Defense Mechanism

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Defense mechanism is a term from psychoanalysis that has also found its way into psychology . It describes psychological processes that serve to regulate inner- mental or interpersonal conflicts in a way that relieves the mental state of a person. This usually happens unconsciously . Which defense mechanisms prevail in a person depends on the maturity of the personality . Which of the various defense mechanisms is used in a specific case is also determined by the type of conflict currently in effect and the type of disease that may be present .

Instance, object and function of defense

In theory language of Freudian psychoanalysis, the term refers largely unconscious running reactions that the I to ward off unwanted driving impulses of the time or unpleasant emotions developed. The defense belongs in the psychoanalytic model to the ego functions . Defense mechanisms in more mature (z. B. displacement ) and immature (z. B. cleavage ) is divided and are a prerequisite to tackle unconscious psychological conflicts and thus the basis of the ability of self-control. They are compared with the conscious problem-solving and conflict resolution, as a coping strategy ( English coping is called).

Defense processes are not dysfunctional as such , but must always be seen in the overall context of the psychological structure of the respective person. Most of the time they are part of the best possible internal conflict resolution that an individual could achieve in the course of his or her psychological development. In particular, so-called primary or immature defense mechanisms such as division and denial are dysfunctional , as are interpersonal defense mechanisms that involve other people in stabilizing their own psychological equilibrium and therefore usually put a strain on the relationships in question, such as B. in projective identification .

In psychotherapy , defense processes are not only to be understood as resistance , but also serve to protect the psychological balance of the analysand. The speed of the therapeutic process must largely depend on the patient's ability to allow changes and developments.

List of known defense mechanisms

The list follows Anna Freud and the Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnostics (OPD):

