Types of psychological defense reactions. Defense mechanisms of the psyche

These experiences can be associated with internal or external conflicts, states of anxiety or discomfort. Ultimately action defense mechanisms is aimed at maintaining the stability of a person's self-esteem, his ideas about himself and the image of the world.

crowding out

This is the elimination of unacceptable drives and experiences from consciousness. This is the so-called "motivated forgetting". For example, a person who had negative experience communication with someone may not remember this at all. However, the memory of the repressed events continues to live in the unconscious and periodically breaks through "outside" in jokes, slips, and so on.

Projection

This is the subconscious attribution of their own repressed motives, character traits and experiences to other people. This defense mechanism is the result of repression. Due to repression, drives are suppressed and driven back inside: but from this they do not disappear anywhere and continue to exert their influence. It is too painful to root out your desires, so they are projected onto others. So, for example, the old maid granny will violently condemn the mores of modern youth. But she will be even more severe towards her neighbor in the shop - the same old maid. Say, her character is bad, so no one got married. Projection is directed at someone whose situation is similar to that of the projectionist. A person who has a projection is prone to dishonest behavior, although he finds this dishonesty in others, he is inclined to envy, to search for negative reasons for the success of others.

Negation

This is the desire not to take undesirable events for oneself as reality: both present and past. For example, many are terrified of serious illness. A person who has a negative mechanism will not notice the presence of obvious symptoms of the disease. The denial mechanism allows you to ignore the traumatic manifestations of reality. Denial is often found in family relationships, when one of the spouses completely ignores the presence of problems with a partner.

Rationalization

It is finding acceptable reasons and explanations for unacceptable thoughts or actions. Rational explanation as a defense mechanism is aimed at relieving stress when experiencing internal conflict. The simplest example of rationalization is the exculpatory explanations of a student who received a deuce. To admit to yourself that you are guilty without completing your lesson is too painful for pride. Therefore, the student attributes his failure to the teacher's bad mood.

Sublimation

This is the most common defense mechanism when we, trying to forget about a traumatic event (experience), switch to various activities that are acceptable to us and society. A kind of sublimation can be sports, intellectual work, creativity.

Regression

This is a return to more primitive ways of emotional or behavioral responses that a person had more early age... For example, pout, turn away and be silent all day.

Reactive formations

This behavior is exactly the opposite of the desired one. Classic example- boyish teenage "courtship" for girls, which boils down to hitting more painfully, pulling the pigtail, etc. This is due to the fact that in a teenage environment, tenderness is perceived as something shameful. Therefore, boys try to reduce their manifestation of feelings to actions, in their opinion, completely opposite courtship.

To resolve an internal conflict, a person usually uses several protective mechanisms at once. But they all serve one purpose: to preserve the integrity of ideas about oneself and about the world.

Question no.28 ... Personal protective mechanisms and their characteristics.

In an effort to get rid of unpleasant emotional states, a person with the help of the “I” develops in himself the so-called “defense mechanisms”. This term was first introduced into psychology by the famous Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud. The concept of psychological defense mechanisms is presented more fully by Anna Freud, in particular in her work "Psychology of the Self and Defense Mechanisms". She believed that the defense mechanism is based on two types of reactions:

blocking the expression of impulses in conscious behavior;

distorting them to such an extent that their initial intensity noticeably decreases or deviates to the side.

In Russian psychology, F.S. Bassny considered psychological defense as the most important form of the reaction of an individual's consciousness to mental trauma. B.D. Karvasarsky considers psychological defense as a system of adaptive reactions of the individual, aimed at defensive change in the significance of maladaptive components relationships - cognitive, emotional, behavioral- in order to weaken their psycho-traumatic impact on the self-concept.

Psychological protection - This is a natural opposition of man to the environment. She unconsciously protects him from emotionally negative overload. In the process of socialization, defense mechanisms arise, change, and rebuild under the influence of social influences. All ZML have two things in common:

they act on an unconscious level and therefore are means of self-deception;

they distort, deny, transform, or falsify the perception of reality in order to make anxiety less threatening to the individual.

Functions of psychological defenses , on the one hand, can be viewed as positive, since they protect the person from negative experiences, eliminate anxiety and help maintain self-esteem in a conflict situation. On the other hand, they can also be assessed as negative. If the state of emotional well-being is fixed for a long period and essentially replaces activity, then psychological comfort is achieved at the cost of distorting the perception of reality, or self-deception.

Personality defense mechanisms can be roughly divided into three groups:

I ... "natural" - the psychological defenses included in it mediate and form the perceptual processes of the personality, the peculiarities of the perception of various information about oneself and about the world around. Common to this group of protections is the lack of demand for information content analysis. The main thing here is blocking information, unconsciously excluding it from the sphere of consciousness.

crowding out - Freud saw repression as the most direct way to escape anxiety. Repression is the process of removing from consciousness thoughts and feelings that cause suffering. Displacing a person ceases to be aware of the causes of anxiety, and also does not remember the tragic past events.

Suppression - more conscious, than with repression, avoidance of disturbing information. Suppression occurs consciously, but its causes may or may not be recognized. The products of suppression are in the preconscious, and do not go into the unconscious, as can be seen in the process of repression. One of the options for the development of suppression is asceticism. Most often, those thoughts and desires are suppressed that contradict the moral values ​​and norms accepted by oneself.

Asceticism - was defined by A. Freud as the denial and suppression of all instinctive urges. This mechanism is more typical for adolescents, an example of which is dissatisfaction with their appearance and the desire to change it. Negative feelings about this can be "removed" with the help of asceticism.

H igilism - denial of values. The approach to nihilism as one of the mechanisms of psychological defense is based on the conceptual provisions of E. Fromm. The development of a person and his personality occurs within the framework of the formation of two main trends: the desire for freedom and the desire for alienation.

II ... "integrative" - the protective mechanisms included in this group are associated with an unconscious assessment of the content of information undesirable for a person, its change, and an inadequate assessment. Distortion, transformation of information can be carried out in various ways using: generalization, omission, categorization, etc. As a result of the action of these defenses, a person begins to possess information inadequate to reality and live in a world of illusions.

BUT gression occurs when a person cannot overcome barriers on the way to his goal and experiences frustration. It takes the form of a direct attack on other people, and sometimes is expressed in rudeness, threats, hostility. Types of aggression:

but) Direct aggression- usually directed at others. It can manifest itself in behavior (fight, murder) or in verbal form (abuse, sarcasm, rude remarks). It is possible to turn aggression on oneself (auto-aggression): self-accusations, deep feelings of guilt, suicide, exhaustion of oneself by hunger, "mortification of the flesh."

b) Indirect (displaced) aggression- is directed not directly at an unwanted or unpleasant object (person), but at an accessible object. A person can simply "pour out" a bad mood on the first face that comes across.

in) Displacement- ZML, directing a negative emotional reaction not to a traumatic situation, but to an object that has nothing to do with it. This mechanism creates a kind of "vicious circle" of mutual influence of people on each other.

G) Passive aggression... In this case, the subject unites himself with the external aggressor and "assumes" his role. An example of this kind of aggression is betrayal, betrayal, or "indulging" in another's atrocities.

