Question no.28 ... Personal protective mechanisms and their characteristics.
In an effort to get rid of unpleasant emotional states, a person with the help of “I” develops in himself the so-called “defense mechanisms”. This term was first introduced into psychology by the famous Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud. The concept of psychological defense mechanisms is presented more fully by Anna Freud, in particular in her work "Psychology of the Self and Defense Mechanisms". She believed that the defense mechanism is based on two types of reactions:
blocking the expression of impulses in conscious behavior;
distorting them to such an extent that their initial intensity noticeably decreases or deviates to the side.
In Russian psychology, F.S. Bassny considered psychological defense as the most important form of the reaction of an individual's consciousness to mental trauma. B.D. Karvasarsky considers psychological defense as a system of adaptive reactions of the individual, aimed at defensive change in the significance of maladaptive components relationships - cognitive, emotional, behavioral- in order to weaken their psycho-traumatic impact on the self - concept.
Psychological protection - This is a natural opposition of man to the environment. She unconsciously protects him from negative emotional overload. In the process of socialization, protective mechanisms arise, change, and rebuild under the influence of social influences. All ZML have two things in common:
they act on an unconscious level and therefore are means of self-deception;
they distort, deny, transform, or falsify the perception of reality in order to make anxiety less threatening to the individual.
Functions of psychological defenses , on the one hand, can be viewed as positive, since they protect the person from negative experiences, eliminate anxiety and help maintain self-esteem in a conflict situation. On the other hand, they can also be assessed as negative. If the state of emotional well-being is fixed for a long period and essentially replaces activity, then psychological comfort is achieved at the cost of distorting the perception of reality, or self-deception.
Personal protective mechanisms can be conditionally divided into three groups:
I ... "natural" - the psychological defenses included in it mediate and form the perceptual processes of the personality, the peculiarities of the perception of various information about oneself and about the world around. Common to this group of protections is the lack of demand for information content analysis. The main thing here is blocking information, unconsciously excluding it from the sphere of consciousness.
crowding out - Freud saw repression as the most direct way to escape anxiety. Repression is the process of removing from consciousness thoughts and feelings that cause suffering. Displacing a person ceases to be aware of the causes of anxiety, and also does not remember the tragic past events.
Suppression - more conscious, than with repression, avoidance of disturbing information. Suppression occurs consciously, but its causes may or may not be recognized. The products of suppression are in the preconscious, and do not go into the unconscious, as can be seen in the process of repression. One of the options for the development of suppression is asceticism. Most often, those thoughts and desires are suppressed that contradict the moral values and norms accepted by oneself.
Asceticism - A. Freud was defined as the denial and suppression of all instinctive urges. This mechanism is more typical for adolescents, an example of which is dissatisfaction with their appearance and the desire to change it. Negative feelings about this can be "removed" with the help of asceticism.
N igilism - denial of values. The approach to nihilism as one of the mechanisms of psychological defense is based on the conceptual provisions of E. Fromm. The development of a person and his personality occurs within the framework of the formation of two main trends: the desire for freedom and the desire for alienation.
II ... "integrative" - the protective mechanisms included in this group are associated with an unconscious assessment of the content of information undesirable for a person, its change, and an inadequate assessment. Distortion, transformation of information can be carried out in various ways using: generalization, omission, categorization, etc. As a result of the action of these defenses, a person begins to possess information inadequate to reality and live in a world of illusions.
A gression occurs when a person cannot overcome barriers on the way to his goal and experiences frustration. It takes the form of a direct attack on other people, and sometimes is expressed in rudeness, threats, hostility. Types of aggression:
a) Direct aggression- as a rule, directed at others. It can manifest itself in behavior (fight, murder) or in verbal form (abuse, sarcasm, rude remarks). It is possible to turn aggression on oneself (auto-aggression): self-accusations, deep feelings of guilt, suicide, exhaustion of oneself by hunger, "mortification of the flesh."
b) Indirect (displaced) aggression- is directed not directly at an unwanted or unpleasant object (person), but at an accessible object. A person can simply "pour out" a bad mood on the first face he sees.
v) Displacement- ZML, directing a negative emotional reaction not to a traumatic situation, but to an object that has nothing to do with it. This mechanism creates a kind of "vicious circle" of mutual influence of people on each other.
G) Passive aggression... In this case, the subject unites himself with the external aggressor and "assumes" his role. An example of this kind of aggression is betrayal, betrayal, or "indulging" in another's atrocities.
Desacralization - ZML is described by A. Maslow. During desacralization, a person skeptically measures and does not want to see his purpose, opportunities in self-realization and self-actualization. The way to remove this protection is resacralization - the desire and willingness to look at the Human "through the eyes of eternity."
Idealization - is associated, first of all, with an overestimated emotional self-esteem or assessment of another person. Idealization is also associated with the process of forming a personal ideal. K. Horney noted that the protective mechanism of idealization performs a number of functions that are important for personal stability:
Replaces a person's real self-confidence;
Creates conditions for a sense of superiority, the feeling that he is better, more worthy than others; substitutes for genuine ideals;
Denies the presence of intrapsychic conflicts (rejects everything that is not included in his own way of behavior);
It gives rise to a new line of schisms in the personality, forming a barrier to its true development, forms alienation from oneself, creates new life illusions - such a protective mechanism of the personality, which serves as the basis for the further development of identification and self-identification.
NS projection - ZML, associated with the perception of a person's mental image as an objective reality, with the help of which unconscious personal characteristics (drives, needs, etc.) are projected onto other objects. The projection mechanism manifests its effect in the fact that a person unconsciously ascribes his own negative qualities to another person, and, as a rule, in an exaggerated form.
Transformation - a form of psychological defense, in which the displaced negative character traits in a person's consciousness turn into positive ones.
AND identification - carried out on the basis of an emotional connection with another person. It is accompanied by the desire of a person to be like the one he loves.
AND edge role - it is based on the establishment of control over others in order to relieve oneself of responsibility, obtain certain benefits (rewards), increase one's own significance and ensure one's own safety and peace of mind by establishing a pattern of behavior that does not change in new conditions.
(a woman in the role of an Alcoholic's Wife, no matter how many times she marries, will still live with an alcoholic). Playing a role allows a person to use an external resource to protect an internal problem in order to protect himself and even get some benefit when the individual identifies himself with the role being played. (E. Bern believes that each person has his own set of certain behavioral patterns (roles), which correlates with the mental state of the person (Adult, Parent, Child)).
AND inversion - ZML based on the manifestations of "reverse processes". Such tendencies are manifested in different areas personality - behavior, motivation, thinking, affective area. All psychological defenses of the personality based on inversion are characterized by the presence of a tendency of a fixed "turn", the reversal of one or another direction of mental activity in some other direction, usually directly opposite to the initial one. There are various types of inversion defense mechanisms:
1. Ractive education one of the forms of mental attitude or habit, opposite to the repressed desire, a reaction to it, although the object that caused negative emotions remains the same (as opposed to the projection, where the object itself changes), but here the attitude towards it changes.
2.Obrotherly feeling- one of the ways of manifestation of the conversion of attraction to its opposite; this is a process in which the goal of attraction is transformed into a phenomenon with the opposite sign, and passivity is replaced by activity.
3.Freaction formation- protection, with the help of which, instead of the unpleasant information displaced into the unconscious, directly opposite ideas are manifested and perceived. The boy in every way offends the girl for whom he feels sympathy. This happens unconsciously. Unable to achieve reciprocity, the boy experiences a feeling of resentment. Together with the feeling of sympathy, it is repressed into the unconscious, and instead, a feeling of hostility arises in the consciousness, which manifests itself in the corresponding behavior.
4.Martization- a psychological mechanism by which a person achieves the desired results by dramatizing the situation, crying, moaning, seizures, evoking pity in others, "working for the public." One of the examples of extreme cases of manifestations of martisation is the so-called false suicide.
5. AboutSymptom recovery- ZML, characterized by the occurrence of various symptoms of psychosomatic disorders, which are activated during the action of traumatic factors. For example, a young man gets a job by winning a large competition. But he has no work experience. This naturally worries and worries him. On the eve of going to work, even in the evening, he felt normal, but at night he had a sore throat, fever, chills - all the signs of a psychosomatic illness. But all these symptoms disappeared when he came to work, and everything was going well there.
Humor - a protective mental mechanism, which manifests itself as hiding by the individual from himself and the surrounding unattainable goals displaced into the unconscious.
NS burnout - The mechanism of psychological defense developed by the individual in the form of complete or partial exclusion of emotions in response to traumatic influences. It manifests itself as a state of physical and mental exhaustion caused by emotional overstrain, which is reduced due to the formation of a personality stereotype of emotional behavior. Emotional burnout is often viewed as a consequence of the phenomenon of professional deformation in the field of human-to-human professions.
O invaluable - a protective mechanism of personality, based on a decrease in the value of goals, the achievements of other people and their own failures in order to avoid unpleasant experiences.
R nationalization - a form of psychological defense, in which the individual explains the actions unacceptable for morality with false motives that are welcomed in society. At the same time, self-respect, a sense of independence, and anxiety does not arise.
TO compensation - a psychological defense mechanism aimed at correcting or replenishing one's own real or imagined physical or mental inferiority. The author of the description of the protective mechanisms of compensation and overcompensation is A. Adler. Feelings of inferiority can become overwhelming for a variety of reasons. In response to feelings of inferiority, the individual develops two forms of defense mechanisms: compensation and overcompensation. Overcompensation is manifested in the fact that a person tries to develop those data that are poorly developed in him. Compensation is manifested in the fact that instead of developing a missing quality, a person begins to intensively develop that trait that is already well developed in him, thereby compensating for his lack. This type of compensation is called indirect, which reduces the severity of unpleasant experiences. Some authors consider several of its types as indirect compensation:
1.Cublimation- a protective mechanism of the psyche, with the help of which the energy of an unfulfilled need displaced into the unconscious is transformed into another activity by changing its direction.
