Mechanisms of psychological defense

The life of a modern woman is full of various events, and not all of them give only positive emotions. Therefore, it is impossible to avoid stresses, we get them for a week so much that it remains to be surprised how we manage to maintain mental health. In fact, nothing surprising is here, security provides mechanisms for psychological protection of the individual. They are quite numerous and diverse, however, every person has a predisposition to one or several ways of self-defense.

Phenomenon of psychological defense

For the first time about the functions and types of psychological defense spoke Sigmund Freud in 1894. He believed that this ability of man is innate and opens in extreme conditions and serves to relieve the inner conflict between the unconscious and the mind. More recent studies have shown that the mechanisms of psychological defense of the personality are not congenital, but are acquired in the process of individual development, and they are directed primarily to resolve sociogenic conflicts. That is, defense mechanisms are products of personality training, in contrast to the stereotyped schemes proposed by Freud. That's why people have not a complete set of methods of psychological protection, but only those that have managed to learn.

Types of psychological protection

1. Denial - manifests itself in attempts to avoid information that is incompatible with positive ideas about oneself. Those facts that contradict the attitudes are simply not perceived. Most often this mechanism is used by suggested people and occurs in somatic diseases.
2. Repression - helps to avoid internal conflict by avoiding all information about the traumatic situation, but only the true motive of their actions. Repression does not allow the consciousness of desires that do not correspond to the moral attitudes of the individual.
3. Rationalization - makes it possible to realize only that part of the incoming information that helps explain its behavior as not contradicting the norms and well controlled.
4. Projection is manifested in the unconscious transfer of one's feelings, desires and desires to another person, society, circumstance, in order to shift responsibility for one's life and actions to others. This mechanism begins to act when a person is close to realizing its negative aspects.
5. Identification is a variation of the projection, which is associated with identifying yourself with another person, with the transfer of his feelings and qualities to himself. Only in this case a person does not shift his responsibility onto the shoulders of others, but tries to approach and understand another person. Often used to enhance self-esteem.
6. Alienation - forms the isolation of a part of consciousness, which is associated with traumatic events. Such a method shatters consciousness, so some events are perceived separately, without establishing emotional ties between them.
7. Substitution is the transfer of a reaction from an object inaccessible to a person to another, more accessible object. For example, angered at the boss and not being able to express his discontent, we beat the plates or shout at their loved ones. All these are cases of substitution.
8. Dreaming - allows a person to transfer actions that are inaccessible for some reason in reality to the unreal world, into a dream.
9. Reactive education is used to restrain joyful emotions from possessing the object of desire, replacing them with the directly opposite.
10. Compensation - develops and is usually used consciously, this mechanism is designed to contain grief, grief over imaginary or real loss.
11. Sublimation is the redirection of energy from satisfying desires that look antisocial to more acceptable goals.
12. Regression - returns a person to early, infantile reactions to life, the role of the child in the family and society.
13. Fantasy - enables you to increase your own value by embellishing your life.
14. Catharsis - a change in the value system, which allows to weaken the effect of the traumatic factor.

If we talk about the peculiarities of the forms of psychological defense, then the main will be the desire of absolutely all to lead a person away from reality, such a lie for salvation.

System of psychological protection of a person

Ways of psychological self-defense form a multi-level system, the purpose of which is to provide information and psychological protection of a person. There are 3 main directions of its functioning:

• social, takes into account the scale of society;
• social-group, used within the social groups;
• individually-personal.

As mentioned above, not all types of protection in all are equally developed, in addition, the developmental features of each mechanism can cause various disorders and diseases. For their detection, the mechanisms of psychological defense are diagnosed, which results in conclusions about the person's condition and the necessary methods of therapy.