Desacralization - ZML is described by A. Maslow. During desacralization, a person skeptically measures up and does not want to see his own purpose, opportunities in self-realization and self-actualization. The way to remove this protection is resacralization - the desire and readiness to look at the Human "through the eyes of eternity."

Idealization - is associated, first of all, with an overestimated emotional self-esteem or assessment of another person. Idealization is also associated with the process of forming a personal ideal. K. Horney noted that the protective mechanism of idealization performs a number of functions that are important for personal stability:

Replaces a person's real self-confidence;

Creates conditions for a sense of superiority, the feeling that he is better, more worthy than others; substitutes for genuine ideals;

Denies the presence of intrapsychic conflicts (rejects everything that is not included in his own way of behavior);

It gives rise to a new line of schisms in the personality, forming a barrier to its true development, forms alienation from oneself, creates new life illusions - such a protective mechanism of the personality, which serves as the basis for the further development of identification and self-identification.

NS projection - ZML, associated with the perception of a person's mental image as an objective reality, with the help of which unconscious personal characteristics (drives, needs, etc.) are projected onto other objects. The projection mechanism manifests its effect in the fact that a person unconsciously ascribes his own negative qualities to another person, and, as a rule, in an exaggerated form.

Transformation - a form of psychological defense, in which the displaced negative character traits in a person's consciousness turn into positive ones.

AND identification - carried out on the basis of an emotional connection with another person. It is accompanied by the desire of a person to be like the one he loves.

AND edge role - it is based on the establishment of control over others in order to relieve oneself of responsibility, obtain a certain benefit (reward), increase one's own significance and ensure one's own safety and peace of mind by establishing a pattern of behavior that does not change in new conditions.

(a woman in the role of the Alcoholic's Wife, no matter how many times she marries, will still live with an alcoholic). Playing a role allows a person to use an external resource to protect an internal problem in order to protect himself and even get some benefit when the individual identifies himself with the role being played. (E. Bern believes that each person has his own set of certain behavioral patterns (roles), which correlates with the mental state of the person (Adult, Parent, Child)).

AND inversion - ZML based on the manifestations of "reverse processes". Such tendencies are manifested in various spheres of personality - behavior, motivation, thinking, affective area. All psychological defenses of the personality based on inversion are characterized by the presence of a tendency of a fixed "turn", the reversal of one or another direction of mental activity in some other direction, usually directly opposite to the initial one. There are various types of inversion defense mechanisms:

1.Pactive education one of the forms of mental attitude or habit, opposite to the repressed desire, a reaction to it, although the object that caused negative emotions remains the same (as opposed to the projection, where the object itself changes), but here the attitude towards it changes.

2.Obrotherly feeling- one of the ways of manifestation of the conversion of attraction to its opposite; this is a process in which the goal of attraction is transformed into a phenomenon with the opposite sign, and passivity is replaced by activity.

3.Freaction formation- protection, with the help of which, instead of unpleasant information displaced into the unconscious, directly opposite ideas are manifested and perceived. The boy in every way offends the girl for whom he feels sympathy. This happens unconsciously. Unable to achieve reciprocity, the boy feels resentment. Together with the feeling of sympathy, it is repressed into the unconscious, and instead, a feeling of hostility arises in the consciousness, which manifests itself in the corresponding behavior.

4.Martilization- a psychological mechanism by which a person achieves the desired results by dramatizing the situation, crying, moaning, seizures, evoking pity in others, "working for the public." One example of extreme cases of manifestations of martisation is the so-called false suicide.

5. AboutSymptom recovery- ZML, characterized by the occurrence of various symptoms of psychosomatic disorders, which are activated during the action of traumatic factors. For example, a young man gets a job by winning a big competition. But he has no work experience. This naturally worries and worries him. On the eve of going to work, even in the evening, he felt normal, but at night he had a sore throat, fever, chills - all the signs of a psychosomatic illness. But all these symptoms disappeared when he came to work, and everything was going well there.

Humor - a protective psychic mechanism, which manifests itself as hiding by the individual from himself and the surrounding unattainable goals displaced into the unconscious.

NS burnout - The mechanism of psychological defense developed by the individual in the form of complete or partial exclusion of emotions in response to traumatic influences. It manifests itself as a state of physical and mental exhaustion caused by emotional overstrain, which is reduced due to the formation of a personality stereotype of emotional behavior. Emotional burnout is often viewed as a consequence of the phenomenon of professional deformation in the field of human-to-human professions.

O invaluable - a protective mechanism of personality, based on a decrease in the value of goals, achievements of other people and their own failures in order to avoid unpleasant experiences.

R nationalization - a form of psychological defense, in which the individual explains the actions unacceptable for morality with false motives that are welcomed in society. At the same time, self-respect, a sense of independence, and anxiety does not arise.

TO compensation - a psychological defense mechanism aimed at correcting or replenishing one's own real or imagined physical or mental inferiority. The author of the description of the protective mechanisms of compensation and overcompensation is A. Adler. Feelings of inferiority can become overwhelming for a variety of reasons. In response to feelings of inferiority, the individual develops two forms of defense mechanisms: compensation and overcompensation. Overcompensation is manifested in the fact that a person tries to develop those data that are poorly developed in him. Compensation is manifested in the fact that instead of developing a missing quality, a person begins to intensively develop the trait that he already has well developed, thereby compensating for his lack. This type of compensation is called indirect, which reduces the severity of unpleasant experiences. Some authors consider several of its types as indirect compensation:

1.Cublimation- a protective mechanism of the psyche, with the help of which the energy of an unfulfilled need, repressed into the unconscious, is transformed into another activity by changing its direction.

2. Substitution- a change in the object of energy application (without enrolling in one educational institution, a person enters another; not receiving an invitation to a significant party, arranges his own, etc.). The difference between substitution and sublimation is that there is a change in the object that can satisfy the attraction. For example, the phenomenon of displaced aggression. With substitution, if a person experiences aggression and cannot realize it on the object that causes it (on this person), he will "pour out" it on another person.

3. Facade, mask, shielding- protection, with the help of which a person closes the inner emptiness with an external impressive facade (he does not like to read, but collects a library, acquires expensive things, a car, a cottage, seeks to occupy high positions, etc.), which is usually associated with the depersonalization of the personality.

Intellectualization - ZML, based on a person's verbalization of his own emotions and contradictions, through which the subject seeks to express his conflicts and experiences in a discursive form. Intellectualization is often compared to rationalization, since both are the result of intellectual processes. But intellectualization is the neutralization of emotion, and rationalization is a pseudo-rational explanation by a person of his desires, actions in reality caused by reasons, the recognition of which would threaten the individual with the loss of self-esteem.

AND nthrojection - ZML (assimilation), which includes in the structure of "I" without critical examination and assimilation of external standards, values, attitudes, concepts in order to reduce the threat of negative experiences.

Retroflexia- ZML, contributing to the termination of the individual's attempts to influence those around him by returning feelings back to a closed intrapersonal system and exactly against himself.

III ... "Retro protection" - this group unites those mechanisms of psychological defense that are based and use the mechanisms that arose in childhood, practically without changing them. Resorting to this type of protection indirectly testifies to a certain personal and social infantilism of a person, personal immaturity.