2. Substitution- a change in the object of energy application (without enrolling in one educational institution, a person enters another; not receiving an invitation to a significant party, arranges his own, etc.). The difference between substitution and sublimation is that there is a change in the object that can satisfy the attraction. For example, the phenomenon of displaced aggression. With substitution, if a person experiences aggression and cannot realize it on the object that causes it (on this person), he will "pour out" it on another person.
3. Facade, mask, shielding- protection, with the help of which a person closes the inner emptiness with an external imposing facade (he does not like to read, but collects a library, acquires expensive things, a car, a cottage, seeks to occupy high positions, etc.), which is usually associated with the depersonalization of the personality.
Intellectualization - ZML, based on a person's verbalization of his own emotions and contradictions, through which the subject seeks to express his conflicts and experiences in a discursive form. Intellectualization is often compared to rationalization, since both are the result of intellectual processes. But intellectualization is the neutralization of emotion, and rationalization is a pseudo-rational explanation by a person of his desires, actions in reality caused by reasons, the recognition of which would threaten the individual with the loss of self-esteem.
AND nthrojection - ZML (assimilation), which includes in the structure of "I" without critical examination and assimilation of external standards, values, attitudes, concepts in order to reduce the threat of negative experiences.
Retroflexia- ZML, contributing to the termination of the individual's attempts to influence those around him by returning feelings back into a closed intrapersonal system and exactly against himself.
III ... "Retro protection" - this group unites those mechanisms of psychological defense that are based and use the mechanisms that arose in childhood, practically without changing them. Resorting to this type of protection indirectly testifies to a certain personal and social infantilism of a person, personal immaturity.
Ofrenzy- a mechanism for freeing a person from traumatic negative experiences by giving up activities when it is impossible to achieve the desired goal. Leaving the field of activity is usually accompanied by a rejection of activity, which can manifest itself in various forms, for example, a decrease (or rejection) of communications, an accumulation of behavior that contributes to the symbolic nullification of the previous action, which is usually accompanied by strong anxiety, feelings of guilt, etc.
Self-closing- ZML, close to retreat, but having a slightly different source. It is associated with non-conformism, and not with conformism, as in the retreat, with the direction "from". The connection of nonconformism with suggestibility sometimes gives a paradoxical effect - an individual tendency towards hermitism, asceticism, nihilism, and reactive education is manifested.
Dreflection- a special type of psychological defense associated with the withdrawal of a person from both direct contact with himself (i.e. from his own strong feelings) and from contacts with others.
Petrification- a protective absence of external manifestation of feelings, "numbness of the soul" with a relative clarity of thought, often accompanied by a switch of attention to the phenomena of the surrounding reality that are not related to the traumatic event. This mechanism is externally manifested by the corresponding face masks.
Leaving for virtual reality / virtuality- the mechanism of psychological defense, when an individual unconsciously avoids a traumatic situation. In the literature, this type of defense is sometimes called "ostrich". Avoiding psychotrauma gives the personality short-term relief, but at the same time essential needs and desires remain unsatisfied, goals are not realized, which is the reason for further spiritual searches and experiences.
Iona complex- characterized by fear of their own greatness, deviation from their destiny, flight from their talents, fear of success.
Regression- the process, mechanism, result of a person's return to previously passed (possibly childhood) stages, states, forms and methods of functioning of emotional and intellectual activity, object relations, behavior models, psychological defenses. Z. Freud identified three types of regression:
1. topical due to the functioning of the mental apparatus;
2. temporary, in which the old methods of mental organization come into play again;
3. formal, replacing the usual ways of expression and figurative representation with more primitive ones.
The specificity of regressive defense mechanisms consists in the predominance of her passive position and indicates the uncertainty in making her own decisions. In this case, it is the personal I that regresses, demonstrating its weakness and leads to a simplification (infantilization) or mismatch of behavioral structures. An example of regression is primitive mechanisms :
Negation - One of the most common forms of such behavior is rejection, denial, criticism of oneself from other people. A sick person can deny this fact. Thus, he finds the strength to continue to fight for life. However, more often than not, denial prevents people from living and working, because not recognizing criticism in their address, they do not seek to get rid of the existing shortcomings, which are subject to fair criticism.
Split - Z. Freud used this term to denote a kind of phenomenon when two paradoxical mental attitudes coexist within the personal I in relation to external reality: the first takes into account reality, the second ignores it.
Projective identification – defense mechanism studied by M. Klein. Splitting into "good self" and "bad self", starting from infancy, is an attempt to protect one's good parts from bad ones, get rid of the intolerable qualities of one's own self, turn them into one's own "persecutors." In everyday life, this can manifest itself in an exam situation in the form of fear of the teacher, hostility of representatives of different nationalities, rejection of the views and positions of other people, etc.
Partial perception - a defense mechanism, characterized by the fact that the subject is inclined to perceive only what he wants, likes, beneficial, value or significant. The rest of the information is not fixed by the individual, thus forming a kind of limited ideas about the world around him and about himself, based mainly on the "necessary" material, "cutting out" everything else from his perception.
Physical activity - Reducing anxiety caused by a forbidden urge by resolving its direct or indirect expression without developing feelings of guilt. Physical activity includes involuntary, irrelevant actions to release tension. Motor activity is a defense mechanism that also involves resistance. It arises in those situations and in those defenses when other people are not only attributed their own motives (projection), but also attacks follow. This mechanism is often manifested in people with antisocial activity - hooligans, rapists, bandits, etc.
Stunning- a mechanism for eliminating conflicts, fears, frustrations associated with trauma and achieving a sense of strength and calmness due to the effects of pharmacological substances (alcohol, drugs, etc.). This is due to the fact that alcohol and drugs change the state of consciousness, cause pleasant emotions, calming down, and at high doses the signals of trouble cease to reach consciousness. The negative side of this protective mechanism is the formation of alcoholism and drug addiction, as properties of the individual and the organism. A person with a protective mechanism of stunning perceives alcohol or drugs as means that change his mental state in the direction he wants.
Defense mechanisms in gestalt therapy.
ZML are viewed as ambivalent: both obstacles and sources of personal growth. The problem of the subject as a person is to experience being included in society, as a part of the field, but also to differentiate in this field.
1. Pathological fusion I am with We - contact and leaving with the environment is impossible or difficult, because does not differentiate itself as a whole, itself and others. The subject is not quite aware of the reasons for his behavior, does not raise the question of the reasons for what is happening, says not “I”, but “we”.
2. Retroflexion - turning to oneself - a person makes himself the subject and object of his own actions, confuses the reasons for his behavior, his own and those of others, turning everything to himself (for example, blame for everything). He does to himself what he really would like to do to others. "I am responsible for everything."
3. Introjection - “swallowing unchewed” is the appropriation / assimilation without understanding the standards, norms, attitudes, ways of thinking and behavior that do not become our own, are not digested. There is contact with the world here, but not genuine.
4. Projection - dividing the personality into parts. This is the tendency to shift responsibility for what comes from oneself (impulses, desires, etc.) onto others, the desire to put outside what belongs to oneself. Therapeutic options: group therapy, exteriorizing the inner parts and then reassembling into a whole. Projective work is a condition for the object's contact with the world.
In gestalt therapy - focus on the present moment, in psychoanalysis - analysis in the past, an explanation of the symptom.
Hello dear readers.
Today we will talk about the psychological topic again. It will be devoted to the protective mechanisms of the psyche, the ancestor of which is Freud, and will be of interest to those who want to improve their psychological competence or just remember the basics of psychology.
First of all, it should be said that having defensive reactions is normal and correct.
Protection helps to cope with resistance, relieve tension, anxiety, it regulates behavior and balances the psyche.
The defense mechanism is a weapon of your Ego, which should extinguish the conflict between "do's and don'ts." Between a small child, with his requirements and requests, and an adult, an accomplished personality, with all the attendant requirements, norms and restrictions.
Defense mechanisms most often arise from stress. But it also often happens that stress has passed, but the defense mechanism remains. And this is no longer the norm. In this case, the mechanism no longer protects, but prevents a person from living and developing. (That is, the question is how long and how correctly a person uses this or that protection).
Also, defense mechanisms can be pathological. For example, with a mental illness.
It is very important to note that all defense mechanisms are subconscious. Using the defense mechanism deliberately will not work. This will already be called a different word))
There is no clear classification of defense mechanisms. Here we will consider the main, one might say the most popular, used in psychological counseling.
Psychological defenses are conventionally divided into 2 levels. The first level is more primitive defenses, first-order defenses. The second level includes secondary defense mechanisms that are more difficult to diagnose and work.
Let's start by looking at some of the first level defenses.
The defense mechanism, familiar to a person from early childhood, is primitive insulation... A person leaves interaction with reality when there is too much load, a strong arousal state, when it is necessary to retire in order to regain peace of mind and poise. From the outside it looks like thoughtfulness, dreaminess, detachment.
The advantage of such protection is that a person does not distort reality, he simply leaves it in his fantasy world, as in another reality, less problematic and restless. Example: a student “counting crows” in class.
The downside is the desire to hide from the solution of some issues or communication by staying in your own world.
A person can also achieve a state of primitive isolation by changing his psychological state, for example, with the help of alcohol.
Some researchers have come to the conclusion that this defense mechanism is expressed in hypersensitive people.
Another first level defense mechanism is projection... A very common form in which a person attributes to another those qualities that he does not accept in himself. The mechanism seems simple, but it is very difficult to apply it to yourself.
