- [Voiceover] Defense mechanisms are ways of
protecting ourselves when we have to deal with
our unconscious wants, feelings, desires, impulses.
In some ways defense mechanisms actually
act as a psychological shield against our anxiety
or discomfort at these unconscious psychological processes.
And defense mechanisms have actually been classified into
several different categories.
The first category was described as being
pathological defense mechanisms,
and these defense mechanisms are generally
thought to distort reality so that a person
can deal with a situation.
So while there are several of these,
the most important one is one called denial,
where the person just pretends that
something hasn't happened or isn't true.
For example, if someone's diagnosed with breast cancer,
a defense mechanism would be for them to deny
that such a thing has happened
or deny that they have breast cancer.
And denial is the main defense mechanism
that I want to talk about under this pathological category.
There are a number of defense mechanisms here,
but I'm just going to pick out the most important ones
for you to know.
One step up from pathological defense mechanisms
we actually move into a category called
immature defense mechanisms,
and while these are sometimes present in adults,
they are generally not as socially accepted,
and if defense mechanisms are commonly used,
it may cause somebody to have social problems.
One of the key defense mechanisms here is called projection,
and what happens here in projection is that
somebody attributes their own hidden and unconscious
thoughts or emotions and actually attributes them
to somebody else.
So someone is very, very, very jealous, for example,
they can actually project out that jealously and say,
oh, that other person actually has problems with jealousy
and it's not really me.
It's a way of being able to shift one's own feelings
across to somebody else and identify somebody else
as possessing these unacceptable thoughts or feelings.
So that's projection, but what can actually also happen
is something called projective identification.
In projective identification, once that person has
something attributed to them, projected onto them,
like jealousy, for example, that person can actually
subsequently start to demonstrate exactly those
thoughts or feelings or whatever's been projected onto them
and actually start to feel that way.
Like, yes, I am a jealous person,
and maybe I'm going to act like that.
So this projection can subsequently,
once it's projected onto this individual,
this individual may start acting in that manner,
and that's called projective identification.
Another important immature defense mechanism
to think about is passive aggression,
and what happens in passive aggression
is someone expresses their aggression
by actually failing to do something
or doing something very slowly for somebody else.
So it's an indirect or passive way
of expressing their anger.
Okay, so as we can see so far,
we've outlined one pathological defense mechanism, denial,
and two immature defense mechanisms,
and this is by no means comprehensive.
There are many more defense mechanisms,
but I'm picking out the most important ones.
Now let's move onto a set of defense mechanisms
that are called neurotic, and let's start by one
called intellectualization.
And what happens in intellectualization is that
somebody picks out the intellectual aspects of any situation
and detaches it from the emotional aspects, taking away
that anxiety invoking
emotional part of a situation.
So this is really a separation of emotion from ideas.
Related to this is another defense mechanism
by the name of rationalization,
and what happens in rationalization is that we figure out
a way of making an excuse and convincing ourselves
that we were at no fault.
Often times our thought process may involve
some false logic or false reasoning,
but it's useful for us because it enables us
to avoid blaming ourselves.
We also have another neurotic defense mechanism
by the name of regression,
and what happens in regression is that we end up
performing behaviors as if we were at
a much younger stage in our lives.
So, for example, if we can talk and speak and move about
and do things normally, we may resort to whining
or throwing a tantrum or acting in a way
that is much more like somebody that was at
a much younger stage in life.
Some people might say, acting like a baby.
And a very similar word to this is something called
repression, but it's actually a very different concept.
This is like most of these defense mechanisms,
an unconscious process,
where our thoughts that may be coming
into our consciousness
are pushed down into our unconscious.
And finally, in this category, we have something called
displacement, and I'm actually going to go down a little bit
just to show you what that looks like.
What could happen in displacement is that
an individual may feel
very angry towards one person,
but because it's not safe or it may be difficult
to express that anger, they may displace that anger
onto an easier target.
For example, if a wife is angry at her husband,
she may, instead of shouting or getting angry at him,
may actually get angry at her child.
Okay, so those are several of the
neurotic defense mechanisms.
Now I want to talk to you about
some of the mature defense mechanisms,
and the reason why these are important is that
people who demonstrate strong use of defense mechanisms
are happier, healthier, and more satisfied with life.
So what are these more mature defense mechanisms?
These defense mechanisms include things like
the use of humor, the telling of jokes
or engaging in humorous activity
to partly be truthful about
some of these hidden feelings
but also to make it much more socially acceptable.
Another defense mechanism here is called sublimation.
So if someone, for example, really has violent urges,
they can channel their negative energy into positive energy.
So, for example, violent urges may lead to them
actually becoming a boxer or a fitness trainer
or a weight-lifter, instead of actually going out
and hurting someone.
There's also another process, and think about repression
that I mentioned earlier.
It sounds like repression,
and it's actually called suppression,
and suppression is actually a much more conscious way
of transferring negative emotions or feelings
and pushing them away from conscious thought
so we can get on with things,
but we can easily access those thoughts at a later time.
And finally, I want to mention one last defense mechanism,
which is altruism, which is basically when
we are in the service of other people.
We actually feel very fulfilled
and gain pleasure and satisfaction.
So these categories are the mature defense mechanisms.
So there are certainly a lot of defense mechanisms here,
and it's important to know that this is
by no means exhaustive.
So something else I want to cover is a defense mechanism
called reaction formation,
and this is often referred to
as being part of the neurotic group of defense mechanisms.
But this is particularly interesting
because those unconscious wishes or feelings
that are experienced by a person
they actually end up doing the complete opposite.
So, for example, somebody that has
a problem with immigration may actually volunteer
to work at an immigration center,
helping people develop their language skills
or their Visa issues.