Ofrenzy- a mechanism for freeing a person from traumatic negative experiences by giving up activities when it is impossible to achieve the desired goal. Leaving the field of activity is usually accompanied by a rejection of activity, which can manifest itself in various forms, for example, a decrease (or rejection) of communications, an accumulation of behavior that contributes to the symbolic nullification of the previous action, which is usually accompanied by strong anxiety, feelings of guilt, etc.

Self-closing- ZML, close to retreat, but having a slightly different source. It is associated with non-conformism, and not with conformism, as in the retreat, with the direction "from". The connection of nonconformism with suggestibility sometimes gives a paradoxical effect - an individual tendency towards hermitism, asceticism, nihilism, and reactive education is manifested.

Dreflection- a special type of psychological defense associated with the withdrawal of a person from both direct contact with himself (i.e. from his own strong feelings) and from contacts with others.

Petrification- a protective lack of external manifestation of feelings, "numbness of the soul" with a relative clarity of thought, often accompanied by a switch of attention to the phenomena of the surrounding reality that are not related to the traumatic event. This mechanism is externally manifested by the corresponding face masks.

Leaving for virtual reality / virtuality- the mechanism of psychological defense, when an individual unconsciously avoids a traumatic situation. In the literature, this type of defense is sometimes called "ostrich". Avoiding psychotrauma gives the personality short-term relief, but at the same time essential needs and desires remain unsatisfied, goals are not realized, which is the reason for further spiritual searches and experiences.

Iona complex- characterized by fear of their own greatness, deviation from their destiny, flight from their talents, fear of success.

Regression- the process, mechanism, result of a person's return to previously passed (possibly childhood) stages, states, forms and methods of functioning of emotional and intellectual activity, object relations, behavioral models, psychological defenses. Z. Freud identified three types of regression:

1. topical due to the functioning of the mental apparatus;

2. temporary, in which the former methods of mental organization come into play again;

3. formal, replacing the usual ways of expression and figurative representation with more primitive ones.

The specificity of regressive defense mechanisms consists in the prevalence of her passive position and indicates the uncertainty in making her own decisions. In this case, it is the personal I that regresses, demonstrating its weakness and leads to a simplification (infantilization) or mismatch of behavioral structures. An example of regression is primitive mechanisms :

Negation - One of the most common forms of such behavior is rejection, denial, criticism from other people. A sick person can deny this fact. Thus, he finds the strength to continue to fight for life. However, most often denial prevents people from living and working, because not recognizing criticism in their address, they do not seek to get rid of the existing shortcomings that are subject to fair criticism.

Split - Z. Freud used this term to designate a kind of phenomenon when two paradoxical mental attitudes coexist within the personal I in relation to external reality: the first takes into account reality, the second ignores it.

Projective identification – defense mechanism studied by M. Klein. Splitting into "good self" and "bad self", starting from infancy, is an attempt to protect one's good parts from bad ones, get rid of the intolerable qualities of one's own self, turn them into one's own "persecutors." IN Everyday life this can manifest itself in an exam situation in the form of fear of the teacher, hostility of representatives of different nationalities, rejection of the views and positions of other people, etc.

Partial perception - a defense mechanism, characterized by the fact that the subject is inclined to perceive only what he wants, likes, beneficial, value or significant. The rest of the information is not fixed by the individual, thus forming a kind of limited ideas about the world around him and about himself, based mainly on the "necessary" material, "cutting out" everything else from his perception.

Physical activity - reducing anxiety caused by a forbidden urge by resolving its direct or indirect expression without developing feelings of guilt. Physical activity includes involuntary, irrelevant actions to release tension. Locomotor activity is a defense mechanism that also presupposes counteraction. It arises in those situations and during those defenses, when other people are not only attributed their own motives (projection), but also attacks follow. This mechanism is often manifested in people with antisocial activity - hooligans, rapists, bandits, etc.

Stunning- a mechanism for eliminating conflicts, fears, frustrations associated with trauma and achieving a sense of strength and calmness due to the effects of pharmacological substances (alcohol, drugs, etc.). This is due to the fact that alcohol and drugs change the state of consciousness, cause pleasant emotions, calming down, and at high doses the signals of trouble cease to reach consciousness. The negative side of this protective mechanism is the formation of alcoholism and drug addiction, as properties of the individual and the organism. A person with a protective mechanism of stunning perceives alcohol or drugs as means that change his mental state in the direction he wants.

Defense mechanisms in gestalt therapy.

ZML are viewed as ambivalent: both obstacles and sources of personal growth. The problem of the subject as a person is to experience being included in society, as a part of the field, but also to differentiate in this field.

1. Pathological fusion I am with We - contact and leaving with the environment is impossible or difficult, because does not differentiate itself as a whole, itself and others. The subject is not entirely aware of the reasons for his behavior, does not raise the question of the reasons for what is happening, says not “I”, but “we”.

2. Retroflexion - turning to oneself - a person makes himself the subject and object of his own actions, confuses the reasons for his behavior, his own and those of others, turning everything to himself (for example, blame for everything). He does to himself what he really would like to do to others. "I am responsible for everything."

3. Introjection - “swallowing unchewed” is the appropriation / assimilation without understanding the standards, norms, attitudes, ways of thinking and behavior that do not become our own, are not digested. There is contact with the world here, but not genuine.

4. Projection - dividing the personality into parts. This is the tendency to shift responsibility for what comes from oneself (impulses, desires, etc.) onto others, the desire to put outside what belongs to oneself. Therapeutic options: group therapy, exteriorizing the inner parts and then reassembling into a whole. Projective work is a condition for the object's contact with the world.

In gestalt therapy - focus on the present moment, in psychoanalysis - analysis in the past, explanation of the symptom.

When difficult situations arise in our life, problems we ask ourselves the questions "how to be?" and “what to do?”, and then we try to somehow resolve the existing difficulties, and if it doesn’t work, then we resort to the help of others. Problems are external (lack of money, no work ...), but there are also internal problems, it is more difficult to deal with them (often even one does not want to admit them, it hurts, it is unpleasant).

People react differently to their inner difficulties: they suppress their inclinations, denying their existence, “forget” about the traumatic event, seek a way out in self-justification and condescension to their “weaknesses”, try to distort reality and engage in self-deception. And all this is sincere, in this way people protect their psyche from painful stress, help them with this protective mechanisms.

What are defense mechanisms?

For the first time this term appeared in 1894 in the work of Z. Freud "Protective neuropsychoses". The mechanism of psychological defense is aimed at depriving the significance and thereby neutralizing the psychologically traumatic moments (for example, the Fox from the famous fable "The Fox and the Grapes").

Thus, we can say that protective mechanisms are a system of regulatory mechanisms that serve to eliminate or reduce e to minimal negative, traumatic experiences of the personality. These experiences are mainly associated with internal or external conflicts, states of anxiety or discomfort. Protection mechanisms are aimed at maintaining the stability of the self-esteem of the individual, her image I and the image of the world, which can be achieved, for example, in such ways as:

- elimination from consciousness of sources of conflict experiences,

–Transformation of conflict experiences in such a way as to prevent the emergence of a conflict.

