially disastrous climate change which is its cause.
Rationalisation
Rationalisation is the trick of coming up with reasons to justify doing or not doing things that are unacceptable or unpleasant.
By inventing plausible-sounding reasons for our actions, we protect ourselves from the guilt and shame of being impulsive and acting without thinking. By rationalising, we demonstrate to ourselves and others that we really have thought it through and thereby “prove” that we’re not simply doing what we want because we want to. These often involve complex chains of reasoning, but can also be as simple as “but he hit me first!”
- If I work really hard at school, I’ll get good grades and get a good job. Then I’ll have enough money to buy whatever I want.
- I can’t quit smoking right now, I’m under too much stress already.
- I know I have a kitchen full of unused gadgets, but I really need an air fryer because it will help me eat healthier.
- Everyone else has Air Jordans, why shouldn’t I?
- I didn’t mean what I said, I was drunk/high/angry.
Humourisation
“Whatever roused his anxiety became an object of ridicule and, since everything around him was a source of anxiety, the whole world took on an aspect of absurdity.” 2
The impulse to make a joke out of a negative experiences is a means of disarming the discomfort of an unpleasant situation, thought, or feeling.
Used appropriately, as in comedy, it is an effective way of making emotionally charged opinions more palatable. This is partly why one of the very few places where societal taboos can be spoken about is in stand-up comedy. Relied on too heavily, however, it makes use difficult to connect with emotionally and easily becomes a means of avoiding real problems and threats by making them appear ridiculous, without actually confronting and solving the problem.
On an interpersonal level, humourisation makes us difficult to connect with emotionally. While it’s often helpful and healthy to be able to “laugh things off,” when we make a joke of everything, we come across as flippant and dismissive, which is often hurtful to others and damaging to relationships.
Discussion
Defense is yet another of those terms that has been adopted by different branches of psychology and used in subtly different ways. English & English differentiate, for example, between a defense proper (aka. a specific ego-defense) and a defense mechansim (ie. the structural feature of the personality which deploys the specific defense). It is also possible to differentiate between a defense mechanism and an ego-defense, though the two are often used interchangeably.
Personally, I think of a defense as part of a larger defense mechanism. In other words, the defense is the hammer, and the mechanism is the arm, shoulder, and nervous system which causes the hammer to be swung (or not).
The main thing to remember is that all defenses are a means of preventing unpleasant affect. The cause of that affect can be internal or external, real or percieved, and the method of prevention can be direct, indirect, subtle and unsubtle.
While some defenses simply block affects or the impulses/perceptions that threaten them, others will instead deflect the impulse towards a more acceptable target, or transmogrify from one affect into another.
Family situations with a domineering, aggressive, or violent parent provide a number of good examples, of which:
- The physically/emotionally abused child might displace their anger towards the parent onto a younger sibling, or become a bully towards other children at school. The child displaces their anger in this way because experience has taught them that direct confrontation with the more powerful parent will only lead to more abuse.
- The physically/emotionally abused child might respond to the parent’s aggression with tears. This could be simply the response to the overwhelming helplessness of not being able to defend themselves. But it can also be a way of transforming their true emotions (anger, rage, and the desire to retaliate) into a form which will not provoke further abuse. These are not “crocodile tears,” rather the only possible means of expressing overwhelming and dangerous feelings.
Above all it’s important not to dismiss someone’s behaviour as “just a defense mechanism.” The fact that they need the defense means that they are vulnerable to hurt and are doing their best to protect themselves from emotional pain. For this reason, it is important also not to try and “break down” someone’s defenses, because in doing so you leave them utterly exposed and push them directly towards a panic reaction and perhaps complete mental breakdown.
Maladaptive or problematic defenses must be replaced rather than eradicated. This is done by consciously building up more effective ego-defenses and defense mechanisms which allow the person to naturally relinquish the maladaptive ones they used to rely upon so heavily.