Defense mechanisms are the way our brains deal with overwhelming situations, they are the ways we cope so we are not under too much emotional distress in life. This process can be unconscious, subconscious, or conscious depending on how deep the trauma and anxiety may be. Most of the time we are not fully aware of these reactions (subconscious or unconscious), or we may even do them so much that we are so used to them (conditioned). Nowadays there are upwards of 20+ defense mechanisms that have been identified, but here we are only going to address the original 10 and how we use them to protect ourselves.
Denial is one of the most recognized of the defense mechanisms, one we all talk about and use with more awareness throughout our lives. And it really is exactly what you think it is, a refusal to accept reality as it is. An example of this is a person who drinks a lot throughout the day and states that it does not affect their work or a parent who has a transgender child and tells family members it’s just a phase.
Repression is also fairly known by most and is the act of ‘forgetting’ certain situations or events because of the nature of the event (negative, harmful, traumatic). This defense works on the unconscious level, meaning that the person does not even know it is happening. This may happen more often with more traumatic situations from childhood. An example of repression would be a child who was traumatized by a clown face when they were young and grows up not remembering the specific situation but has a fear of clowns or a child is abused by a parent and never remembers the abuse as an adult.
Projection is used to push or propel unwanted thoughts, feelings, or motives onto another person, this could be to unburden yourself of guilt or shame or to live wanted experiences through others. Examples of projection are accusing your partner of cheating on you when you are really cheating on your partner or a parent telling everyone their child loves ballet because that is what the parent loves.
Displacement is when a person points their aggression or negative feelings onto something or someone that is not the target of those feelings. This defense is known as the ‘kick the dog’ defense, which is the perfect example of it in life. When you are angry at your boss, you come home and take that feeling out on your dog instead of dealing directly with the person who you are in conflict with or when you are mad at your children for not listening, so you yell at your partner instead of the dealing with the kids.
Regression is also another defense you may have heard of before. This is when a person retreats into a younger version, usually when the person last felt safe. This is common in younger individuals and can look like your 7-year-old sucking their thumb suddenly. An example in older individuals could be throwing a ‘fit’ when you are stuck in traffic or chewing on the end of a pencil when you feel agitated or anxious.
Sublimation is when a person takes their socially unacceptable or negative feelings and actions and turns them into more socially accepted ways of expressing themselves. I always think of the first example a teacher explained this to me as, someone who likes to play with fire as a child becomes a fire fighter as an adult. They have taken a pleasurable action for themselves (that is not socially acceptable) and guided it towards doing something good versus become an arsonist. Another example would be if a person has a lot of anger from a day at work, they go to the gym to let that anger out versus getting into a fight.
Rationalization is when an individual distorts the facts so that it is more palatable to accept. This is more commonly known as excuses or justifications and operates at a much more conscious level than some of the other defenses, to the point that some people get very used to making excuses and it becomes conditioned. Some examples of rationalization are blaming your teacher for the bad grade on the test versus yourself for not studying or a person didn’t get a job they applied for, so they say they didn’t really want it anyway.
Reaction Formation is a bit more complex; this is when a person expresses the opposite (usually to an extreme) of how they feel. Those who use reaction formation usually show exaggerated behaviors to prove their thoughts or beliefs. An example of this would be if a man feels insecure in his masculinity, he may act more masculine or aggressive or if someone just got dumped by their partner and they are sad, they may act overjoyed to show that it is not affecting them.
Introjection is when a person takes on characteristics of another or others in order to lessen anxiety or fear. This one is the opposite of projection, instead of pushing the thoughts outward to others the ideas are internalized. We see this one a lot with children, if a parent tells a child ‘Big kids don’t cry’ the child may internalize that message and grow up believing they should never cry. Another example is a person who is on social media all the time may change the way they eat and develop an eating disorder because they perceive that all people should be skinny to get attention.
Identification is introjection on steroids, it is when a person adopts behaviors from the other person to be like them. It is the idea that if you become more like them, you will have more power or less negative repercussions from them. An extreme example of this is Stockholm Syndrome, where hostage victims create emotional bonds with their captor(s). A less extreme example would be a teen dressing or acting like the popular kids at school or someone smoking because their friends do it.