Many psychologists, psychotherapists and psychoanalysts have studied the protective mechanisms of the psyche of their work show that a person uses these mechanisms in those cases when he has instinctive drives, the expression of which is under social prohibition (for example, unrestrained sexuality), defense mechanisms also act as buffers in relation to our consciousness of those disappointments and threats that life brings us. Some consider psychological protection to be a mechanism for the functioning of a normal psyche, which prevents the occurrence of various kinds of disorders. This is a special form of psychological activity, realized in the form of separate methods of information processing in order to preserve the integrity. Ego... In cases where Ego cannot cope with anxiety and fear, it resorts to mechanisms of a kind of distortion of a person's perception of reality.

To date, more than 20 types of defense mechanisms are known, all of them are subdivided into primitive defense and secondary (higher order) defense mechanisms.

So, let's look at some types of defense mechanisms. The first group includes:

1. primitive isolation- psychological withdrawal into another state is an automatic reaction that can be observed in the smallest human beings. An adult version of the same phenomenon can be observed in people who isolate themselves from social or interpersonal situations and replace the tension that comes from interactions with others, the stimulation that comes from the fantasies of their inner world. The addiction to using chemicals to alter the state of consciousness can also be seen as a form of isolation. Constitutionally impressionable people often develop a rich inner fantasy life, and they perceive the outside world as problematic or emotionally poor.

The obvious disadvantage of isolation protection is that it turns off a person from active participation in solving interpersonal problems, individuals who are constantly hiding in their own world test the patience of those who love them, resisting communication on an emotional level.

The main advantage of isolation as a defensive strategy is that, allowing a psychological escape from reality, it almost does not require its distortion. A person who relies on isolation finds comfort not in a misunderstanding of the world, but in distance from it.

2. negation - this is an attempt not to accept undesirable events as reality; another early way to cope with troubles is to refuse to accept their existence. Remarkable is the ability in such cases to "skip" unpleasant experienced events in their memories, replacing them with fiction. Like a defense mechanism negation consists in distracting attention from painful ideas and feelings, but does not make them completely inaccessible to consciousness.

So, many people are afraid of serious illness. And they would rather deny the presence of even the very first obvious symptoms than go to the doctor. And according to this, the disease is progressing. The same protective mechanism is triggered when someone from a married couple “does not see”, denies existing problems in married life. And this behavior often leads to a break in relations.

The person who has resorted to denial simply ignores the painful realities for him and acts as if they did not exist. Being confident in his merits, he tries to attract the attention of others by all means and means. And at the same time he only sees positive attitude to your person. Criticism and rejection are simply ignored. New people are seen as potential fans. And in general, he considers himself a person without problems, because he denies the presence of difficulties / difficulties in his life. Has high self-esteem.

3. almighty control- the feeling that you are capable of influencing the world, that you have power, is undoubtedly a necessary condition for self-esteem, which originates in infantile and unrealistic, but at a certain stage of development, normal fantasies of omnipotence. The first who aroused interest in the "stages of development of the sense of reality" was S. Ferenczi (1913). He pointed out that in the infantile stage of primary omnipotence, or grandiosity, the fantasy of having control over the world is normal. As the child grows up, it naturally transforms at a later stage into the idea of ​​a secondary “dependent” or “derived” omnipotence, when one of those who initially cares for the child is perceived as omnipotent.

As they grow older, the child comes to terms with the unpleasant fact that no one person has unlimited possibilities. Some healthy remnant of this infantile sense of omnipotence lingers in all of us and maintains a sense of competence and vitality.

For some people, the need to experience a sense of omnipotent control and to interpret what is happening to us due to their own unlimited power is completely irresistible. If a person organizes around the search and experience of pleasure from the feeling that she can effectively manifest and use her own omnipotence, in connection with which all ethical and practical considerations fade into the background, there are reasons to consider this person as psychopathic (“sociopathic” and “antisocial "- synonyms of later origin).

“Stepping over others” is the main occupation and source of pleasure for individuals in the personality, who are dominated by omnipotent control. They can often be found where cunning, a love of excitement, danger and a willingness to subordinate all interests to the main goal - to exert influence, are needed.

4. primitive idealization (and depreciation)- Ferenczi's thesis about the gradual replacement of the primitive fantasies of one's own omnipotence with primitive fantasies about the omnipotence of the caring person is still important. We are all prone to idealization. We carry with us the remnants of the need to ascribe special dignity and power to people on whom we are emotionally dependent. Normal idealization is an essential component of mature love. And the developmental tendency to de-idealize or devalue those to whom we have childhood attachment seems to be a normal and important part of the separation process - individualization. In some people, however, the need to idealize remains more or less unchanged from infancy. Their behavior shows signs of archaic desperate efforts to counter the inner panic terror with the belief that someone to whom they are attached is omnipotent, omniscient and infinitely benevolent, and psychological fusion with this supernatural Other provides them with safety. They also hope to be free from shame; a by-product of idealization and the associated belief in perfection is that one's own imperfections are particularly painful to bear; merging with the idealized object is a natural remedy in this situation.

Primitive depreciation is the inevitable downside of the need for idealization. Since nothing is perfect in human life, archaic paths of idealization inevitably lead to disappointment. The more an object is idealized, the more radically devaluation awaits it; the more illusions there are, the harder the experience of their collapse.

In everyday life, the analogy to this process is the measure of hatred and anger that can descend on someone who seemed so promising and did not live up to expectations. Some people spend their entire lives replacing one intimate relationship with another in repeated cycles of idealization and depreciation. (Modifying the defenses of primitive idealization is a legitimate aim of any long-term psychoanalytic therapy.)

The second group of defense mechanisms is secondary (higher order) protection:

1. crowding out - the most universal means of avoiding internal conflict. This is a conscious effort of a person to consign frustrating impressions to oblivion by transferring attention to other forms of activity, non-frustration phenomena, etc. In other words, crowding out- voluntary suppression, which leads to a true forgetting of the corresponding mental contents.

One of the striking examples of repression can be considered anorexia - refusal to eat. It is a constant and successful suppression of the need to eat. As a rule, "anorexic" repression is a consequence of the fear of gaining weight and, therefore, looking bad. In the clinic of neuroses, the syndrome of anorexia nervosa is sometimes found, which most often affects girls aged 14 to 18 years. During puberty, changes in appearance and body are pronounced. Forming breasts and the appearance of roundness in the thighs of a girl are often perceived as a symptom of incipient fullness. And, as a rule, they begin to struggle with this "completeness". Some adolescents cannot openly refuse the food offered to them by their parents. And according to this, as soon as the meal is over, they immediately go to the toilet room, where they manually induce the gag reflex. This, on the one hand, frees you from the threatening replenishment of food, on the other hand, it brings psychological relief. Over time, a moment comes when the gag reflex is triggered automatically by eating. And the disease is formed. The original cause of the disease has been successfully repressed. The consequences remained. Note that such anorexia nervosa is one of the most difficult to treat diseases.

2. regression is a relatively simple defense mechanism. Social and emotional development is never strictly straightforward; in the process of personality growth, fluctuations are observed that become less dramatic with age, but never completely disappear. The sub-phase of reunification in the process of separation - individuation, becomes one of the tendencies inherent in every person. It is a return to a familiar course of action after a new level of competence has been reached.

