[Interpretation of " Psychoanalytic Psychology " (5)]
Psychological Defense Mechanism refers to an adaptive tendency to consciously or unconsciously relieve troubles and relieve inner uneasiness when an individual faces a tense situation of setbacks or conflicts in his or her internal psychological activities.
Psychological Defense Mechanism The positive significance of this is to enable the subject to reduce or exempt mental stress after suffering difficulties and setbacks, restore psychological balance, and even stimulate the subject's subject's subjective initiative, and encourage the subject to overcome difficulties and overcome setbacks with tenacious perseverance.
The negative significance of the psychological defense mechanism is to make the subject self-sufficient due to the relief of stress, or retreat or even fear, which leads to mental illness.
1. Reversely form
Sometimes each of us hates or hates someone in our hearts, but on the surface they are very enthusiastic and caring about him. Sometimes I like someone in my heart, but I am extremely cold on the surface. Unconscious impulses develop in the opposite direction at the conscious level. A person's external behavior or emotional expression is completely opposite to his inner motivation and desire. It is called reverse formation or reverse action and reverse behavior in psychology, and is also a kind of psychological defense mechanism.
When an individual's desires and motivations are not accepted by his or her consciousness or society, he or she is afraid that he or she will do it, so he or she will suppress it to the subconscious mind and then manifest it in the opposite direction in the external behavior. This is the reverse effect. In other words, the external behaviors displayed by an individual who uses a reverse formation are exactly inversely proportional to his internal motivation. In nature, reverse behavior is also a repressive process. For example, a stepmother does not like the son born to her husband's ex-wife, but is afraid of being criticized, so she will show that she loves him very much by overly spoiling and indulging. Another example is a girl who tastes good candy but was warned that eating candy will cause tooth decay and is not liked by her mother. Every time she goes to a supermarket with her mother, she always points to candy and says to her mother: "Children cannot eat candy. Eating candy will cause tooth decay. Mothers don't like children who always eat candy." For example, there is a song called "I don't have him in my heart". From beginning to end, this song has always emphasized "I only have you in my heart, no him." If "you" also knows a little "reverse" defense mechanism, you should know whether there is "him" in his heart.
usually uses reverse to form a defense mechanism, and people who know nothing about themselves when using this mechanism, rather than deliberately doing it with "sweet mouth and a sword" or "righteousness".
For example, a 2-year-old boy, his mother gave birth to another little sister. The mother focused on her sister. The boy felt in his heart that since his younger sister was born, his mother had no longer loved him and was filled with hatred for her. He didn't want his sister to be born, he didn't want his sister to compete with him for maternal love, and even he became hostile to his sister and beat his younger sister with his hands. When my mother saw it, she was very angry. He was afraid that his mother would not like him, so he had to use defensive measures to resist this hostile impulse. On the one hand, he suppressed his hatred for his sister. On the other hand, in order to seek mother's love, love for the younger sister is formed in reverse.
The reason why the boy suppressed his hostility was because his mother said to him: "If you bully your little sister, I won't like you anymore." The little boy also replied: "I won't bully my little sister, mom wants to love me" to seek love for my mother. The boy used the internal defense mechanism and had an emotional transfer, that is, he turned the object of hatred and said against his will to be the object of love.
is formed in reverse, if used properly, which can help people adapt to life. However, if you use it excessively, you will constantly suppress your desires or motivations and show them in the opposite behavior. The mild ones will not dare to face yourself, and live a hard and lonely life, resulting in serious psychological distress. This defense mechanism is often seen to be overused in many patients with mental illness.
2. Suppression
Suppression is described in psychoanalysis as a manifestation of the psychological defense mechanism. It refers to the individual unknowingly suppressing the opposing or unacceptable impulses, desires, thoughts, emotions or painful experiences in the consciousness into the subconscious, so that the parties involved cannot detect or recall them in order to avoid suffering inner pain.
, such as "Oedipus complex", voyeurism impulse, and other psychological motivations that resolutely conflict with the conscious level (including social morality and other constraints and creeds), as well as activities that are not accepted by consciousness and cannot enter the conscious level, but they are still vigorously active at the subconscious level, but they are no longer able to be aware of the conscious.