  • Repression : Repression is a defense mechanism that primarily has the task of protecting the self from a threatening influence. Like dissociation , repression does not erase memories; it only makes conscious memory of an experience more difficult. Undesired id-impulses, whichevokea feeling of guilt, shame or the lowering of self-esteem , are repressed into the unconscious by the ego and the super-ego. From there, however, they can reappear in dreams, failures and substitute actions. Freud's concept of repression must be distinguished from willful-conscious suppression. The ideal of successful repression as an unconscious automatism in Freud's sense makes conscious access to the repressed content (without psychoanalytic support) almost impossible.
  • Reaction formation : Feelings or motives are held down by opposing feelings / motives (e.g. compassion instead of aggressive impulses or feelings of hatred if feelings of love appear dangerous). This must be distinguished from deliberate suppression (e.g. during the medical examination of physically attractive patients).
  • Regression : There is a predominantly unconscious retreat to an earlier stage of development of the ego function, in which a lower organized behavior still worked ( despite behavior, appetite, search for care). Problems with regressive behavior are also warded off by other mechanisms.
  • Progression : is the opposite of regression. In a dangerous situation, someone behaves in an adult way. There is an escape to later stages of development. For example, if the mother of a ten-year-old is no longer there, she takes care of younger siblings and becomes the mother's substitute. When the exposure is over, there may be a regression beyond baseline.
  • Denial : In contrast to repression , a conflict-laden inner wish is not warded off, but an external excerpt from reality is denied, that is, its meaning is not recognized. For example, changes in the environment are perceived, but their real meaning is not emotionally experienced and not rationally recognized.
  • Avoidance : instinctual impulses are bypassed by avoiding key stimuli. (see repression and sensitization )
  • Shift : Fantasies and impulses are shifted from one person to whom they originally apply to another, so that the originally intended person remains unaffected (e.g. aggression against a censuring authority figure is in the form of insults or kicks as a shift of aggression on a dog omitted), or originally existing relationships are hidden and new ones are created. This process is particularly involved in the phenomenon of cruelty to animals .
  • Splitting : Incompatible content is distributed over several objects. Both the objects and the self are divided into “good” and “bad” or “bad”. "Good" parts are idealized, "bad" or "bad" parts are devalued or devalued, condemned or demonized . (See cancellation )
  • Negation : negation of a fact. In contrast to the formation of a reaction , a feeling or an attitude is not replaced by its opposite, but just denied its presence (“I don't feel anything for XXX”).
  • Undoing : Use of de facto ineffective actions and rituals (e.g. knocking on wood), to which a symbolic power is ascribed, with the aim of averting punishment for violations of prohibitions and requirements.
  • Projection : Own psychological content and self-parts (especially affects , moods, intentions and evaluations) are assigned to other people. The drive impulse or the motif is projected onto an object like an optical projection.
    • Projective identification : Combination of inner-psychic and interpersonal processes, in which the other person is (unconsciously) influenced in such a way that it fulfills certain expectations. In the subjective sense, "negative" self-parts(usually aggression ) are first split off, then projected onto the counterpart - if the counterpart unconsciously identifies with the split-off, projected parts and acts as expected (e.g. aggressive ) This externalization of unpleasant or unbearableparts of theself creates internal conflicts in the outside world in order to maintain the inner psychological balance, which can, however, severely strain relationships with others. It is adefense mechanism typical ofso-called borderline disorders , whichmakes it easier to understandthe difficulties indelimitingthe psychodynamics of those affected.
  • Introjection and identification : Wards off fear of external threats by incorporating external influences such as B. certain behavior, beliefs, norms or values ​​of another person into the ego structure so that the individual no longer has to experience them as threats from outside.
    • Identification with the aggressor : In the event of a violent assault or a psychological violation of limits, responsibility for what is happening is assigned to oneself and / or the attitude or behavior of an attacker is assumed. Both serve to ward off unbearable feelings of fear and helplessness and to symbolically regain control.
  • Surrogative defense mechanisms
    • Intellectualization : Distance from the immediate conflictual experience through theformation of abstractions and theoretical analysis (e.g. abstract conversations about the nature of love; talking shop among doctors or therapists about difficult patients or those who are experienced as psychological stress in their suffering), philosophizing about Things that have hidden emotional meaning to the person.
    • Rationalization : Rational-logical motives for action are given or advanced as the sole motivation for action. Emotional parts of decisions are ignored or undervalued.
    • Sublimation or sublimation : unfulfilled instinctual wishes are replaced by socially higher valued substitute actions and thus satisfied (art, science, music, sport, excessive work). Typically, certain sublimation techniques are particularly suitable for certain requirements. Aggressive instincts are often sublimated through exercise, sexual desires through preoccupation with the fine arts, or childish curiosity through scientific research. Sublimations often fulfill the instinctual wishes well and are then not viewed as psychopathological. According to Freud , sublimation is an important motor for cultural development.
  • Defense involving physical symptoms
    • Somatization : not perceiving a conflict in its actual form, but in the form of physical complaints. However, these have no symbolic relationship to the conflict.
    • Conversion : transferring a psychological conflict to somatic symptoms that have a symbolic relationship to the conflict. Corresponds to the earlier term hysteria (hysterical blindness, paralysis).
  • Defense mechanisms of affect
    • Affectualization : An event or behavior is dramatized.
    • Devaluation / idealization : Objects are unconsciously devalued or inflated.
    • Affect isolation : the absence or attenuation of a normally spontaneous feeling in a particular situation. The proof of an isolated affect also serves therapeutically to raise awareness and rationally consider certain emotionally intense reactions.
  • Aggressive defense mechanisms
    • Autoaggression : Aggressive impulses are directed against oneself and thus do not hit the person they were originally intended for, in order not to endanger the relationship with this person. The interpersonal field is thus kept free from disturbances, an interpersonal conflict is avoided at the expense of an intrapsychic conflict.
  • Isolation : An unfulfillable wish is overcome by satisfying it in a distorted form, whereby it is experienced as alien, not belonging to one's own person. Isolation often occurs in obsessional neuroses, where, for example, the obsession that other people might drop dead on the street takes the place of a death wish against the father that the ego cannot accept.
    • Emotional blockages as a reaction to danger : Under the influence of a traumatic event, for example when someone loses a close relative, all affects and moods can be blocked, i.e. an extreme form of isolation from affect.
  • Object neutralization : Objects are regarded as insignificant, unattractive and unimportant. This avoids intense relationships in the interpersonal field, the effects of which could be unpleasant (e.g. if one were threatened to be hurt or offended).
  • Self-neutralization : In a dangerous situation, the person feels as if they are unimportant. Only the goals to be achieved are important. In the case of depressed people, self-neutralization can protect against self-reproach (if you do not take yourself seriously, you do not need to reproach yourself).
  • Derealization / depersonalization : Occur when there is danger and are related to the early disturbances .
    • Depersonalization : There is a change in body perception (e.g. parts of the body are perceived to be in size or, as in anorexic people, the entire body size is perceived to be changed). Often has the goal of making itmore difficult toconvert (usually aggressive) impulses into motor action.
    • Derealization : The environment is experienced as changed. The way the environment changes can be symbolic. Sometimes the environment is experienced as threatening, with aggressive impulses being projected into the environment.