To classify this mechanism, it must be unconscious. Some people use repression as a defense more often than others. For example, some of us react to the stress caused by growth and age-related changes by getting sick. This type of regression, known as somatization, is usually resistant to change and difficult to intervene therapeutically. It is widely known that somatization and hypochondria, like other forms of helplessness and childhood regression, can serve as the cornerstone of personality. Regression to oral and anal relationships in order to avoid oedipal conflicts is quite common in the clinic.

3. intellectualization called option more high level isolation of affect from intellect. The person using isolation usually says that they have no feelings, while the person using intellectualization talks about feelings, but in such a way that the listener is left with the impression of a lack of emotion.

Intellectualization holds back the usual overflow of emotions in the same way that isolation holds back traumatic overstimulation. When a person can act rationally in a situation saturated with emotional meanings, this indicates a significant strength of the ego, and in this case the defense is effective.

However, if a person is unable to leave the defensive cognitive unemotional stance, then others tend to intuitively consider it emotionally insincere. Sex, good-natured teasing, display of artistry and other forms of play appropriate for an adult can be unnecessarily limited in a person who has learned to depend on intellectualization to cope with life's difficulties.

4. rationalization is finding acceptable reasons and explanations for acceptable thoughts and actions. Rational explanation as a defense mechanism is aimed not at resolving the contradiction as the basis of the conflict, but at relieving tension when experiencing discomfort with the help of quasi-logical explanations. Naturally, these “justifying” explanations of thoughts and actions are more ethical and noble than true motives. Thus, rationalization is aimed at preserving status quo life situation and works to hide the true motivation. Protective motives are manifested in people with very strong Super Ego, which, on the one hand, does not seem to allow real motives into consciousness, but, on the other hand, allows these motives to be realized, but under a beautiful, socially approved facade. ...

The simplest example of rationalization is the exculpatory explanations of a student who received a deuce. After all, it is so offensive to admit to everyone (and to myself in particular) that it is my own fault - I did not learn the material! Not everyone is capable of such a blow to pride. And criticism from other people who are important to you is painful. So the student justifies himself, comes up with "sincere" explanations: "It was the teacher Bad mood, so he gave me deuces and made everyone for nothing ", or" I'm not a favorite, like Ivanov, so he gives me deuces and gives me a deuce for the slightest flaws in the answer. " He explains so beautifully, convinces everyone that he himself believes in all this.

Rationally defenders try to build their concept from different points of view as a panacea for anxiety. Think in advance about all the options for their behavior and their consequences. And emotional experiences are often masked by intensified attempts to rationalize events.

5. moralizing is a close relative of rationalization. When someone rationalizes, he unconsciously looks for reasonable, from a reasonable point of view, justifications for the chosen decision. When he moralizes, it means: he is obliged to follow in this direction. Rationalization shifts what a person wants into the language of reason, moralization directs these desires into the realm of justifications or moral circumstances.

Sometimes moralization can be seen as a more highly developed version of splitting. The inclination to moralize will be a late stage in the primitive tendency of the global division into good and bad. While splitting in a child naturally occurs before the ability of his integrated self to tolerate ambivalence, the decision in the form of moralization through appeal to principles confuses the feelings that the developing self is able to tolerate. In moralization one can see the action of the super-ego, although usually rigid and punishable.

6. the term " bias»Refer to the redirection of emotions, preoccupation or attention from an original or natural object to another, because its original orientation is alarmingly hidden for some reason.

Passion can also be displaced. Sexual fetishes, apparently, can be explained as a reorientation of interest from a person's genitals to an unconsciously connected area - legs or even shoes.

Anxiety itself is often biased. When a person uses the shift of anxiety from one area to a very specific object that symbolizes frightening phenomena (fear of spiders, fear of knives), then he suffers from a phobia.

Some unfortunate cultural tendencies - like racism, sexism, heterosexism, vocal denunciation of society's problems by disenfranchised groups with too little power to assert their rights - contain a significant element of bias. Transference, both in clinical and non-clinical manifestations, contains a displacement (of feelings directed at objects that are important in early childhood) along with projection (internal characteristics of the characteristics of one's own self). Positive types of displacement include the conversion of aggressive energy into creative activity (a huge amount of homework if people are in an excited state), as well as the redirection of erotic impulses from unreal or forbidden sexual objects to an available partner.

7. One time concept sublimation found wide understanding among the educated public and represented a way of considering various human inclinations. Sublimation is now less viewed in psychoanalytic literature and is becoming less popular as a concept. Initially, it was believed that sublimation is a good defense, thanks to which it is possible to find creative, healthy, socially acceptable or constructive solutions to internal conflicts between primitive aspirations and forbidding forces.

Sublimation was the term Freud originally gave the socially acceptable expression of biologically based impulses (which include the urge to suck, bite, eat, fight, copulate, look at others and show oneself, punish, hurt, protect offspring, etc.) ... According to Freud, instinctive desires acquire the power of influence due to the circumstances of the individual's childhood; some drives or conflicts take on special meaning and can be directed towards useful creative activity.

This defense is seen as a healthy means of resolving psychological difficulties for two reasons: firstly, it fosters constructive behavior that is beneficial for the group, and secondly, it discharges the impulse instead of spending huge emotional energy on transforming it into something else (for example as in the case of reactive formation) or to oppose it with an oppositely directed force (denial, repression). Such a discharge of energy is considered positive in nature.

Sublimation remains a concept that is still referred to in psychoanalytic literature if the author points to someone else's found creative and useful way of expressing problematic impulses and conflicts. Contrary to the general misconception that the object of psychotherapy is to get rid of infantile impulses, the psychoanalytic position regarding health and growth implies the idea that the infantile part of our nature continues to exist in adulthood. We have no way to completely get rid of it. We can only contain it more or less successfully.

The goals of analytic therapy include understanding all aspects of one's self (even the most primitive and disturbing ones), developing compassion for oneself (and for others, as a person needs to project and displace previously unrecognized desires to humiliate) and expanding the boundaries of freedom for resolving old conflicts in new ways. These goals do not imply "cleansing" the self from disgusting aspects or blocking primitive desires. It is this that allows us to consider sublimation as the pinnacle of the development of the Ego, explains a lot about the attitude of psychoanalysis to the human being and its inherent capabilities and limitations, and also implies the importance of information from psychoanalytic diagnosis.

It remains to summarize, define the role and function of protection. It would seem that psychoprotection has noble goals: to remove, stop the severity of psychological experience, emotional hurt by the situation. At the same time, emotional upset by the situation is always negative, always experienced as psychological discomfort, anxiety, fear, horror, etc. but how does this defensive reaction of negative experiences occur? Due to simplification, due to the imaginary palliative resolution of the situation. Due to the fact that a person cannot foresee the impact of his simplified solution to the problem on the future, the defense has a short range: beyond the situation, this particular one, it “sees” nothing.

Protection also has a negative meaning at the level of an individual situation and because the person emotionally experiences a certain relief and this relief, removal of negativity, discomfort occurs when using a specific protective technique. The fact that this success is imaginary, short-term and illusory relief is not realized, otherwise, it is understandable, and the experience of relief would not have come. But, undoubtedly, one thing: when experiencing the onset of relief when using a specific psychological protective technique, this technique is fixed as a behavior skill, as a habit of solving similar situations in this very psycho-protective way. In addition, energy consumption is minimized every time.