In daily life, the occurrence of certain things often triggers some of our feelings, and we usually make natural and direct expressions. But in particular, our reactions will be unusual, and for various reasons, it is likely that the true feelings have been unconsciously suppressed. For example, Principal Wang is a car enthusiast and cherishes his car as his life. His wife often makes fun of him as if he treats his car as his son. One morning, when he was rushing to the Education Bureau to attend a meeting, a traffic accident occurred and his car was hit by a trailing truck. At that time, Principal Wang just got off the car and looked at the rear of the crashed car. Then he calmly exchanged communication methods with the other party, then recorded the other party's license plate, and immediately drove to the Education Bureau. At the same time, he focused on the important report that he would make at the meeting. In this incident, since the crash was 8:32, the meeting was about to begin twenty-eight minutes later, and there were important things to be decided urgently. Principal Wang performed abnormally just because he adopted a depressive defense mechanism.
subconsciously refers to subconscious purposeful forgetting or reluctance to acknowledge or be aware of internal conflicts, feelings of selective sensory organs, or knowledge of external events. Acknowledging these generally means succumbing to temptation or punishment brought about by instinctive needs. The purposeful exclusion of these conscious feelings is obviously to hide the real emotions and the pain that these emotions may bring when they are aware of them. Although the subconscious is not noticed by consciousness, emotions are still retained in the subconscious. Late suppression is the main defense mechanism of "hysteria".
For example, it is easy to forget names or forgetfulness. Through analysis, it is found that behind this tendency to forget names or forgetfulness, there are often suppressed motivations to resist them, which are usually related to some objective instinctual needs. In the case of a tendency to forget, although Kuanggu has always been subconscious, he is directly experienced in subjective emotions as if he should know what he wants to forget, and can even be recalled in some way. Forgeting often occurs with highly symbolic behaviors, which suggests that latent retention is not really forgotten. In the sometimes recallable material, the interrelated parts, their saliency and emotional components are treated with latent retention.
latent suppression cannot be detected by consciousness. Repression can be detected by consciousness and trouble consciousness. It is used by people to control certain desires. Excessive repression can lead to neurosis or personality malformations.
3. Denying
Denying is a relatively primitive and simple defense mechanism. The method is to escape psychological pain by distorting the individual's thoughts, emotions and feelings in a traumatic situation, or "negate" unpleasant events as if they did not happen at all to obtain temporary psychological comfort. "Denied" is very similar to "repression". But "denial" is not a purposeful forgetting, but a "denial" of unpleasant things.
This phenomenon can be seen everywhere in daily life. For example, if a child gets into trouble, he covers his eyes with his hands, just like an ostrich in the desert, the "enemy" chases and forces him in front of him, unable to deal with it, and bury his head in the sand and treat it as if it is not the case, it is a manifestation of denial. For example, my daughter had been dating her boyfriend for three years. On the eve of her engagement, her boyfriend suddenly changed her mind. The mother knew that her daughter loved her boyfriend very much and was worried that she could not think so, so she comforted her with kind words. But her daughter said, "In fact, it's good not to get engaged. I have always been worried about how to take into account both family and career after marriage..."The daughter uses the defense mechanism of "denial" to escape the pain of reality.
Many people often instinctively say "this is not true" when facing terminal illness or death of their loved ones, and use "denial" to escape huge pain. Other manifestations of denial, such as "out of sight" and other manifestations of denial.
In the study of patients about to undergo surgery, psychologist Lazarus found that people who use denial and insist on some illusions will recover better than those who insist on knowing the truth of the surgery and accurately estimate the situation after recovery. Therefore, Lazarus believes that "denial" (refuse to face reality) and illusions (wrong belief in phenomena) are beneficial to some people in some cases. Lazarus also pointed out that , denial and illusion do not apply to every situation (for example, some female friends refuse to admit that there is lump in their breasts, which may be a sign of cancer and delay treatment). However, in situations where they are powerless, denial and illusion are still an effective way of adapting.
should be more cautious in handling the original defense mechanism, because this is really unbearable, so they use it. So, before establishing a healthier defense mechanism, do not easily uncover its veil. If denial is closer to which idiom? That is the word "covering the ear and stealing the bell". He thought that if he denied the sound he heard, others would also deny the sound. This practice seemed a bit stupid and was a typical child psychological mechanism.
Healthy adults may also use the original defense mechanism. A person goes to the hospital for examination and the doctor tells him what serious illness you have. His first reaction is probably impossible. Did you make a mistake?
