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:''The following article is [[about ]] the [[defense ]] [[mechanism ]] as a [[psychological ]] [[concept]]. Since her [[time ]] researchers have [[identified ]] many more defense mechanisms, however on this page only [[Anna Freud]]’s defense mechanisms are described.''

'''Defense mechanisms''' are unconscious mechanisms aimed at reducing [[anxiety]] that arises from [[three ]] different scenarios:

* When the [[id]] impulses are in [[conflict ]] with each [[other]]; * When [[The Id|the id ]] impulses conflict with [[superego]] values and beliefs;* When an [[external ]] [[threat ]] is posed to the [[ego]].

For example, when the id impulses (e.g. [[desire ]] to have sex with a stranger) conflict with the [[SuperEgo|superego ]] (e.g. [[belief ]] in societal conventions of not having sex with unknown persons), then the [[feelings ]] of anxiety come to the surface. To reduce these [[negative ]] feelings, defense mechanisms are employed.

The concept of the [[biological ]] id impulses comes from [[Sigmund Freud]]’s [[structural model]]. Id impulses are based on the [[pleasure principle]]: instant [[gratification ]] of one’s own desires and [[needs]]. Sigmund Freud believed that id represents the [[instinctual ]] impulses in ourselves, which are [[aggression]], and [[sexual]]. The sexual [[drive]] is our drive to live, to thrive and to grow. The aggression drive is our drive for safety and protection of our lives. Those two impulse [[drives ]] are the motivating factors of our actions.

In the ego, there are two [[processes ]] going on. First, there is the unconscious primary [[process]], where the [[thoughts ]] are not organized in a coherent way, the feelings can shift, contradictions are not in conflict or are just not perceived that way, and condensations arise. There is no [[logic ]] and no time line. Lust is the important motive for this process. On the contrary, there is the [[conscious ]] [[secondary process]], to which strong boundaries are set, and in which the thoughts must be organized in a coherent way. More cognitions arise here.

The impulses from the id cannot be focused on the [[satisfaction]], they must respect the [[reality ]] of the [[world ]] and the superego. The superego represents the learned (in the process of growing up) and internalized set of values and [[ethics]], which gives [[individual ]] the [[sense ]] of what is [[right ]] and what is wrong to do, feel and [[think]].

When the anxiety becomes too overwhelming it is then the [[place ]] of the ego to employ defense mechanisms to protect the individual. Feelings of [[guilt]], embarrassment and [[shame ]] often accompany the [[feeling ]] of anxiety. Anna Freud describes in her book ''Ego and mechanisms of defense'' (1936) the concept of [[signal ]] anxiety; she states that it is ‘not directly a conflicted instinctual tension but a signal occurring in the ego of an anticipated instinctual tension’. The signalling function of anxiety is thus seen as a crucial one and [[biologically ]] adapted to warn the organism of [[danger ]] or a threat to its equilibrium. The anxiety is felt as an increase in [[bodily ]] or [[mental ]] tension and the signal that the organism receives in this way allows it the possibility of taking defensive [[action ]] towards the perceived danger. Defense mechanisms [[work ]] by distorting the id impulses into acceptable forms, or by unconscious blockage of these impulses.

Defense mechanisms are helpful and, if used in a proper manner, are healthy. However, if misused, the defense mechanisms may also be unhealthy. The [[maladaptive ]] use of defense mechanisms can occur in a variety of cases, e.g. when they become automatic and prevent individuals from realizing their [[true ]] feelings and thoughts. Also, a maladaptive use of defense mechanisms is when they are [[being ]] employed in a continuous way that disrupts reality-testing. Denial and [[paranoid ]] [[projection ]] are considered to be [[psychotic ]] in its [[nature]], as their repeated use can [[cause ]] [[people ]] to lose touch with the [[real ]] world and their surroundings and consequently isolate themselves from it and dwell in a ‘created’ world of their own [[design]]. For example, addicts are known to misuse such defense mechanisms as denial. Defense mechanisms can also be harmful if:

* There are too few defenses which can be employed in [[coping ]] with [[threats]];* There is too much superego [[activity]], which causes the use of too many defenses.