Defense mechanisms depending on the structure level

In practice, certain defense mechanisms only occur at certain structural levels that are at least present and can therefore be an indication of an existing structural level in the client within the therapy.

A two-tier classification of defense mechanisms is:

  • Primary ego defense:
    • Denial and permanence of a bond,
    • Displacement,
    • Deletion of subjective experience (separation, displacement, depersonalization, identification, conversion),
    • Somatic conversion.
  • Secondary ego defense:
    • Inhibition,
    • Reaction formation,
    • Undo,
    • Isolation of affect,
    • Turn against one's own self.

A three-class classification according to structure level is:

Primitive defense mechanisms (including psychotic defense mechanisms) are directed against fears that stem from the activity of the death instinct. "The neurotic defense mechanisms are directed against the libido. Instead of primitive defense mechanisms, image-distorting defense mechanisms are also used This consensus is recorded in Appendix B of the DSM-IV-TR and is known as the Defense Functioning Scale. A classification of the defense mechanisms into three groups of mature, neurotic and primitive defense mechanisms was proposed by Kernberg (1995) .

In addition to the two-class and three-class classification, there is also one with five levels, according to Stavros Mentzos . According to him, "the degree of immaturity of a defense mechanism [...] can be estimated by what a defense process" costs "the psychophysical organism, that is: What type and extent of disadvantages are accepted for this defense [...] Does the defense process imply, for example, a lesser or greater neglect of reality, a lesser or greater restriction of the degrees of freedom, etc.? " He summarizes five levels (whereby he regards the last level, psychosocial defense and somatization, as an additional level, which "cannot easily be classified in the [table]"):

  1. Level: psychotic projection, psychotic introjection, psychotic denial, psychotic split
  2. Level: non-psychotic projection, division, denial; "Identification as defense, especially projective identification: in addition to the projection of the negative onto the object, there is - by induction - an interactive pressure, the other should behave according to the projection!"
  3. Level: intellectualization, rationalization, affectualization etc., shifting, relocation, repression i. e. S. etc., undoing, turning against the self, reaction formation
  4. Level: mature coping, sublimation, humor, etc.
  5. Level (additional): Psychosocial defense and somatization

Levels 1 to 4 are also compatible with the four-level model of the structure level according to OPD-2 . According to axis IV of OPD-2, the structural level, like Mentzo's defense mechanisms, can also be divided into four essential stages (descending in maturity): good, moderate, low and disintegrated. In this respect, a connection such. B. speculate about a rather low, but not disintegrated structural level of a patient when the patient splits (mainly, continuously), which is "often found in the formation of enemy images or in the [...] division of the world into good and bad".