My daughter broke my teacup when she was very young. She pieced together the broken teacup with her little hands and asked, why is the teacup not broken? If I haven't learned psychoanalysis and think she is lying to me, she is actually lying to herself. She needs such a transition and then can bear it mentally. This situation is easy to create a lie child. If you criticize her too severely, she will cooperate with you in the future. The lying of a child is related to the parents, which means that the parents have to create a child. The environment where lies must be lying leads to the phenomenon of lying in children.
4. Rationalization
Rationalization, also known as the role of decorative. It is an individual who unconsciously uses seemingly reasonable explanations to defend unacceptable emotions, behaviors, and motivations to make them acceptable. There are two famous cases of this defense mechanism, one is the psychology of sour grapes - the motivation to ugliness; the other is the psychology of sweet lemons - the motivation to be satisfied.
When an individual's motivation is not realized or the behavior cannot comply with social norms, try to collect some reasons that meet their inner needs, give yourself a reasonable explanation, conceal your own faults, so as to reduce the pain of anxiety and protect your self-esteem from harm. This method is called "rationalization". In other words, "rationalization" is to create "reasonable" reasons to explain and conceal the harm suffered by oneself. In fact, in different experiences in life, in addition to facing mistakes, when we encounter unacceptable setbacks, it is understandable to use this method briefly to relieve inner pain and avoid spiritual collapse. There is a saying: "When we are proud, it is Confucian , and when we are disappointed, it is Taoist ", which is a philosophy of adapting to life. What's more, when looking for a reasonable reason, you may also find a solution to the problem. However, individuals often use rational defense mechanisms and use various excuses to maintain their self-esteem, which will inevitably lead to the suspicion of being wronged, deceiving others and deceiving themselves, which is not the way to solve the problem.
The most commonly used "rationalization" can be divided into the following two methods:
1, sour grape psychology
When the things you pursue cannot be obtained due to your lack of ability, it is defamed and attacked, which is called sour grape psychology.
This psychological phenomenon comes from a story in Aesop's fable: Once upon a time, a fox walked into a vineyard and saw the shelf covered with ripe grapes. It wanted to eat it, but because the shelf was too high, it could not pick it several times and could not eat the grapes. It said that the grapes were sour and it didn't want to eat them. In fact, grapes are sweet, and because they can’t eat them, grapes are sour.
There are many examples like this in daily life. For example, a student with poor physical education ability said that only people with developed limbs and simple minds would like sports; a woman with ordinary appearance especially likes to say, "Since ancient times, beauty has been a poor life" and "beauty is a disaster"; a boy who cannot chase his girlfriend said, "I don't want this kind of woman's moral character and beauty, if I marry me."
2, Sweet Lemon Psychology
, the opposite of sour grape psychology, another psychological phenomenon is Sweet Lemon Psychology. This psychological mechanism refers to trying to convince yourself and others that what you have made or own is the best choice. The fox mentioned in Aesop's fable above, later walked to lemon tree . Because he was hungry, he wanted to pick the wrinkled lemon to fill his stomach. He also said that lemons were sweet while eating, but in fact, wrinkled lemons tasted sour.
extends to the fact that we face some unsatisfactory things that happen in life. Sometimes, like this fox, we will try our best to emphasize the beautiful side of things to reduce inner disappointment and pain. For example, if you marry a wife of ordinary beauty, you say that she has inner beauty; if you marry a mute husband, you say that he is honest and honest; if you are mediocre, you say that he is "a foolish person who has a good fortune." This mentality of "nothing can be blessed" and "contentful" can sometimes be used appropriately to help us accept reality, but if we use this method too much, it will hinder our pace of pursuing a better life.
5. Forgetting
offsetting effect is also called liberation. It refers to using a symbolic thing or behavior to offset unpleasant things that have already happened to maintain psychological balance.
Usually people often use this psychological defense mechanism to relieve their guilt, guilt and maintain good interpersonal relationships. For example, if we accidentally make actions that are unfavorable or impolite to others, and immediately say "I'm sorry, please forgive me", which will give you psychological comfort and offset your actions of being sorry to others; a married man who went home very late in the dance hall before returning home may bring back a beautiful little gift to his wife or behave in an abnormal manner after returning home, so as to offset his guilt and anxiety.