* [[Denial]]. An ego defense mechanism that operates [[unconsciously ]] to resolve emotional conflict, and to reduce anxiety by refusing to perceive the more unpleasant aspects of [[external reality]];* [[Displacement (psychology)|Displacement]]. An unconscious defense mechanism, whereby the [[mind ]] redirects [[emotion ]] from a ‘dangerous’ object to a ‘safe’ object. In [[psychoanalytic ]] [[theory]], [[displacement ]] is a defense mechanism that shifts sexual or [[aggressive ]] impulses to a more acceptable or less threatening target; redirecting emotion to a safer outlet;* [[Intellectualization]] (isolation). Concentrating on the [[intellectual ]] components of the situations as to distance oneself from the anxiety provoking emotions associated with these situations; * [[Psychological_projection|Projection]]. Attributing to [[others]], one’s own unacceptable or unwanted thoughts or/and emotions. Projection reduces anxiety in the way that it allows the expression of the impulse or desire without letting the ego recognize it;* [[Rationalization (psychology)|Rationalization]]. The process of constructing a [[logical ]] justification for a decision that was originally arrived at through a different mental process;

* [[Regression]]. The reversion to an earlier [[stage ]] of [[development ]] in the face of unacceptable impulses;* [[Psychological repression|Repression]]. The process of pulling thoughts into the unconscious and preventing painful or dangerous thoughts from entering [[consciousness]];* [[Sublimation (psychology)|Sublimation]]. The refocusing of [[psychic ]] [[energy ]] (which Sigmund Freud believed was limited) away from negative outlets to more positive outlets. These drives which cannot find an outlet are rechannelled. In Freud’s classic theory, [[erotic ]] energy is only allowed limited expression due to repression, and much of the [[remainder ]] of a given group’s erotic energy is used to develop its [[culture ]] and [[civilization]]. Freud considered this defense mechanism the most productive compared to the others that he identified. [[Sublimation ]] is the process of transforming [[libido ]] into ‘social ‘[[social]] useful’ achievements, mainly art. [[Psychoanalysts ]] often refer to sublimation as the only truly successful defense mechanism;* [[Suppression]]. The conscious process of pushing thoughts into the [[preconscious]].

* [[Dissociation]]: [[Separation ]] or postponement of a feeling that normally would accompany a [[situation ]] or [[thought]].

* [[Idealization]]: [[Form ]] of denial in which the object of attention is presented as "all [[good]]" masking true negative feelings towards the other.

* [[Identification]]:The unconscious modelling of one's [[self ]] upon [[another ]] person's [[behaviour]].

* [[Introjection]]: [[Identifying ]] with some [[idea ]] or object so deeply that it becomes a part of that person.

* [[Isolation]]:Inability to simultaneously [[experience ]] the cognitive and [[affective ]] components of a situation.

* [[Somatization]]: Manifestation of emotional anxiety into [[physical ]] [[symptoms]].

Defense mechanisms are psychic processes that are generally attributed to the organized ego. They organize and maintain optimal psychic [[conditions ]] in a way that helps the [[subject]]'s ego both to confront and avoid anxiety and psychic [[disturbance]]. They are therefore among the attempts to work through psychic conflict but if they are deployed in an excessive or inappropriate way they can compromise psychic growth.

There is no clear [[distinction ]] in Sigmund Freud's work between a defense and a defense mechanism, (the latter referring to the unconscious processes by which the defense operates). The concept of defense first appeared in his article "The Neuro-[[Psychoses ]] of Defence" (1894a) and was next discussed in "Further Remarks on the Neuro-Psychoses of Defence" (1896b) and "The Aetiology of [[Hysteria]]" (1896c). Finally, in the [[text ]] entitled "[[Instincts ]] and their Vicissitudes" (1915c), turning against the self and [[reversal ]] into the opposite were identified as defense mechanisms, in addition to repression and sublimation.

He abandoned the concept of defense for a period in favor of the concept of repression. He then reintroduced it in "[[Neurotic ]] Mechanisms in [[Jealousy]], [[Paranoia ]] and [[Homosexuality]]" (1922b [1921]). Freud ascribed a defensive [[significance ]] to introjection (or identification) and projection by terming [[them ]] all "neurotic mechanisms." Then in an addendum to Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety (1926d [1925]), he reconsidered this concept in relation to that of repression, suggesting that: "It will be an undoubted advantage, I think, to revert to the old concept of 'defence,' provided we employ it explicitly as a general designation for all the techniques which the ego makes use of in conflicts which may lead to a neurosis, while we retain the [[word ]] 'repression' for the special method of defense which the line of approach taken by our investigations made us better acquainted with in the first [[instance]]" (p. 163). Freud added that: "further investigations may show that there is an intimate connection between special forms of defense and [[particular ]] illnesses, as, for instance, between repression and hysteria" (p. 164). By this he meant, more specifically, that the ego protects itself against the tendency towards conflict by means of a counter-[[cathexis]]. It was this counter-cathexis that came to [[represent ]] the supreme [[essence ]] of the defense mechanisms.