Like every reinforcement, a psychological neoplasm (in our particular case, a defensive technique), having once completed its “noble” task of removing the acuteness of psychological experience, does not disappear, but acquires tendencies towards self-reproduction and transfer to similar situations and states, it begins to acquire the status of such a stable education as a psychological property. An ontogenetically similar discrepancy between the good intentions of psychoprotection and its high cost for everyone life path not only persists, but also intensifies.

The use of psychological defense is evidence of an anxious perception of the world, there is an expression of distrust to him, to oneself, to others, there is an expectation of "getting a catch" not only from the environment, but also from his own person, there is an expression of the fact that a person perceives himself as an object of the unknown and formidable forces. The psycho-protective living of life removes from a person his creativity, he ceases to be the creator of his own biography, following the lead of history, society, a reference group, his unconscious drives and prohibitions. The more the protection, the less the "I" instance.

With the development of society, individual methods of psycho-protective regulation also develop. The development of mental neoplasms is endless and the development of forms of psychological defense, because defense mechanisms are inherent in normal and abnormal forms of behavior between healthy and pathological regulation, psycho-protective occupies the middle zone, the gray zone.

Mental regulation through defense mechanisms, as a rule, occurs at an unconscious level. Therefore, they, bypassing consciousness, penetrate the personality, undermine its position, weaken it creative potential as a subject of life. The psycho-protective solution of the situation is presented to the deluded consciousness as a real solution to the problem, as the only possible way out of a difficult situation.

Personal development presupposes a readiness for change, a constant increase in one's psychological reliability in various situations. Even a negative emotional state (fear, anxiety, guilt, shame, etc.) can have a useful function for personality development. For example, the same anxiety may be with a tendency to experiment with new situations, and then the function of psycho-protective techniques is more than ambivalent. Aimed at neutralizing the psycho-traumatic impact “here and now,” within the current situation, psycho-protection can cope quite effectively, it saves from the severity of the shock experienced, sometimes providing time and respite for preparing other, more effective ways of experiencing. However, its very use testifies to the fact that, firstly, the palette of the creative interaction of the individual with culture is limited, and the inability to sacrifice the private and the momentary, the fascination with the current situation - all this leads to the curtailment of consciousness towards itself, to satisfy and diminish the psychological discomfort of any the price; secondly, by substituting a real solution to constantly emerging problems, a solution that may even be accompanied by negative emotional and even existential experiences, comfortable but palliative, a person deprives himself of the possibility of development and self-actualization. Finally, a psycho-protective existence in life and culture is a complete immersion in norms and rules, an inability to change them. Where change ends, there begins pathological transformation and destruction of the personality.

"Protection". The meaning of this word speaks for itself. Protection involves at least two factors. Firstly, if you are defending yourself, then there is a danger of attack; secondly, protection, which means that measures have been taken to repel the attack. On the one hand, it is good when a person is ready for all kinds of surprises, and has in his arsenal the means that will help preserve his integrity, both external and internal, both physical and mental. A sense of security is one of the basic human needs. But one should get acquainted with the economics of the issue. If the preservation of a sense of security takes all the mental strength of a person, then isn't the price too high? If not to live, but to defend against life, then why is it needed at all? It turns out that the most effective, "global" protection is death or "non-birth"?

All this is only partially true. Under certain circumstances, protective mechanisms designed in other conditions to help hide feelings, often perform positive functions.

In connection with the above, an understanding of the acute topical topic of research on coping mechanisms and their connection with defense mechanisms comes. Overcoming and protection are complementary processes: if the potential of coping mechanisms turns out to be insufficient for psychological processing of affect, then the affect reaches an unacceptable level, and instead of coping mechanisms, defense mechanisms begin to operate. If the potential of protection is also exhausted, then there is a fragmentation of experiences through splitting. The choice of protective mechanisms is also carried out taking into account the degree and type of overloads. (S. Menuos "Key concepts of psychoanalysis", 2001).

The normal coping mechanisms include humorous comprehension of a difficult situation through detached contemplation of certain circumstances that make it possible to discern something funny in them, and the so-called sublimation, which implies the rejection of the desire for direct satisfaction of attraction and the choice of not just an acceptable, but beneficially influencing the person's way of satisfaction ... It should be noted that only sublimation can be called a mechanism of overcoming, and not any suppression of drives for the sake of observing conventions.

Since virtually any psychological process can be used as a defense, no review and analysis of defenses can be complete. The phenomenon of protection has many aspects that require in-depth study, and if it is developed quite fully in the monpersonal plan, then the interpersonal ones conceal tremendous opportunities for the application of research potential.

Defense mechanisms of the psyche

Every human being has an inherent need for self-esteem; in maintaining your own opinion of yourself. Our psyche is able to displace unpleasant, disturbing experiences from the sphere of consciousness, “forgets” them. Psychological protection acts against the will of a person, when something threatens his mental equilibrium, his mental safety, ideas about himself. What kind of defense mechanisms does our psyche have? Let's consider them in more detail.

The human psyche can be compared to an iceberg. Only a small part of it is above the water, and the bulk of the ice is hidden in the ocean. So the conscious part of our psyche, that is, the actions that we do consciously, occupies only 1-5% of the total volume of the psyche. Our psyche has one specific feature: it is able to displace unpleasant, disturbing experiences from the sphere of consciousness, “forgets” them. Every person has an inherent need for self-respect; in maintaining your own opinion of yourself. Loss of self-esteem entails negative consequences, deprives a person of the ability to clearly manage his behavior in accordance with the set goals.

Psychological protection acts against the will of a person, when something threatens his mental equilibrium, his mental safety, ideas about himself.

What kind of defense mechanisms does our psyche have? Let's consider them in more detail.

1. Displacement. The displacement mechanism was discovered first. With the help of repression, unacceptable, traumatic for a person experiences, circumstances or information are removed from consciousness and kept in the unconscious. Repression is associated with many cases of forgetting, which allows you not to remember something that could shake the idea of ​​oneself.

An example of the repression mechanism can be represented as follows: if I feel ashamed for an act I committed towards another person, but this experience quickly “evaporates” from my memory, then I begin to evaluate myself without taking into account this unworthy act. But the other person, who was hurt by my behavior, will remember well that I have "already forgotten." And my self-esteem without taking into account the opinion of another about me will be incomplete. Therefore, it is advisable to realize and analyze disturbing, not very clear experiences in order to correct your self-esteem based on them.

2. Rationalization. When a rash step leads to unpleasant consequences, a person seeks to justify his action. This is not done intentionally, but subconsciously, to maintain self-esteem at the proper level. For example, if one person was rude to another for no apparent reason and he was called to account for this, then he then tries to find the reasons for his incontinence, so that his behavior looks like quite normal and the only acceptable in this situation. Such self-defense, without sufficient grounds, opposes an objective assessment of their behavior. And this behavior in psychology is called the rationalization of motive.