In every person there are positive and negative sides of his personality. It is easy and pleasant to accept the positive, but it is difficult to agree with your shortcomings. If a person agrees with his shortcomings, then it is more loyal to treat the same qualities in others.
A person rejects his negative sides, because it seems to him that this preserves his self-respect. He eradicates his faults in others under the guise of protection.
In the end, it just reduces anxiety, reduces danger, which is what the defense mechanism requires.
Negation- easy-to-understand protection. The name speaks for itself. If some information, thoughts, events, actions are not acceptable, are painful, problematic, pose a threat to either a psychological or physical condition, then they are denied. They simply do not exist. The person does not even try to understand them. Convenient, isn't it?))
The disadvantage of this protection is that in the real world the situation has remained and has not disappeared anywhere.
For example, a person can deny for a long time to dare a loved one, but sooner or later this fact will have to be admitted.
Denial implies the refusal of a person from the need to adjust or rebuild. And in a situation where a person removes the defense of denial, it is important to just support him.
Mechanism displacement already belong to the group of the second order. It is somewhat similar to the denial mechanism. The difference is that in denial, a person does not even try to realize things that are unpleasant for him, but in repression, this is assumed. The result of repression is an indifference to the situation.
Distinguish between complete and partial repression. With complete repression, a person completely forgets his experiences, because they were too traumatic. For example, psychotrauma. But, despite this, traumatic events continue to affect the life, fate, health of a person, to influence his actions and behavior.
With partial repression, a person tries not to think about his experiences, but he cannot completely forget, and under certain circumstances they pop up in the form of violent emotions.
Regression... This mechanism returns a person to an earlier and primitive way of responding. People call it "falling into childhood."
This is an escape to safety, because most often it is childhood that many associate with safety. This is the position of a weak person, demanding pity, indulgences, unable to cope with something due to his “small age”.
Regression can be expressed in the denial of someone else's point of view, despite the arguments and arguments. At the moment of regression, children's habits may return: biting nails, sucking a finger, picking their nose, stuttering, etc. A person can dress not for their age, want a favorite children's delicacy, or just get sick.
Regression always occurs as an unconscious reaction, and this is its main feature. (In other cases, this is just a simulation). And more often than not, regression is associated with some kind of achievement.
For example, professional achievements. The person got a new position, but became fussy, irritated, inattentive, excitable, biting his nails, sleeping at home in flannel pajamas with a soft toy)) - signs of regression.
Regression is very common in the sexual sphere. For example, masturbation. A sexually active person solves the issue in a more primitive childish way. It's easier for him than making contact with a partner.
Finally, regression can be compared with a 2 or 3 year old child who proclaims his independence from his mother, is eager to comprehend the world and repeats his own self!
In general, regression as a defense mechanism is quite common and is a relatively simple defense mechanism. Can be adjusted. But it is more efficient to deal with the problem that caused this defensive reaction, i.e. with stress.
The next defense mechanism is rationalization... A person unconsciously tries to justify and explain his wrong or even absurd behavior. The true state of affairs is so painful that it is enveloped in a sweet shell of excuses, where a person remains "white and fluffy" in his eyes. An example of rationalization is Krylov's fable "Fox and Grapes."
Rationalization can be conscious or unconscious. The real reason can be deeply hidden from the person himself, like the core of an onion.
The work on this mechanism consists in removing one layer after another. Each subsequent layer may be more painful than the previous one. Painful for self-esteem, but good for self-knowledge.
Another second order mechanism is inversion or reactive conversion... A person replaces thoughts, feelings, actions with diametrically opposite ones. Everything has two poles. If one pole poses a threat or danger, then the person is thrown to the other, more convenient one. At the same time, the dangerous pole is no longer recognized.
For example, a boy is in love with a girl. If he reveals his feelings, then perhaps he will be ridiculed, insulted, misunderstood, scolded, etc. (From love to hate one step). He inverts his feelings and understands love as hate or irritation. Begins to pull the girl by the pigtails, call names, push and read "tenderness".
In inversion, a person may want one thing, but talk about another, or feel indifference to someone who (or what) is of great importance.
If something is a hyper-value for a person, then the opposite value necessarily hangs at the other end, no less significant, but more problematic.
If a person constantly and very clearly emphasizes that he has no competitors, then do not hesitate, he has them everywhere.
To remove this mechanism, you need to change your needs, reduce the importance of one pole. Then the separation will happen naturally.
Resistance. The closer to the problem, the brighter the resistance of the person. Resistance can be a sign that the problem is urgent and painful, as well as that the person is not ready to solve it. Sharp and strong pressure is not always justified. It is not known how the human psyche might react to such interference. The task of a consultant or psychologist, in this case, is not to press, but to highlight the problem so that a person does not feel danger or threat, because he does not yet know how to live in a new way.
Sublimation. Perhaps the most common and acceptable way. It can even be very successful if implemented correctly. It implies the transformation of forbidden desires into other activities that are allowed in society (perhaps approved and encouraged by it).
If something cannot be done, then a person does what is possible.
A very common example of the sublimation of personal problems can be found in creativity and art. Poems written by unhappy lovers, canvases stunning in their images, music that causes goosebumps ... All this can be praised by people, a person can win fame, honor, respect, but .... But sublimation is not a solution to a problem, so a person can remain unhappy all his life, remaining a genius for everyone.
The solution is to work on the real problem.
In astropsychology, the concept of sublimation is very often mentioned. This is one of possible solutions for problem planets, the functions of which suffer and make any sphere of human life extremely limited.
From an astropsychological point of view, we can say that most of the defense mechanisms are expressed in the chart by the opposition of the planets to each other. Resistance can be represented by quadrature. Sublimation can be thought of as a clever trine resolution of tense planets.
PROTECTIVE MECHANISMS OF PSYCHE
IN DEPRESSIVE CONDITIONS
Introduction
.Justification of defense mechanisms in Freud
1The nature of depression
2Depression as a source of hidden anger
3Depression mechanisms
4Excitation and inhibition
.Psychological defense mechanisms in reactive depression
.Defense mechanisms of the psyche in depressive states
1Introjection
2Rationalization
3Suppression and displacement
4Projection or transfer
5Identification or identification
6 Negation
Conclusion
Literature
Introduction
When difficult situations arise in our life, problems, we ask ourselves the questions "how to be?" and “what to do?”, and then we try to somehow resolve the existing difficulties, and if it doesn’t work, then we resort to the help of others. Problems are external (lack of money, no work ...), but there are also internal problems, it is more difficult to deal with them (often even one does not want to admit them, it hurts, it is unpleasant).
People react in different ways to their inner difficulties: they suppress their inclinations, denying their existence, “forget” about the traumatic event, look for a way out in self-justification and condescension to their “weaknesses”, try to distort reality and engage in self-deception. All this is sincere, thus, people protect their psyche from painful stress, help them with this protective mechanisms.
What are defense mechanisms?
Thus, we can say that defense mechanisms are a system of regulatory mechanisms that serve to eliminate or reduce to minimal negative, traumatic experiences for a person. These experiences are mainly associated with internal or external conflicts, states of anxiety or discomfort. The mechanisms of protection are aimed at maintaining the stability of the self-esteem of the individual, her self-image and the image of the world, which can be achieved, for example, in such ways as:
elimination from consciousness of sources of conflict experiences,
transformation of conflict experiences in such a way as to prevent the emergence of a conflict.
Many psychologists, psychotherapists and psychoanalysts have studied the defense mechanisms of the psyche. Their works show that a person uses these mechanisms in those cases when he has instinctive drives, the expression of which is under social prohibition (for example, uncontrolled sexuality), defense mechanisms also act as buffers in relation to our consciousness of those disappointments and threats, that life brings us. Some consider psychological protection to be a mechanism for the functioning of a normal psyche, which prevents the occurrence of various kinds of disorders. This is a special form of psychological activity, realized in the form of separate methods of information processing in order to preserve the integrity of the Ego. In those cases when the Ego cannot cope with anxiety and fear, it resorts to mechanisms of a kind of distortion of a person's perception of reality.
To date, more than 20 types of defense mechanisms are known, all of them are subdivided into primitive defense and secondary (higher order) defense mechanisms.
The functions of psychological protection are inherently contradictory: on the one hand, they contribute to the adaptation of a person to his own inner world, but at the same time, on the other hand, they can worsen his adaptation to the external social environment.
We tend to view psychological defense mechanisms as specific to a person and a very important means of socio-psychological adaptation.
The purpose of this course work is to identify: what protective mechanisms of our psyche are triggered in depressive conditions and reduce emotional stress. And also, get acquainted with the theory of the emergence of psychological mechanisms and generally identify the nature of depression.
An object. The object of research of this work will be the human psyche.
Subject of study. Defense mechanisms of the psyche.
Tasks. Study the theory of defense mechanisms and identify their action in depressive states.
In formal scientific terms, depression is a depressed mood. But low mood, low mood strife. Each of us in our life has repeatedly been upset, fell into melancholy and cursed our fate on what the world stands, but not everyone knows what real depression is. When you just get upset, somewhere within yourself you know well: this is temporary, it is not forever, “just unlucky,” this is a non-binding failure. In depression, everything is different, there is no "disorder" here, there is some kind of upset, it seems that you were taken and upset, like an old piano. This is not trivial bad luck, this is a feeling of hopelessness.
According to one of the hypotheses, depression is a defense mechanism, when a person is overwhelmed by unfulfillable desires, one of the ways to preserve oneself is to give up desires altogether. Secondly, the perception of the world is distorted.
When, figuratively speaking, the psychological motor of a person begins to vibrate threateningly, causing unbearable suffering, the state of depression sharply "slows down", almost stops the "motor". Thus, it saves the motor from complete failure. Depression saves a person from his unbearable inner pain, softens the unbearable pressure of the current situation, as if holding back the pressure of emotions, which can often lead to self-destruction.