See also

literature

  • Sigmund Freud : The defense neuropsychoses, attempt of a psychological theory. 1894. In: Collected Works, Volume I.
  • Sigmund Freud: The repression. 1915/1946. In: Collected Works, Volume X.
  • Anna Freud : The ego and its defense mechanisms. Kindler, Munich 1936/1964.
  • Inez Gitzinger-Albrecht : Multi- level diagnosis of defense processes as a strategy of psychotherapy research. Peter Lang, Europaeische Hochschulschriften, Frankfurt 1993, ISBN 3-631-45624-7 .
  • Karl König : Defense Mechanisms. Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1996; 4th edition 2007.
  • Phebe Cramer: Protecting the Self - Defense Mechanisms in Action. Guilford Press, 2006, ISBN 978-1-59385-298-6 . Introduction ( PDF file; 285 kB)
  • R. L. Atkinson, E. E. Atkinson, D. J. Bem, E. Göttingen, R. Hildegard: Introduction to psychology. HBJ, Fort Worth 1990, pp. 554-607.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. “It is agreed that the ego makes use of defense mechanisms, but the theoretical question remains whether their use always presupposes the existence of an organized ego as a basis.” Defense mechanisms . In: Jean Laplanche , Jean-Bertrand Pontalis : The vocabulary of psychoanalysis. 6th edition. Volume 1, Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1984, p. 30 ff.
  2. Falk Leichsenring (Ed.): Textbook of Psychotherapy . Vol. 2: Psychoanalytic and depth psychological therapy . 2004, ISBN 3-932096-32-0 .
  3. After Karl König : Defense Mechanisms. 2nd Edition. Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1997, p. 87 ff.
  4. After Karl König: Defense Mechanisms. 2nd Edition. Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1997, p. 77 ff.
  5. After Karl König: Defense Mechanisms. 2nd Edition. Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1997, p. 79 f.
  6. After Karl König: Defense Mechanisms. 2nd Edition. Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1997, p. 80.
  7. After Karl König: Defense Mechanisms. 2nd Edition. Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1997, p. 90 ff.
  8. ↑ Adapted from John Bradshaw: When Shame Makes You Sick. Understanding and overcoming feelings of shame . From the American by Bringfried Schröder. Knaur-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-426-87327-3 .
  9. ^ A b Dictionary of Kleinian Psychoanalysis . Klett-Cotta, 2004, ISBN 3-608-94399-4 , p. 175 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  10. a b c d Transfer-focused psychotherapy for neurotic personality structures . Schattauer Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-7945-2628-4 , p. 29 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  11. Stavros Mentzos : Textbook of Psychodynamics. The function of the dysfunction of mental disorders . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen 2014, ISBN 978-3-525-40123-1 , doi : 10.13109 / 9783666401237 .
  12. Stavros Mentzos : Textbook of Psychodynamics. The function of the dysfunction of mental disorders . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen 2014, ISBN 978-3-525-40123-1 , p. 45 , doi : 10.13109 / 9783666401237 .
  13. Stavros Mentzos : Textbook of Psychodynamics. The function of the dysfunction of mental disorders . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen 2014, ISBN 978-3-525-40123-1 , p. 48 , doi : 10.13109 / 9783666401237 .
  14. Working group OPD: OPD-2 . Operationalized psychodynamic diagnostics. The manual for diagnosis and therapy planning. Ed .: Working group OPD. 3. Edition. Hans Huber, Bern 2014, ISBN 978-3-456-85405-2 .
  15. Working group OPD: OPD-2 . Operationalized psychodynamic diagnostics. The manual for diagnosis and therapy planning. Ed .: Working group OPD. 3. Edition. Hans Huber, Bern 2014, ISBN 978-3-456-85405-2 , p. 476 .
  16. Stavros Mentzos : Textbook of Psychodynamics. The function of the dysfunction of mental disorders . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen 2014, ISBN 978-3-525-40123-1 , p. 46 , doi : 10.13109 / 9783666401237 .