This idea was taken up by Heinz [[Hartmann ]] (1950) in the context of his theory of the [[autonomous ]] functions of the ego. He argued that once the energy of the counter-cathexis had been withdrawn from the tendency that caused the conflict, it was neutralized. For him, the autonomous processes (organization, cathexis, delay) can be the precursors of defense mechanisms. In general, neurotic defense mechanisms constitute an exaggeration or a [[distortion ]] of regulating and adaptive mechanisms.

With strong support from the ego-[[psychology ]] movement in her studies on ego functions, Anna Freud listed and described the ego's defense mechanisms. For her, "every vicissitude to which the instincts are liable has its origin in some ego-activity. Were it not for the [[intervention ]] of the ego or of those external forces which the ego represents, every [[instinct ]] would [[know ]] only one fate—that of gratification" (1937, p. 47). To the nine defense mechanisms that she identified: "regression, repression, reaction-[[formation]], isolation, [[undoing]], projection, introjection, turning against the self and reversal," she suggested that, "we must add a tenth, which pertains rather to the study of the normal than to that of neurosis: sublimation, or displacement of instinctual aims" (p. 47).

Finally, for adherents of the [[Kleinian ]] [[school]], the defense mechanisms take a different form in a [[structured ]] ego from the one they assume in a [[primitive]], unstructured ego (or an undifferentiated id-ego). The defenses become modes of mental functioning. For Susan Isaacs ([[1948]]), all mental mechanisms are linked to [[fantasies]], such as devouring, absorbing, or rejecting. Melanie [[Klein ]] herself (1952, 1958) principally identified the following primitive defenses: splitting, idealization, projective identification and manic defenses.

The [[terms ]] "defense" and "defense mechanism" are still used interchangeably today, which suggests a degree of confusion between a descriptive approach to the concept of defense and an approach based on the [[analysis ]] of psychic adaptations from an [[economic ]] viewpoint.

[[Bibliography]]

The term "defense" refers to all the techniques deployed by the ego in conflicts that have the potential to lead to neurosis. In the sense in which Freud first used the term, defenses are unconscious because they stem from a conflict between the drive and the ego or between a [[perception ]] or [[representation ]] ([[memory]], fantasy, etc.) and [[moral ]] imperatives. The function of the defenses is thus to support and maintain a [[state ]] of psychic [[stability ]] by avoiding anxiety and [[unpleasure]]. The concept of defense was broadened somewhat when Freud attributed an...

From his earliest works, [[Freud]] situated the concept of [[defence]] (''[[défense]]'') at the heart of his theory of [[neurosis]].

Lacan is very critical of the way in which [[Anna Freud]] and [[ego-psychology]] [[interpret ]] the concept of [[defence]].

For this [[reason]], [[Lacan]] urges caution when discussing the concept of [[defence]], and prefers not to centre his concept of psychoanalytic [[treatment]] around it.

This way of distinguishing between resistance and defence is quite different from that of other [[schools|schools of psychoanalysis]], which, if they have distinguished between defence and resistance at all, have generally tended to [[regard ]] defences as transitory phenomena and [[resistances ]] as more [[stable]].

The opposition between desire and defence is, for Lacan, a [[dialectical ]] one.Thus he argues in 1960 that, like the neurotic, the [[pervert]] "[[defends ]] himself in his [[desire,]]" since "desire is a defence (''défense''), a [[prohibition]] (défense) against going beyond a certain [[limit ]] in ''[[jouissance]]''."<ref>E, 322</ref>In 1964 he goes on to argue: "To desire involves a defensive [[phase ]] that makes it identical with not wanting to desire."<ref>Sll, 235</ref>

* Fonagy, P. and Target, M. (2003). ''Psychoanalytic Theories: Perspectives from [[Developmental ]] [[Psychopathology]].'' [[London]]: Whurr Publishers.* Freud, A. (1937). ''The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense.'' London: Hogarth Press and Institute of [[Psycho]]-Analysis.* "The [[Complete ]] [[Guide ]] to Social Work". Independent Study for the ASWB exam