Everything that happens in mental life, as a result of which anxiety or depressive affect decreases - ideally disappears - belongs to the class of defenses.
1. Justification of defense mechanisms in Freud
For the first time this term appeared in 1894 in the work of Z. Freud "Protective neuropsychoses". The mechanism of psychological defense is aimed at depriving the significance and thereby neutralizing the psychologically traumatic moments (for example, the Fox from the famous fable "The Fox and the Grapes").
These are unconscious actions or counteractions or adaptive ways of experiencing a person, aimed at protecting against the dangers and threats to which he is exposed from the reality surrounding him and his own inner world; they also allow for a positive assessment of one's own self. In other words, it is the psyche's response to painful factors. The defenses are formed individually in the process of personality development.
Defense mechanisms can be designated as successful if their implementation finally blocks unwanted urges and unsuccessful ones, in which it is necessary to repeat or perpetuate the process of preventing forbidden urges. Pathogenic types of defense mechanisms that underlie neuroses belong to unsuccessful ones: blocked impulses do not reach discharge, but remain in a suspended state at the unconscious level and even intensify due to the constant action of their bodily sources, their connection with the rest of the personality is lost, in as a result, tension arises and a breakthrough is possible - the emergence of neurosis.
The followers of Z. Freud - A. Freud, K. Levin, T. Shebutani - described the conditions for the inclusion of psychological defense, its goals and functions. In Russian psychology, this topic long time was practically closed mainly for ideological reasons, however, a number of researchers in the USSR, and then in Russia, studied psychological processes that are similar in essence and ego-defense mechanisms. The most famous of them was F. Bassin, who devoted many years of his life to the study of the perceptual attitude. Currently, in Russian psychology there are works on the influence of psychological defense on the processes of social adaptation and personality development on the formation of certain variants of deviant behavior and neuropsychological disorders.
There is a classification of defense mechanisms by dividing them into "primitive" and "higher order", which makes it possible to judge the level of organization of the personality of their carrier. Typically, defenses regarded as primary, immature, primitive, or defenses lower order include those that deal with the border between their own I and the outside world. Defenses ranked as secondary, more mature, more advanced, or defenses higher order , work with internal boundaries - between the I, the Super-I and the It, or between the observing and experiencing parts of the I. Borderline or psychotic personality structure is due to the lack of mature defenses.
In psychoanalytic descriptions, it has become generally accepted to define the following defenses as "primitive": primitive isolation, denial, omnipotent control, primitive idealization and devaluation, projective and introjective identification, self-splitting, dissociation.
People whose personalities are described by psychoanalytic observers as being organized on a neurotic level rely mainly on mature second-order defenses. At the same time, they also use primitive defenses, which, however, are not so noticeable against the background of their general functioning and are manifested, as a rule, only during times of extraordinary stress. The main defenses of the "higher order" in accordance with the frequency of their mention by therapists-practitioners and their correlation with individual character patterns are repression, regression, isolation, intellectualization, rationalization, moralization, compartmentalization, annulment, turning against oneself, displacement, reactive formation, reversal, identification, response, sexualization. The most mature higher defenses(sublimation and humor) can be attributed to the mechanisms of overcoming anxious situations.
By the set of basic defenses used, it is possible to generally determine the type of organization of a person's character. The general classification looks like this:
psychopathic personality - omnipotent control, projective identification, dissociation and acting out;
narcissistic personality - idealization and devaluation;
schizoid personalities - primitive isolation, intellectualization. Less commonly, projection, introjection, denial, depreciation;
paranoid personalities - projection, projective identification, unusual forms of denial and reactive formations;
depressed personalities - introjection, turning against oneself, idealization;
manic personalities - denial, external reaction, sexualization, devaluation, in a psychotic state - omnipotent control;
masochistic personalities - as well as depressive introjection, turning against oneself, idealization, in addition, outside reaction (with the risk of harming oneself), denial, moral masochists - moralization;
obsessive personalities - isolation of affect, rationalization, moralization, separate thinking, intellectualization, reactive education, affect displacement;
compulsive personalities - reversal, reactive education;
hysterical personalities - repression, sexualization, regression, anti-phobic acting out, less often dissociative defenses;
dissociative personalities - dissociation.
Where do the different types of protection come from?
The answer is paradoxical and simple: from childhood. A child comes into the world without psychological defense mechanisms, all of them are acquired by him at that tender age when he is poorly aware of what he is doing, he is simply trying to survive, preserving his soul.
One of the brilliant discoveries of psychodynamic theory was the discovery of the crucial role of early childhood trauma. The earlier the child receives mental trauma, the deeper the layers of the personality are "deformed" in the adult. The social situation and the system of relationships can give rise to feelings in the soul of a young child that will leave an indelible mark on the whole life, and sometimes devalue it.
The task of the earliest stage of growing up, described by Freud, is to establish normal relations with the first "object" in the child's life - the mother's breast, and through it - with the whole world. If the child is not abandoned, if the mother is driven not by an idea, but by a subtle feeling and intuition, the child will be understood. If such an understanding does not occur - one of the most severe personal pathologies is laid down - basic trust in the world is not formed. The feeling arises and becomes stronger that the world is fragile, that it will not be able to hold me back if I fall. Such an attitude to the world accompanies an adult throughout his life. Unconstructively solved problems of this early age lead to the fact that a person perceives the world in a distorted manner. Fear overwhelms him. A person cannot perceive the world soberly, trust himself and people, he often lives with the doubt that he himself exists at all. Protection from fear in such individuals occurs with the help of powerful, so-called primitive, defense mechanisms.
Defense mechanisms, having provided assistance to the I in the difficult years of its development, do not remove their barriers. The strengthened self of an adult continues to defend itself against dangers that no longer exist in reality; it even feels obliged to look for situations in reality that could at least approximately replace the initial danger in order to justify the usual ways of reactions. So, it is not difficult to understand how defense mechanisms, becoming more and more alienated from the external world and weakening the I for a long time, prepare an outbreak of neurosis, favoring it.
Starting with Z. Freud and in subsequent works of specialists studying the mechanisms of psychological defense, it has been repeatedly noted that the defense habitual for a person under normal conditions, in extreme, critical, stressful living conditions, has the ability to consolidate, acquiring the form of fixed psychological defenses.
2. The nature of depression
1 Depression
Depression is a mental disorder and it has its own history, its own nature. In essence, this is a pathological, that is, a painful intensification of a normal emotion that is natural for each of us - emotions of grief, sadness, suffering. As in any other system, we have both “weak links” and “defense mechanisms”. Somewhere our genes let us down, and somewhere we substitute ourselves. To understand all this means to find out: who is your enemy and who is your friend, whom you can rely on and who you can trust, and what, on the contrary, must be prevented in every possible way. That is why everything that at first seems to be just a “bare theory” is in fact a thorough and serious preparation for the great battle, which we must give to our depression.
Negative emotional experiences, including of course the emotion of grief, are natural psychological reactions. But their cause is not at all the unfavorable external factors themselves, but the failure that the psyche is experiencing, forced to rebuild in new, changed circumstances. In other words, even normally, our negative emotions are not so much a primitive reaction to troubles as a problem of the psyche itself, which cannot change as quickly as circumstances sometimes require.
And this point should be specially noted. No matter how blasphemous it may sound, we all know well: a person is able to get used to everything and to be reconciled with everything. Even the loss of loved ones, being a serious psychological trauma, turns out to be only a temporary tragedy. A month, another, a year or several years will pass, and this wound will heal, and the person will be able to live with the same psychological attitude. Consequently, the problem is not in the loss itself, but in the fact that the human psyche at some stage cannot cope with the changes that such a loss entails. If we could cut out these few months or years of life from the personal history of this person, make, so to speak, an editing, we would see that there are no significant differences in the emotional state of this person before and after this tragedy.
Therefore, if it comes about the psychological state into which life's catastrophes plunge us, is only partly determined by the trauma itself, the severity of what happened. The main problem is in our brain, which is not able to quickly reorganize, instantly get used to new, changed conditions of life. In a number of cases, however, such slowness turns into a new tragedy - a person gets used to his depressive state, and then simply cannot get out of it, since this would be a new violation of his now habitual depressive way of life.
It should be borne in mind that almost all people experience depression from time to time. In Pushkin's letters, starting from 1834, one can come across such phrases: "I have a decidedly spleen ...", "I started a lot, but I don't want to go to anything ..." I am not well ... It seems as if there are no visible reasons. Invisible - somewhere deep in my soul. Everything hurts, I can not work, I give up what I started. " Familiar and surprisingly similar symptoms, isn't it?
There is no person who does not know what a depressed mood, a feeling of depression and hopelessness is. Often we find excuses for our gloomy mood, but are we identifying the true cause?
Different people talk about different and even opposite sources of their condition. The real causes of depression can be in an individual's predisposition to experiencing severe emotional states: increased sensitivity, subtlety, insecurity, vulnerability. People who were brought up in conflict families, and in childhood often experienced feelings of resentment, fear, humiliation and depression, are prone to depression.
Among the causes of depression is also chronic stress, when for a long period a person feels insecure about the future, lives in conditions of instability, social and financial insecurity.
Some patients (especially men) tend to initially deny their sadness, but after clearing up all other depressive symptoms, they tend to become aware and acknowledge the emotions they are experiencing. It is significant that many of those who choose the statement “I don’t feel sad” from the first set of alternatives on Beck’s Depression Scale, change their answer to “I feel sad” after completing the entire questionnaire.