Another example is a husband who has an affair buys a car and gives a diamond ring to his wife to eliminate the guilt in his heart, and uses this action to prove that he is a responsible husband; and another example is a father who is busy with work and has no time to accompany his children, providing the best material needs of his children to eliminate the guilt in his heart, and uses this action to prove that he is considering the children.
For example, if a mother takes care of the child, accidentally let the child touch the door frame or hit the corner of the table and cry. As a mother, she often uses her own hands or holding the child's hand to hit the door or the table to coax the child. In fact, it is not that adults believe that the door or table will really hit people, or that the door or table can help the child get angry. It’s just because I feel uneasy and feel that I don’t take good care of my children, so I have to do something to symbolize “I have done my best” to offset my guilt.
Examples of counteracting effects are also common in clinical practice. There was a client who repeatedly washed his hands and laundry with compulsive behavior, female, 18 years old. After psychological consultation, it was found that when she was 10 years old, one morning she and her father played badminton downstairs with her father. The father and daughter played very happily. When they were about to end, badminton fell near a pile of feces. At that time, she was very disgusted and considered herself unlucky. She hurriedly ended her morning exercise with her father and returned home. From now on, she will never play badminton again and will exercise by running in the early morning. Two days before the onset of the disease, her father suggested playing badminton with her. She happily accepted it, but gradually developed the above obsessive-compulsive symptoms.
From the above cases, it can be seen that she wanted to use symbolic actions such as washing hands and washing clothes to offset her unpleasant experience when she was 10 years old.Of course, there may be a deeper psychological incentive in this case, so I will not explain it in detail here.
Whether people make mistakes intentionally or unintentionally, they will feel uneasy, especially when things involve others and make others innocently hurt and lose. They will indeed feel guilty and blame themselves. If we use symbolic things and actions to try to offset the unpleasant events that have already occurred, the psychological discomfort will be reduced.
6. Compensation
When an individual fails to achieve his or her physical or psychological defects, he or she changes to make up for these defects in other ways to relieve his or her anxiety and establish his or her self-esteem. This is called the compensation defense mechanism. In terms of function, compensation can be divided into negative compensation and positive compensation.
The so-called negative compensation refers to the method used by individuals to make up for defects. It does not help the individual itself and sometimes even causes greater harm. For example, a person who fails his career is addicted to alcohol all day long and cannot extricate himself; a person who wants to lose weight will use overeating to relieve his setbacks when encountering unsatisfactory things; a student who is excluded by his classmates will participate in bad gang organizations to gain acceptance from gang members; a child who does not receive positive attention and care develops negative behaviors to gain the attention of others.
The so-called compensation for enthusiasm refers to making up for its shortcomings in an appropriate way. For example, a female student with mediocre appearance was committed to the pursuit of learning, thus winning the attention of others; the former Federal Germany established many charitable relief organizations after World War II, and specially established an organization for Jews to make up for the catastrophe of the world and the guilt of killing Jews during World War II. Demosians, an orator of ancient Greek , put stones in his mouth for practice in order to overcome stuttering, so that his pronunciation was more correct. As a result, he not only overcame the defect of stuttering, but also became a famous orator and debater; the first lady of a US president once said that when she was young, she was not beautiful, and instead committed to cultivating inner beauty and pursuing a sense of accomplishment, which made her achieve today. The above examples are the same as what we often say, "If you lose it, you will get it." They are all compensation for success.
In addition to the above two compensations, there is another compensation method called "overcompensation". It refers to an individual denying that his failure or shortcomings in one aspect are insurmountable and trying harder to overcome them, but the result is actually beyond the normal level. For example, there was a female teacher who was ridiculed as a "man woman" at school. In order to prove to others that she was a "feminine" woman, she bought a large number of brand-name cosmetics and brand-name clothing, dressed up herself in a colorful way, and dressed up a new set of clothes every day, which was contrary to the past shirts and jeans. Her changes won her praise from others, but it also caused her financial difficulties of not being able to make ends meet. When she was short of money and wanted to maintain her image of being praised, she had to be arrested on the spot while stealing her clothing store and transferred it to the public security organs for legal action, ruining her bright future. Compensation has the effect of pulling backwards (remediation) to prevent forwards (failures, obstacles), which is very beneficial to the individual's psychology and behavior. However, using the wrong compensation method is harmful but not beneficial.
Ding Jungui
September 18, 2022