Rationalization is a psychological defense mechanism, similar to the sweet shell of a bitter medicine. Explanations, descriptions so “envelop” the traumatic fact that it begins to be perceived as unimportant or as evidence of the strengths of the individual, valuable and fair.

The mechanism of rationalization is well described in A. Krylov's famous fable "The Fox and the Grapes". The mechanism of devaluation of an inaccessible but highly desirable object or phenomenon is described there very accurately, but if rationalization becomes a rule for a person, then the contradictions between self-esteem and real behavior will grow, which will inevitably lead to serious conflicts. Therefore, any event to which you have a direct or indirect relationship must be assessed without rationalizing motives so that your participation in the event is not diminished or exaggerated. It can be painful for self-esteem, but good for self-discovery.

3. Projection. This protective mechanism of the psyche provides a person with the preservation of a satisfying idea of ​​himself, of his psychological integrity by ascribing his own feelings, desires, ideas, unacceptable for one reason or another, to others.

Each person has positive and negative character traits. If we know about our qualities and accept them in ourselves, then we will be loyal to other people who have similar traits. For example, if a person admits that at times he is quick-tempered, then he will forgive the same quick temper to another. A person is hindered from knowing himself by the fact that, having some "negative" qualities, personality traits that he does not like in himself, he is not ready to fully accept them. Then, in his mind, these qualities are projected onto other people and he turns his anger and rejection onto them. Such a deceptive feeling allows you to maintain self-esteem, and therefore is not rejected.

4. Substitution. This is an action directed at an object, in fact, provoked not by him and not intended for him, but caused by another, inaccessible object. When a person is very aroused, for example, as a result of an unpleasant conversation with a colleague, but he himself cannot express all his feelings towards him, he often “blows off steam” on another, unsuspecting person. An explosion of mood, strong excitement associated with failure, resentment or some other nuisance sharply narrows a person's consciousness, that is, makes him stupider than he really is. In such a state, few people are able to evaluate their actions, to regulate behavior, taking into account the requirements of self-esteem.

5. Denial. If a person does not want to notice really traumatic events, does not want to hear disturbing information, then he has another powerful psychological defense, which is called denial (exclusion of reality). It is aimed at not accepting as reality events that disturb consciousness. Denial can be reflected in an escape into fantasy, into an imaginary world where all our desires come true, where we are smart, strong, beautiful and lucky. Some remain alone in the dream world, others fantasize out loud, publicly talking about their "famous" acquaintances, etc. In this case, the main purpose of using such "positive self-presentation" is to increase the value of a person in the eyes of others.

6. Reactive education. If a boy gives the girl a lot of trouble (pulls the pigtails, distracts from lessons, etc.), then most likely he is not indifferent to her. Why does the boy behave this way? The child begins to be disturbed by a feeling of sympathy - a feeling, the essence of which he does not yet understand. But he himself feels that this is “something bad,” for which he will not be praised. Hence, a behavior that is completely contrary to feeling arises, an opposite reaction. Likewise, a student who constantly disrupts lessons (shouts at them, distracts other students) actually wants to attract attention to himself, which he clearly lacks.

This happens not only with children. This type of psychological defense is also presented in adults, who also sometimes demonstrate opposite reactions. The isolation mechanism is the separation of the anxiety-inducing part of the situation from the rest of the soul. There is a kind of separation of reality, in which traumatic events almost do not cause an emotional reaction. For example, a child feels good in the family, but he is severely punished for "bad" behavior. As a result, the child “isolates” events that humiliate his self-esteem, continues to treat his parents positively: he can behave “well” in front of them, but demonstrates forbidden behavior in front of toys: he hits and destroys them.

All of the above psychological defenses do not contribute to a person's personal development. Only one psychological defense can be called successful. This is sublimation - psychological protection, which consists in directing sexually aggressive energy to other goals: creativity, science, art, intellectual development, sports, professional activity, collecting. This defense is considered constructive because it has positive results and gives the person a sense of satisfaction.

When do defense mechanisms turn on?

The reasons for the need to "turn on" the protective mechanism of the psyche are varied. The main criterion of their significance is the person's idea of ​​what is most traumatic for him, what are his leading needs.

Psychologists believe that the most traumatic for a person is the threat of his “I”, namely, the dissatisfaction of the needs of the “I” in self-affirmation, preservation of its own value and a sense of identity, identity, that is, in internal coherence, as well as a feeling of loss of control over oneself and others ...

The needs of our "I", like all our other needs, need, among other things, the so-called supporting information, which helps to preserve and strengthen ideas about our own "I", its relationship with the world, other people. If these needs are not met, it is perceived as a threat to the "I", there is a strong emotional-motivational tension - resistance, and the "I", defending itself, resorts to the action of protective mechanisms.

Resistance arises because our problems, albeit distorted, with the help of defense mechanisms, but still satisfy the needs of our "I". In various studies, it has been repeatedly shown that it is important for a person to preserve not so much a prosperous as a habitual, stable self-image. This very clearly demonstrates the so-called "discomfort of success." Its essence is that a person who is accustomed to failure, having achieved success, victory, seeks to reduce it to a minimum, to devalue it. The need to maintain a familiar, stable self-image wins the fight against the need for success.

Resistance is reflected in various forms of behavior:

in an effort to get out of the situation (just leave the room, not come anywhere, etc.);

in the desire to change the topic of conversation or especially ardently defend their innocence;

unwillingness to talk about certain topics, watch certain scenes in the theater, cinema;

in a sudden cough, sneezing, yawning, suddenly awakened appetite;

in a time pressure situation - in distraction from the main task, which inevitably leads to a delay, untimely solution;

in a completely incomprehensible feeling of tiredness;

in unreasonable laughter, outwardly unjustified tears;

in attacks of unprovoked fear and anger;

in the "slip" of thoughts, when it is necessary to think about something important, to look for a way out of the current serious situation.

In each of these cases, an important sign of resistance is that the behavior serves as a smokescreen that distracts from the true significance of the situation.

A look at the problem from the side of consciousness.

As the unconscious influences our consciousness, so a conscious, voluntary desire to change oneself can influence the unconscious. Of course, such actions require some effort, they should always be based on will, positive thinking and a desire to enjoy life.

It happens that it is difficult for a person to realize his own problems. He may feel discomfort, feel unhappy, emotional tension, but because of internal resistance, he cannot understand the reason for his own dissatisfaction.

In order to bypass resistance, release from internal tension, achieve a state of relaxation and, against its background, realize your own problems, you can use special techniques:

Screaming with all my might. Of course, where no one can hear you, or with closed windows.

Play sports or walk briskly down the street.

Ask the question: “What's going on, what's the matter? What annoys me? "

At the heart of the change in state when using these techniques is the mechanism of "discharge" of tension, as a result of which resistance weakens, since it was held just due to tension, and the causes of feelings become more accessible to awareness.

It should be borne in mind that awareness of a deep problem does not lead to complete liberation from it, relief is only temporary. It is important to understand your problem and name it as specific as possible in order to then work on its solution.

The analysis of your own fantasies also allows you to understand what exactly causes resistance. As already mentioned, often when we fail at something or we are upset, fantasies, dreams brighten up our existence, allowing, albeit illusory, to satisfy our desires and aspirations. This defense mechanism can be used as a key to internal problems, it is enough to transfer it to the area of ​​consciousness. The statement is true: optimists have dreams come true, and pessimists have fears.