The patient may talk about a variety of symptoms associated with depression (for example, loss of energy, sleep disturbances, loss of appetite, negative attitudes), but does not admit to himself that he is experiencing longing or sadness - instead, he complains of loss or weakening positive feelings, speaks of the absence of the previous affection and love for the spouse, children, friends, the loss of interest in life, the impossibility of enjoying the activities that once pleased him. In other words, he is aware of his apathy, but not sadness.
For example, a 35-year-old housewife complained that during the year she noted increased fatigue, weakness, apathy, although at the reception she looked quite cheerful and claimed that she did not feel unhappy and did not feel melancholy. She told the psychiatrist literally the following: “I do not understand why I constantly feel so tired. I have a wonderful husband and wonderful children. I am completely happy with my marriage ... in fact, I have everything that a person could want. " Fulfilling the therapist's request for more details about her relationship with her husband, she began to describe a specific incident from her family life and suddenly burst into tears - to her own amazement and the therapist's surprise. She found it difficult to reconcile her feelings of sadness with the rosy ideas she cherished about her marriage.
She wept as she recounted some of her husband’s most typical actions. Then, having calmed down a little, she said: "You know ... I probably didn't fully realize how much it hurts me." She stated that now she feels an unprecedented melancholy. The melancholy intensified as the patient realized more and more that her relationship with her husband was far from ideal, and was a kind of barometer showing the depth of family problems. After the patient learned to recognize her negative feelings, she was able to bind them to the knowledge she had, namely, “He is inattentive to others,” “He always acts as it is convenient for him,” “He does not care what I want,” “ He treats me like an unintelligent child. "
As a result of a short therapeutic consultation, the patient found that refusing to use absolute measures in assessing her husband reduced her melancholy and alleviated other depressive symptoms. Before therapy, it was common for her to evaluate her husband from an all-or-nothing position, to see in him either only good or only bad features, moreover, “ bad marks"Were immediately discarded (and forgotten). Following the therapist's advice, she began to more definitely declare her desires to her husband and was surprised to find that he was sympathetic to them. Almost at the same time, her former cheerfulness and energy returned to her. Curiously, for 15 years after that consultation, she had no depressive symptoms.
2 Depression as a source of latent anger
Repression is the lack of the ability to defend yourself.
Repression is viewed as a means by which a person copes with normal, from the point of view of development, but unfulfilled desires. A person must achieve a sense of the integrity and continuity of his own "I" before he begins to restrain the disturbing impulses of repression.
When we - or the order that has developed in our world - is threatened by someone or something, we worry or get angry. The internal mechanisms of our psyche mobilize us to defend ourselves, to ward off danger and to restore our sense of security and control of the situation. If such protection does not occur, depression sets in, an oppressed state of mind.
When we are depressed, we simply accept the situation, passively resigning ourselves to it. A much healthier psychological response would be to rise up to fight injustice.
While this response is much healthier, it cannot be said that it is typical for a woman to be aware of her feelings.
“I was struck by the sadness of Judy who called me, which sounded in her words from the very beginning of the conversation,” writes Dr. Laura. In a voice that sounded deeply sad, she described her situation, which could confuse anyone. Three years earlier, when she was forty-five, she confronted her father with the fact that he had raped her as a child, and he admitted it. But then he began to deny everything, claiming that she invented everything. And her mother took the side of "sweet daddy".
After that, Judy's husband broke off all relations with his father-in-law and did not seem to see him again, but shortly before her call to me, Judy suddenly found out that they had a meeting and they spent some time together. And now, because of all this, she "was in a depressed and dull state." Depressed and sad - but not angry? And when I said that women too often substitute depression for their anger, she agreed with me. "
Anger is a manifestation of the highest degree of discontent and resentment. It is also the trigger for the psyche. Our anger can have many disguises: it can manifest itself as irritation, anxiety, resentment, rage, or rage. But no matter what disguise it comes across, the common denominator is energy output.
Little girls are always angry when something is not the way they want it. And with them there is always someone who knows: they don’t like something. What happens when girls grow up, become women, and face events that might actually make them angry?
Their reaction is different: self-doubt, complaints and a desire to evoke sympathy, they can blame themselves, fall into a depressed state of mind, become confused - and much more. But all this has nothing to do with the desire to solve the problem on the basis of an objective approach, while showing courage.
Is it because women do not recognize the justice of their anger? The main problem here is that women are afraid of the consequences of manifesting their discontent. Therefore, anger takes the form of distraction, embarrassment, resentment, or depression. By the way, women suffer from depression twice as often as men.
Take, for example, this letter from a twenty-eight-year-old girl who is about to get married after being engaged a year and a half ago:
“Basically, we have good relations, but this is what interests me. We are a good match for each other sexually. But he ejaculates too quickly, and I resort to self-gratification. He says that we have great sex, but he wants to have an orgasm again, so he watches videos with lesbians after I go to bed, and we make love 2-3 times a week. He uses the telephone sex service and does not tell me about it. Is his behavior normal? What does all this mean?"
So, the girl realizes that she is unhappy, and is even able to express her concern, but does not give vent to her anger. Instead, she plays mind games and asks what this all means. If her fiancé gives her an outwardly reasonable explanation of her behavior, she will hide her feelings of resentment, rage and dissatisfaction as deeply as possible and will not give them a go.
Without giving way to anger, women suffer from resentment. And while they are suffering from it, they will not take a single step in order to change the form of expression of their feelings, in order to improve the situation or get away from an unfavorable situation.
Resentment robs resistance.
Resentment is essentially a wound or some kind of injury, mainly inflicted on your personality. What we are discussing is not a shattered knee or an overworked muscle; it is what causes pain in the emotional realm. This damage is of a mental rather than physical nature. We are offended by such an attitude of other people towards us, which, in our opinion, we did not deserve and could not expect; we see that dreams are not counted. Resentment against a person is a clear indicator of how much we care about this person, and highlights our need - psychologically healthy or not - for this person.
When we are afraid of not meeting the requirements of others, showing our resentment or sensitivity to insults, when we are afraid of provoking the rage of others, their disapproval or being punished, we find our anger in a completely inappropriate place to store it. Expression of courage can instantly heal us from such experiences: you need to find the strength in yourself, talk openly about the problem - and to your indescribable pleasure, discover that you can get rid of these qualities in yourself!
2.3 Mechanisms of depression
Well, now we are roughly familiar with depression. But before proceeding to the analysis of its symptoms, we need to concretize some points, namely, those mental mechanisms that create our depression.
The first mental mechanism involved in the formation of depression, the principle by which our brain works in normal conditions, is called the “dominant principle”. It was discovered by our remarkable physiologist, professor at St. Petersburg University, Alexei Alekseevich Ukhtomsky. The essence of the dominant principle is literally the following: when some center of the brain is excited, it gradually becomes dominant and suppresses (inhibits) the work of other centers of the brain. Moreover, the excitement that occurs in these non-dominant centers is redirected to maintain and strengthen the dominant center.
In other words, depression is almost a stalemate! A “depressive dominant” is formed in a person (the system of functioning of our brain with corresponding reactions, responses, interconnections, depressive thoughts, etc., etc.). At the same time, other centers of the brain, on the contrary, are inhibited, and even more than that, they give their excitement to the growing depression. A person suffering from depression finds himself in a kind of vicious circle precisely because of the principle of dominant. If we try to cheer him up, he gets worse. If we try to distract him, he with surprising (but not for a physiologist or psychotherapist!) Persistence returns to his old ideas and depression.
Simply put, after a person is fixed on some depressive experience, it - this experience - begins an aggressive tactic. And if the depressive focus was organized first in one part of the brain, then very soon it will spread to its other parts. Something was "bad", everything will become "bad".
The dominant of the depressed patient, like a black hole, devours everything and everyone and, despite all efforts, only grows and grows. Therefore, no treatment, except for a strictly and scientifically grounded anti-depressive - pharmacological and psychotherapeutic - will have no effect. A.A. Ukhtomsky liked to say: "The world is such as our dominants are." What is the "world" of a person with a depressive dominant, it should be clear ...
The second mental mechanism, which plays one of the most important roles in the development of depression, is the mechanism of “dynamic stereotype” (or, more simply, habits), discovered and scientifically substantiated by Academician Ivan Petrovich Pavlov. Since a person gets used to everything, he is quite capable of getting used to his depressive state. And as you know, fighting a habit is a thankless task.
And those around us tell us: “Yes, this is all nonsense! Give it up! Why are you winding yourself up ?! Do not think about it!" And we seem to agree with them, but the same whistle continues in my head - “everything is bad, everything is bad”. Do you think this is an accident? Yes? And apples fall to the ground "because they are heavy," right? No, apples fall to the ground because gravitational forces act on them, and depression is retained in our head not by itself, but by the mechanism of a dynamic stereotype.
A suffering habit may just be a suffering habit, and it doesn't have to be depression. But on the other hand, the very psychological mechanism of habit can play a cruel joke on us if we develop depression. Here a kind of vicious circle arises - we fall into depression, get used to it, and then we are no longer able to get out of it. Moreover, if we have depression once, and the brain has learned to be "depressive", then later the risk of depression in us increases significantly. If there is a prepared template, then it is always easier to adapt new circumstances to it.
And the worst thing about all this is that nature, as we already know, has provided a biological mechanism to protect our habit from changes. Therefore, whenever we try to reverse this pathological tendency towards sadness and longing, the brain will automatically resist these attempts, generating anxiety and internal tension, as if wanting to punish us for trying to change the state of affairs in our brain. Since depression also arose for these purposes, that is, in order for us to cope with the destructive force of anxiety, such reactions of our psyche only intensify depressive reactions.
