Defence Mechanism

Introduction

All of us, quite often, face environmental or personal

obstacles in life which cause anxiety and lead to

stress. Psychologists have given different names to

stress such as frustration, conflict, pressure etc. To

protect ourselves against anxiety and stress, our ego

sets up mechanisms which are known as defence

mechanisms. Defence mechanisms are unrealistic and

operate at the unconscious level. While one uses

such a mechanism one is unaware of it. Defence

mechanisms are not healthy methods to cope with

anxiety and stress as they are an unrealistic approach

to problems. If defence mechanisms are used

frequently, they lead to serious psychological disorders.

The severity of stress depends on individual personality,

situations, contexts, duration, importance, multiplicity

of need, strength and quantity of conflicting forces,

eminence of anticipated stress, unfamiliarity or

suddenness of the problem, perception of a problem,

degree of threat, stress tolerance of the individual

and external resources and supports etc. We experience

stress in our life when we face circumstances like

death of spouse or a close family member or close

friend, marital separation or reconciliation,

imprisonment, personal injury, illness, marriage,

retirement, sex difficulties, pregnancy, new comer in

family, change in financial state, business

readjustment, change in job or work pattern, change

in the responsibilities at work, mortgage or loan,

difference with spouse or head of the family, beloved’s

leaving home, trouble with in-laws, outstanding

personal achievement, attachment or detachment with

job or wife, joining or leaving school, change in living

conditions and residences or schools, change in

personal habits, trouble with boss, change in religion,

recreational and social activities, vacation and social

gathering etc.

Types of Defence Mechanisms

Psychologists have classified different defence

mechanisms in a number of ways. Some of them put

defence mechanisms in five or six main categories

while others extend them up to 17-18 categories.

Defence mechanisms are learned and designed to

tackle self devaluation, anxiety and hurt and operate

automatically at habitual levels. They typically involve

measures of self deception and distortion. Defence

mechanisms are usually exercised in combination

instead of singly and quite often they are combined

with task oriented behaviour. To a great extent they

are necessary to soften failure, alleviate anxiety and

hurt and protect feelings of significance adequacy and

worth. Normally, they are adjustive reactions but

sometimes they seriously interfere with the effective

resolution of stress. Defence mechanisms may feature

in a negative or a positive form.

The following is a list of the main types of defence

mechanisms:

i) Projection

ii) Reaction formation

iii) Regression

iv) Repression

v) Rationalisation

vi) Denial of reality

vii) Fantasy

viii) Displacement

ix) Emotional Insulation

x) Intellectualisation (Isolation)

xi) Undoing

xii) Identification

xiii) Introjections

xiv) Compensation

xv) Acting out

xvi) Selective forgetting

xvii) Negativism

xviii) Sublimation