Director of the Center Palamarchuk E.M.

Graduate, Body-Oriented Psychotherapist,

member of the Professional Psychotherapeutic League.

The defense mechanisms of the psyche are triggered at the moment when the time comes or comes the emergence of difficult problem situations, each of us asks ourselves "How to be?" and "What to do?" So, then the psyche is triggered, the protective mechanisms of the psyche are included in the work. And after that, everyone tries to resolve the situation in some way.

If we cannot solve the problems on our own, we use the help of others. Problems are of several types, then external problems and internal ones. External problems include the lack and absence of money capital, and internal ones, those that are much more difficult, in the presence of which it is painful and difficult to admit.

Each of us reacts to the emerging circumstance in his own way. Some use the suppression of their tendency to deny the presence of the problem, look for self-justification and defensive ways to turn on the mechanism and also find a solution using the peculiarities of the psyche, which is self-deception. Thus, some are trying to protect their psyche, the main assistant of which is the protective mechanisms of the psyche.

Definition of the concept

So, according to the definition, the protective mechanism of the psyche is the concept of the depth of psychology, which means an unconscious process, the main goal and direction of which is to minimize the negative method of resistance, that is, protection

Defense mechanisms

The human psyche is like an iceberg or a pimple on the body when its main part is located under water and under the skin, but only a small part of it is not the surface. Something similar happens in the human psyche.

It follows from this that its conscious part in the form of actions is understood only by one and a half percent of its main volume. The ability to displace the unpleasant sensation is one of its features. Only self-respect and personal opinion can give rise to the ability to manage their behavior in accordance with the tasks.

A weak-willed psyche is included in threatening moments for a person, which lead to a loss of general mental balance and, during a crashing security, ideas about oneself
And all this is nothing more than the mechanisms of protection of the psyche, of which there are several. Which? Let's consider now.

crowding out

The very first mechanism of the psyche that was established. The ability to repress the unacceptable and threatening from the subconscious by keeping it in a state of unconsciousness is one of the main features of the psyche. History knows cases when it is not possible to remember something unpleasant that threatens self-esteem.

You can imagine such a feature as follows: A person who is ashamed of the deed of another person's attitude quickly displaces this moment from memory. As a result, worries about this quickly evaporate, and the person evaluates himself without this unpleasant moment.

And the person in relation to whom this act was committed will remember this case for a very long time, that is, he will remember what the culprit of the behavior does not remember. In this connection, the self-assessment of the culprit is not complete. This means that everything unpleasant should not be forgotten, but evaluated, analyzed in order to correct your self-esteem.

Rationalization

This mechanism of the psyche is the most thoughtless step that leads to negative consequences... In this regard, a person tries to justify himself at any cost. He does this on a subconscious level only in order to maintain his own self-esteem.

Here, for example, the situation: One, unreasonably rude to another, for the fact that the rude person was brought to justice, the second will look for a lot of reasons in his own justification in order to show that at that moment his behavior was normal.

The manifestation of this type of self-defense is manifested as a result of an objective assessment of such behavior, which in psychology is called a rational motive.
Rationalization is a psychological defense mechanism in the form of a beautiful wrapper with a bitter candy inside. The only traumatic moment, which is the initial, harmless, insignificant perception of behavior, as evidence of a strong personality.

For example, the mechanism of rationalization in A. Krylov's fable "The Fox and the Grapes" is clearly visible.

Projection

This is a mechanism for protecting the psyche and its main feature is to ensure, in particular, the preservation of a positive self-image and psychological integrity by attributing unacceptable features to one's self-esteem that are inherent in other people.

It is no secret that every person has both positive and quality traits in character. If we know about our qualities and take them for granted, can we accept the same qualities in the character of another? Is this an interesting question? Why, you ask? Well, if only because, for example, you have a very hot-tempered character and you know about it, you justify yourself in different ways, but can you forgive such a feature if it is another person, not you? I think not, this is impossible.

And all because the psyche is created in such a way that its defense mechanism works only in its own defense, but not, no matter how in defense, of another. In this case, his anger pours out on those who are practically similar, although this is not visible in themselves. In general, such an attitude is nothing more than one's own self-deception, aimed at self-justification and the preservation of one's own self-esteem. This feature of the protective mechanism cannot be rejected.

Substitution

The most special kind of defense mechanism of the psyche. This type is unique in that the human psyche works in such a way that the unwillingness to really consider the current situation goes into the stage of such protection, as its complete denial, exclusion from reality. To do this, have protective function protection is triggered in the form of denial, which is aimed at a complete denial of what is happening.

In turn, such a denial of reality consists in fleeing from it. A person shows fantasy and imagination of a world where everything is always good. The line is not noticed, crossing which a person already talks about his fantasies as his real life to your friends and acquaintances.

And this is nothing more than a positive presentation of the psyche itself, which in this case is aimed at increasing human value.

Reactive education

The boy brings problems to the girl, in the form of twitching the pigtails, that means only one thing. He is not indifferent to her. In this connection, and therefore behaves. If for a child, then sympathy is, then the feeling that worries him. He does not understand its appearance and reason. But the child knows that this is something bad, for which he will not have to wait for praise. That is why such an opposite reaction occurs. But this can happen to a person only in childhood. After all, in this way the child is trying to attract attention to himself.

But this behavior is inherent not only in children, it also happens in adults, who, like children, are able to demonstrate the opposite reaction. This is the isolation mechanism, which is an alarming emotional reaction of the separation of reality, that is, the work of the psyche defense mechanism is manifested.

As a result, human psyche uses a defense mechanism in the form of isolation from humiliation of self-esteem and self-dignity. Such a person behaves inconsistently, in relation to the right people shows the correct behavior, but in fact, left alone with himself, pours out all his emotionality on objects.

But, all these types of protection do not affect the development of the individual. There is only one that can be noted as successful and this is nothing more than sublimation. Mechanical protection, which consists in controlling the energy of a sexual and aggressive nature in relation to others.

When do defense mechanisms turn on?

The reasons for the inclusion of protective mechanisms of the psyche are different. Basically, this is a human idea of ​​the most traumatic, the threat of the fall of one's "I". What does it mean?
First of all, these are dissatisfaction with their own self-assertion, internal disagreements and a feeling of loss of control. "I", the basic need, and if it is not satisfied, the psyche uses the defense mechanism as a defense.

As a result, resistance arises with the whole world and, in order to protect himself, a person tries by any means to get out of this situation. Even if it is even resistance in various manifestations of behavior.

Outcome

Summing up in relation to the existence of psychosis shields, it should be noted that such noble goals as removing, stopping the severity of psychological experience, emotions, being hurt by the situation always negatively affect mental state... As a result, anxiety, discomfort and even fear visit a person. And all this happens because a person is not able to foresee a solution to a problem in the future, since the defense has limited ability to see what is happening in a particular situation.

And the very words "Defense" speaks of itself, which is divided into two types, where the first is defense, and the second is attack.

A sense of security, the most important human need. To obtain it, all methods are good, which the psyche successfully uses, applying its own protective mechanisms of the psyche!