Finally, the third fundamental mental mechanism that dominates us in a state of depression is associated with the specifics of what is called language (or speech). We usually think that consciousness is "clear reason" and the unconscious is "dark forces." In a sense, this is true, however, consciousness with the unconscious has a very difficult relationship - complexly organized, corrupt ties. Actually, these connections were opened again by a Russian scientist, an outstanding researcher of human psychology - Lev Semenovich Vygotsky.
I would like to think that we are rational beings, and our consciousness fully guides our subconsciousness. Blessed is he who believes, and yet he is not immune to the development of severe depression, since the situation is actually the exact opposite. It is not consciousness that guides our subconscious, but the subconscious, whether it is wrong, guides our consciousness. Consciousness obediently fulfills all instructions coming from “below”, and, moreover, it still wants to curry favor with this “bottom”. Therefore, if a negative emotion sits in the subcortex, consciousness will not convince us that everything is fine. On the contrary, it will be everyone possible ways cultivate and nurture a pessimistic, depressive ideology.
Our emotions "lodge" in the unconscious. Consciousness, however, can only accept their attitude, and in the case of depression, it is appropriate. We ourselves, without suspecting it, will have to curse our lives, cook up depressive libels about the "injustice of the world", our own "inconsistency," "the hopelessness of the future," etc., etc.
And therefore, such speeches in the mouth of a person suffering from depression are by no means an accident and, by by and large are not his opinion. This is the opinion of his depression, and his own is simply absent at this moment. The subconscious dictates to us the appropriate speech, and our consciousness is only their expression. But how capable, how gifted and what a zealous performer it turns out in this case! Captures the spirit! It is simply impossible to hear what a person who is depressed is saying and not to admire the possibilities of “ideology” and “propaganda”!
Here is such a cunning and predatory beast - depression.
4 Excitation and inhibition
How does the “learned helplessness” discovered by Martin Seligman arise? The answer to this question is not given by an American, but by Russian science. The fact that the nervous system tends to be excited is no secret to anyone, but the fact that this system itself can also be inhibited for a long time remained a mystery.
<Путь от амебы к человеку казался философам очевидным прогрессом - хотя неизвестно, согласилась бы с этим мнением амеба. - Бертран Рассел>
The question of braking was posed by the great Russian scientist - Ivan Mikhailovich Sechenov. Later, this teaching will be developed by N.E. Vvedensky, I.P. Pavlov and A.A. Ukhtomsky, it is they who will prove that inhibition is no less, and maybe even a more important function of the nervous apparatus than excitation.
Inhibition is by no means the result of fatigue; it is another, extremely specific form of activity. And if the processes of excitation produce some kind of activity in response to a particular stimulus, then inhibition, on the contrary, retains, blocks such an action.
In fact, in dogs with “learned helplessness,” the anxiety that developed against the background of stress began to be inhibited and blocked. And this, of course, is a big plus for the body. However, this plus, like any medal, has a downside. The inhibition that develops in the brain cannot be limited to anxiety alone, it extends to other spheres of activity of a living being. That is why this initially defense mechanism is subsequently destructive.
In a person who is in depression, the internal tension is so great that an overload arises, and at some point, one might say, traffic jams fly out. As a result, not only his anxiety is inhibited in a depressed patient, but also activity in various spheres of his life - appetite decreases, as a result of which he loses weight, libido, and therefore his sexual desire disappears, attention and memory becomes unusable.
The first thing a depressed patient will tell his doctor about is not that he has a low mood (this circumstance worries him in the very last place), no, he will share his surprise with the doctor. He is surprised at himself - his desires have disappeared, he wants nothing more, nothing at all, nothing pleases him or interests him, anhedonia develops - a state of inability to receive pleasure. Why? Precisely because of that initially protective inhibition, which tried to protect him from anxiety, and as a result - protected him from life itself. The loss of a sense of pleasure, a sense of joy is painful. Remember the tale of the sold laughter, and everything will become clear to you: such an existence, devoid of activity, joy, pleasure, is unusually painful.
So a person, falling into the hands of depression, on the one hand, protects himself from destructive anxiety, and on the other hand, on the contrary, in the literal sense of the word, exposes himself. And we must understand that when we begin to fight depression, we are fighting not just with the enemy, but with the enemy, to whose help we once resorted, and therefore we cannot get out of the alliance made with him overnight.
On the other hand, being depressed, inhibited, we do not have enough strength to cope with depression. We can say that the processes of inhibition put our forces on the depositor, that is, we seem to have these forces, but it is very, very difficult to use them. This, in fact, is the main problem of depression - a person finds himself in a situation of a pronounced deficit of strength, and he cannot even use the forces that he has left. Of course, all this only reinforces the feeling of hopelessness.
3. Mechanisms of psychological defense in reactive depression
Although reactive depression is now generally identified with neurotic depression or situational depression, the term originally referred to psychotic depression, which, unlike endogenous depression, arises in response to triggers. Depressive mood develops in people undergoing changes or the threat of life changes. At the same time, an important psychodynamic factor is the conscious or unconscious perception of such changes as personal loss. The loss is usually easy to identify. This can be a betrayal of a lover, the death of a spouse, divorce, job loss, etc. However, in other situations it is necessary to establish its unconscious symbolic meaning. For example, a promotion may be experienced as a loss rather than a success if the lower status was used by the individual as a defense against Oedipus conflict; unconsciously, the loss of defensive adaptation leads to the emergence of guilt associated with the oedipal triumph: promotion symbolically means superiority over the father.
Many people who have developed object constancy react sharply to changes. To adapt to new conditions, they need to weaken their connection with the past, to experience the loss of what they have acquired, which is typical of the process of sadness. A person may have difficulty following a loss, especially if they have been too dependent on others to maintain self-esteem. Individuals with such addiction are especially prone to situational depression. They maintain an intense but ambivalent internal relationship with the psychic representatives of the lost object. Love for the represented object leads to identification aimed at keeping it within oneself, while the feeling of hatred requires its destruction. As the individual identifies with the lost object, he experiences these destructive forces as directed against himself. If at the same time depressive symptoms are not significantly expressed, this condition is designated as depressive neurosis; however, situational depression can turn into more severe depression.
The emergence of reactive states is closely associated with the presence of a traumatic situation. The development of the latter is associated with a high degree of negative subjective assessment of certain aspects of the surrounding reality. Such an assessment facilitates the transition of the existing mechanisms of psychological defense to more intense functioning. The degree of awareness of the effect of psychological defense is different depending on the duration of existence and the severity of the impact of traumatic factors. The emergence of reactive depression is the result of the failure of individual defense mechanisms in the successful "experience" of the situation, contributing to an increase in the level of anxiety, leading to the disintegration of mental activity.
The authors examined 18 cases of reactive depression that developed in premorbid healthy individuals in psycho-traumatic situations of various nature. In 12 observations, a clinical picture of depression was noted with hysterical components in the form of theatricality of behavior, exaggeration of painful experiences, and rental attitudes. In 6 cases of observations, there was a clinical picture of depression with psychomotor retardation.
In all cases of observation, against the background of a nonspecific compensatory reaction (depression), the previous mechanisms of psychological defense (denial, projection) were observed, also noted in the premorbid period. With the development of symptoms, these defense mechanisms were automated and became more rigid. In addition, the gradual inclusion of such mechanisms of psychological defense as rationalization and repression was noted.
When providing psychotherapeutic assistance, the main emphasis was on the patients' awareness of the inconsistency and immaturity of the existing mechanisms of psychological defense, which impede the understanding of the causes of the development of depressive symptoms. The gradual “refusal” of patients from the existing rigid defense mechanisms led to a decrease in the level of anxiety and a noticeable weakening of depressive symptoms.
Thus, the rate of reduction of reactive depressive symptoms depends on the speed of addition of additional defense mechanisms and the patient's awareness of the failure of the functioning of the “old” rigid defense mechanisms.
Everything that happens in mental life, as a result of which anxiety or depressive affect decreases - ideally disappears - belongs to the class of defenses. The defenses are not special mechanisms of the ego ... "(Brenner, 1982) Based on the above clinical picture of patients, it can be said that they use all kinds of complex behaviors for defensive purposes, and the interpretation of these defensive maneuvers has played a central role in their analyzes.
Detailed description defense mechanisms - introjection, denial, projection, identification, rationalization, I will consider in the next chapter.
depression defensive mental disorder
4. Defense mechanisms of the psyche in depressive states
1 Introjection
It is a symbolic internalization (inclusion) of a person or an object. The action of the mechanism is opposite to the projection. Introjection plays a very important role in early personality development, since parental values and ideals are assimilated on its basis. The mechanism is updated during mourning, with the loss of a loved one. With the help of introjection, the differences between the objects of love and the self are eliminated. Sometimes, instead of bitterness or aggression towards other people, derogatory motives turn into self-criticism, self-depreciation, because the accused has been introjected. This is common with depression.
It is well known from both direct observation in natural conditions and empirical research that in situations of fear or abuse, people try to master their fear and suffering by adopting the qualities of their tormentors. I am not a helpless victim; I strike blows myself and I am powerful - people are unconsciously attracted to such protection. Understanding this mechanism is critical to the psychotherapy process.
Another way in which introjection can lead to pathology is through grief and its relationship to depression. When we love someone or are deeply attached to someone, we introject that person, and his representation within us becomes part of our identity ( I'm Tom's son, Mary's husband, Sue's father, Dan's friend etc). If the person whose image we internalized has died, is separated from us or rejected, we feel not only that the world around us has become poorer, but also that we ourselves have somehow decreased, some part of our own I AM died. The feeling of emptiness begins to dominate our inner world. In addition, if, in an effort to recreate the presence of a beloved object, instead of letting it go, we are preoccupied with the question of what kind of mistake or sin we have left us. The attractive power of this usually unconscious process is based on the hidden hope that, having realized our mistake, we will return the person (another manifestation of infantile omnipotence). Thus, if we try to avoid grief, we receive unconscious self-reproach in return. In its most general form, the psychoanalytic approach to depression is formulated in the classic work of Z. Freud "Sadness and Melancholy". Depression is associated with the loss of the object of libidinal attachment. According to Z. Freud, there is a phenomenological similarity between the normal reaction of mourning and clinically expressed depression.
The mechanism of the occurrence of grief can be represented as follows: the individual, having lost the object of attachment, introjects it and begins to feel hatred towards it. In the period of grief, "light gaps" are possible, when the ability to experience positive emotions and even be happy returns to a person. In these episodes, the introjected object seems to come to life in the internal plane of the individual, but there is always more hatred for the object than love, and depression returns. The individual believes that the object is to blame for leaving him. Normally, over time, the internalized object is freed from hatred, and the ability to experience happiness returns to the individual, regardless of whether the internalized object has "come to life" or not.
If a person is unable over time to internally separate from a loved one, whose image is introjected to him, and cannot emotionally switch to other people (which is the function of the grieving process), he will continue to feel reduced unworthy, exhausted and lost. People who systematically use introjection to reduce anxiety and maintain the integrity of their own I AM by retaining psychological ties with unsatisfactory objects of early years of life, one can reasonably be considered as characterologically depressive.
2 Rationalization
E. Fromm noted that rationalization is a way to "stay in the herd" and feel like a person.
Rationalization is the process of a logical, rational explanation by a person of his own thoughts, actions, attitudes, deeds, allowing one to justify and hide their true motives. The concept of rationalization was contained in the works of many writers and scientists, since this phenomenon is widespread in people's lives.
The student explains that he didn't homework because I was busy more important matters; an entrepreneur is not ashamed to hide his income because “everyone does it”; the rejected admirer believes that the girl is not so attractive, and he will find himself who is not only more beautiful, but smarter and understands him better; an applicant who has not entered the university says that there are many such specialists now and it is difficult to find a good job.
Rationalization is based on the peculiarities of thinking, making decisions by "filtering" information in accordance with the basic rules between "must" and "must not" and obtaining the conclusion necessary at the moment to justify one's action (the presence of arguments, evidence, justifications, the need for just such, and not another form of behavior). Subsequently, the individual, as a rule, does not try to revise these relations.
The mechanism of rationalization is close to intellectualization, but in the first case, the entire selection of facts by the individual is aimed at proving the statement or denial of the goal, while in the second - its value. Rationalization is more related to motivation, intellectualization is a logical-perceptual component of psychological defense.
For example, if a person buys a very large apartment, explaining that there is a lot of furniture, things, household appliances, then he may have hidden a true prestigious motive to substantiate the correctness of his decision. Personality replaces the actual motive of behavior with a "rational pseudo-motive".
Rationally defenders try to build their concept from different points of view as a panacea for anxiety. Think in advance about all the options for their behavior and their consequences. And emotional experiences are often masked by intensified attempts to rationalize events. Consider Oblomov's situation, in particular his letter to Olga. Oblomov is afraid of Olga's love, she will "pull" him out of his usual state of laziness and peace of mind. This love is troublesome for him. Oblomov is afraid that love for Olga will become "not a luxury of life," but a necessity. As he himself writes: “All this (excitement of the heart, anxiety and joy) is in the face of youth, which easily endures both pleasant and unpleasant excitements; and peace suits me, although boring, sleepy, but it is familiar to me: and I cannot handle storms. "
What a Jesuitically intelligent device he resorts to in writing! He tries to convince Olga that her love, although sincere, is “not real; it is only an unconscious need to love, which, for the lack of true love, burns with a false, non-heating light. " Her love for him, they say, is only the threshold, a prologue. And when she (love) really comes, she will be ashamed.
Rationalization plays a positive role when a person lives in situations that cause negative experiences, is depressed and, thereby, making it possible to better adapt to them. However, the frequent use of this psychological defense mechanism leads to an inadequate assessment of the problems that arise, based on a series of deceptive self-justifications.
If a person cannot find a worthy intellectual justification for his actions, justifying his actions, then this is manifested in reservations, misspellings, and incorrect gestures. They, as it were, by their own chance, relieve the person of the search for worthy explanations and proofs.
Sometimes, rationalization-type protection plays a truly adaptive role, allowing a person to reduce the level of emotional stress without any harm to himself and others. Let us recall the behavior of the fox in Krylov's fable "The Fox and the Grapes". Convinced of the unattainability of the goal, the fox, instead of gnawing at himself for lack of dexterity and perseverance, explained to herself that she did not want these grapes at all. This devaluation of an unrealizable need is a very important component of protection, especially if an unattainable goal is replaced by an achievable one.
The fight against rationalization is quite difficult. So, M.E. Litvak invites individuals at the first stage to recognize the truth of their desires, thoughts and feelings, and later - to try to act in accordance with them.
3 Suppression and displacement
Suppression and repression are the most "simple, direct and unsophisticated" defense mechanisms you can imagine!
Suppression is the limitation of thoughts or actions in order to avoid those that can cause anxiety.
When suppressed, a person openly denies himself that "it happened" with him, that is, the information has not yet gone into the unconscious, but dangles somewhere in the preconscious: between consciousness and the unconscious - in the middle.
Repression - active pushing out of the consciousness of painful memories, feelings, impulses. For example, a hysteric who suffers from frigidity suppresses feelings of sexual arousal, and also loses memories of sexual feelings that led to the conflict in early childhood.
A young girl who recently lost her beloved father, whom she was caring for, showed to her son-in-law, whom she had just married older sister, great sympathy, which, however, was easy to disguise as kindred tenderness. This patient's sister became ill and died in the absence of her mother and our patient. Those who were absent were hastily summoned, and they had not yet received information about the grievous event. When the girl approached the bedside of her dead sister, for a moment she had a thought that could be expressed in approximately the following words: now he is free and can marry me. We must consider it quite reliable that this idea, which gave her unconscious strong love for her son-in-law, to her mind, thanks to the explosion of her sorrowful feelings, was immediately repressed. The girl fell ill. Severe hysterical symptoms were observed. When the treatment began, it turned out that she radically forgot the scene at her sister's bedside and the disgusting selfish desire that arose in her. She remembered this during the treatment, reproduced the pathogenic moment with signs of intense emotional excitement, and thanks to this treatment, she became healthy.
Drunkenness is a very clever way of avoiding reality. Chernyshevsky was damn right in describing the exploits of the student Lopukhov and privately informing that drinking, dear comrades, is sometimes much more profitable than not drinking! Firstly, if before the beginning of unrestrained drunkenness you were distinguished by at least some talent, then this talent now does not have to be realized.
A capable person who has certain achievements in the past periodically goes into binges, since he refuses to admit that he cannot catch up and not overtake his other acquaintances, with whom he incognito (again denying this publicly) compares himself. Secondly, it is much easier not to contain your loved ones, but to take and drink.
In general, Eric Berne has a cooler theory about drunkenness, when he considers this phenomenon in the form of such a plot-role-playing game, where not only the alcoholic himself gets high, but all the other characters as well.
4 Projection or translation
Projection is the attribution of one's motives or personal characteristics to other people, when a person not only supplants knowledge of his own desires, but also moves them outside his personality.
We tend to believe that the world is as we see it, that people are as we imagine them to be. We transfer our own thoughts, feelings, experiences to others. In this case, projection can be viewed as the transfer of subjective internal content to an external object. This process is unconscious. It reveals itself as a spontaneous rather than volitional act.
When the next candidate for The State Duma, disheveled and red, screaming from the screen, literally falling out of the TV, that the current politicians sold everything, stole and plundered everything, I, as a thinking person, have a counter question: “Didn't you have time? Why are you so worried? " If you spit in the direction of every jeep passing by, then the jeep is your innermost dream, which you deny yourself, whether you want it or not. The defense mechanism is called defense because, firstly, it removes negative emotional states; secondly, it distorts reality and, thirdly, it proceeds at an unconscious level, so that people are usually not aware of their defense mechanisms.
In psychoanalysis, transference is a process in which one person projects their own feelings onto another.
For example, such a situation: the family has been married for many years, but there are no children. A woman lives with constant hope for a miracle, periodically being in depressive states. Over time, the woman's psyche will mobilize the protective transference mechanism towards her husband. She begins to unconsciously treat him like a child, showing the following qualities: excessive guardianship, lisping, indulging her husband's whims.
A classic example of projection is the case described by Freud, when a woman approached him with jealousy about her husband, who seemed to be cheating on her. Psychiatric research showed that the woman suffered from delusions of jealousy. And psychoanalytic research showed that the reason for the delirium of jealousy was the strong sexual feelings that this woman felt for her son-in-law. But her high moral principles did not even allow her to think about it (she did not even think, because the conflict was unconscious), so the way out of this conflict was the psychological defense of projection. The husband was unconsciously attributed to the desire for adultery, which saved the woman from the reproaches of her conscience (since the husband is so bad, she is not so bad).
4.5 Identity, or identification
Since identification is a means for all occasions, it is more often used as a defense in cases of emotional stress, depression (when the existing subjective ideas about who you are are tested for strength). Obviously, death and loss are pushing for identification with the lost object of love, and then with those who will take the place of the person lost in the emotional world. The desire of teenagers to find heroes with whom they can compete in trying to cope with difficult demands foggy youth , has been observed for centuries. In fact, an alarming rise in adolescent suicide rates has been observed in last years, some psychoanalysts associate with the dissatisfaction of modern adolescents with today's heroes offered by Western culture.
It seems that some people identify more easily and flexibly than others, representing, as it were, blotter absorbing any psychological ink. Obviously, the risk group includes those who suffer at least in the slightest from a violation of basic identity. The conversion experience contains a significant component of identification as a defense. Even quite healthy people with some identity disorder (for example, women with a hysterical organization of character and with an unconscious feeling that her gender is a problem) can more than others identify with someone from the environment who gives the impression that he is better at coping with life. difficulties.
Perhaps a person's ability to identify with new objects of love is the main way in which people are released from emotional distress, and one of the main ways that psychotherapy uses to achieve change.
Identification in a state of depression: endless self-accusation as a manifestation of aggression towards an introjected object, considered as revenge on the part of the Self. To avoid self-punishment, revenge is involved. In this case, all types of libido are used (interaction with the outside world no longer takes place).
A depressed young man whose father abused alcohol and used violence entered therapy due to symptoms of abdominal pain and fears that he might harm his own children. He could not imagine an inner sense of security, or, in general, that he creates a safe, loving environment for his family. He had an internalized, violent inner father who could not be trusted to maintain his composure. Once he saw a man beating his child on the street. Out of control, he attacked his father with such fury that he had to call the police.
He identified with the threatened child, and this caused him great anxiety. Because of his anxiety, he could no longer restrain aggression, his violent inner object, which was projected onto the child's father.
Identification can be briefly characterized by an ancient saying: "In Rome you have to be a Roman" or "Live with wolves - howl like a wolf."
6 Denial
Denial is the desire not to accept undesirable events for oneself as reality: both present and long past. For example, many are terrified of serious illness. A person who has a negative mechanism will not notice the presence of obvious symptoms of the disease. The denial mechanism allows you to ignore the traumatic manifestations of reality. Denial is common in family relationships, when one of the spouses completely ignores the presence of problems with a partner.
Examples include the case of a mixed and disgraced leader who still continues to present himself as if he were still an outstanding statesman, or the case where the family avoids talking about a sick or dying relative in order to avoid painful feelings.
It is a psychological defense that is known in several, rather different forms. The most primitive form is the gross regulation of sensory and perceptual functions through desensitization to certain selective stimuli or events.
The prototype of the primitive form of denial is sleep as a psychophysiological process that helps relieve general fatigue and emotional tension. In general, denial includes the ability to intrapsychically increase the signal detection thresholds, which leads to a decrease in the volume of incoming sensory information, which has a negative meaning for a person. In this case, denial works as a protective filter: designed to prevent sensory information from reaching the level of cognitive processing, acting according to the principle "I listen, but I do not hear, I look, but I do not see."
In modern research on psychology and psychophysiology, this form of denial is known under the name of perceptual defense, intensively studied in Russia by E.A. Konstadiev and his students. Acting as a sensory filter, perceptual defense naturally distorts information about the situation and the subject and thereby forms an inadequate “I-image” and an image of the environment. A more complex form of denial relies on a more or less full-fledged image of the environment, but at the same time introduces obstacles and errors in the process of processing the information received, restructuring it in such a way that even potentially traumatic aspects become unrecognizable by the subject. This property of intellectual processes does not allow a person to have objective information about the degree of danger of events, does not allow him to form a correct forecast of events. In general, denial, even in this more accurate and modern form, reduces the intellectual capabilities of a person for the sake of complacency and optimism.
Most of us use denial to some degree with a worthy purpose: to make life less unpleasant, and many people have specific areas where this defense prevails over others. In extreme circumstances, the ability to deny the danger to life on the emotional level can be life-saving.
The most obvious example of a defense structure is mania as denying depression gives the patient a respite from feelings of despair. The mutual transition of depression and mania is tantamount to the transition between states of exaggerated dependence on external I AM objects to a complete denial of this dependence. The pendulum movement from depression to mania and back from these positions is a kind of "respite" from the burden of responsibility, but a very conditional respite, since both poles of this movement are equally uncomfortable: depression is unbearable, and mania is unreal.
When people are manic, they can deny to an incredible degree their physical needs, sleep needs, financial difficulties, personal weaknesses, and even their mortality. While depression makes it completely impossible to ignore the painful facts of life, mania makes them psychologically irrelevant. People for whom denial serves as their primary defense are manic in nature. This category has also been characterized by the word "cyclothymia" (alternation of emotions), since it tends to alternate between manic and depressive moods, which usually do not reach clinical presentation.
Denial can be defined as a refusal to acknowledge reality on two levels: at the level of what is happening in reality and at the level of feelings. Let's take a look at how denial prepares a little girl to be a woman who loves too much. Her father, for example, could rarely spend the night at home because of an affair with a stranger. Telling herself and hearing from other family members that he was “busy at work,” the girl denied that there were any problems between her parents. This prevented her from feeling fear for the strength of the family and for her own well-being. She also suggested to herself that her father was working hard, from which came compassion for him instead of the feelings of anger and shame that were inevitable when faced with the truth. Thus, she denied both reality itself and her feelings about this reality, and created an illusion that was easier for her to live with. As she trained, she became very skillful in the ability to protect herself from suffering, but at the same time, she lost the ability to freely choose her actions. Her denial became an automatic, subconscious habit.
Conclusion
In the course of this course work, we examined that in psychology, the effect of the so-called unfinished action has long been known. It consists in the fact that any obstacle leads to an interruption of action until the obstacle is overcome or the person refuses to overcome it. In the works of many researchers it is shown that unfinished actions form a tendency towards their completion, while, if direct completion is impossible, a person begins to perform substitute actions. It can be assumed that the mechanism of psychological defense is and there are some specialized forms that replace actions. Defense mechanisms begin their action when it is impossible to achieve the goal in a normal way.
It should also be noted that people rarely use a single defense mechanism - they usually use different defense mechanisms.
In my coursework, I tried to identify: when unconscious conflicts due to insufficient efficiency and a limited set of defense mechanisms become too intense, neurotic symptoms appear, which, in turn, can be considered as defense reactions accompanied by depression. Based on the examples considered in this work, we can conclude that the unconscious use of defense mechanisms during depression helps to reduce the level of negative emotions, as well as, over time, get out of the state of depression and gain the ability to experience happiness.
Depression affects not only thoughts and feelings, but also a person's behavior and physical condition. It can be provoked by mental trauma - divorce, dismissal from work, loss of a loved one. Depression can start in anyone of any age. Women suffer from depression twice as often as men.
Defense mechanisms are the pathways used by the psyche in the face of internal and external danger. In each case, psychological energy is used to create protection, thereby limiting the flexibility and strength of the ego. The action of protective mechanisms can lead to a distortion of the picture of needs, and can also serve as an obstacle to resolving the problem and eliminating the causes of anxiety. Freud noted that we all use defense mechanisms to some extent, and this becomes undesirable only if we rely on them excessively; functions of psychological protection are inherently contradictory: on the one hand, they contribute to the adaptation of a person to his own inner world, but at the same time, on the other hand, they can worsen his adaptation to the external social environment.
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People react in different ways to their inner difficulties: they suppress their inclinations, denying their existence, “forget” about the traumatic event, look for a way out in self-justification and condescension to their “weaknesses”, try to distort reality and engage in self-deception. And all this is sincere, in this way people protect their psyche from painful stress, help them with this protective mechanisms.
What are defense mechanisms?
For the first time this term appeared in 1894 in the work of Z. Freud "Protective neuropsychoses". The mechanism of psychological defense is aimed at depriving the significance and thereby neutralizing the psychologically traumatic moments (for example, the Fox from the famous fable "The Fox and the Grapes").
Thus, we can say that defense mechanisms are a system of regulatory mechanisms that serve to eliminate or reduce to minimal negative, traumatic experiences for a person. These experiences are mainly associated with internal or external conflicts, states of anxiety or discomfort. The mechanisms of protection are aimed at maintaining the stability of the self-esteem of the individual, her self-image and the image of the world, which can be achieved, for example, in such ways as:
- elimination of sources of conflict experiences from consciousness,
- transformation of conflict experiences in such a way as to prevent the emergence of a conflict.
Many psychologists, psychotherapists and psychoanalysts have studied the protective mechanisms of the psyche of their work show that a person uses these mechanisms in those cases when he has instinctive drives, the expression of which is under social prohibition (for example, unrestrained sexuality), defense mechanisms also act as buffers in relation to our consciousness of those disappointments and threats that life brings us. Some consider psychological protection to be a mechanism for the functioning of a normal psyche, which prevents the occurrence of various kinds of disorders. This is a special form of psychological activity, realized in the form of separate methods of information processing in order to preserve the integrity of the ego. In those cases when the Ego cannot cope with anxiety and fear, it resorts to mechanisms of a kind of distortion of a person's perception of reality.
To date, more than 20 types of defense mechanisms are known, all of them are subdivided into primitive defense and secondary (higher order) defense mechanisms.
So, let's look at some types of defense mechanisms. The first group includes:
1. primitive isolation - psychological withdrawal to another state is an automatic reaction that can be observed in the tiniest human beings. An adult version of the same phenomenon can be observed in people who isolate themselves from social or interpersonal situations and replace the tension arising from interactions with others, stimulation emanating from the fantasies of their inner world. Addiction to use chemical substances, to change the state of consciousness can also be considered as a kind of isolation. Constitutionally impressionable people often develop a rich inner fantasy life, and they perceive the outside world as problematic or emotionally poor.
The obvious disadvantage of isolation protection is that it turns off a person from active participation in solving interpersonal problems, individuals who are constantly hiding in their own world test the patience of those who love them, resisting communication on an emotional level.
The main advantage of isolation as a defensive strategy is that, allowing a psychological escape from reality, it almost does not require its distortion. A person who relies on isolation finds comfort not in a misunderstanding of the world, but in distance from it.
2. denial is an attempt not to accept undesirable events as reality, another early way to cope with troubles is to refuse to accept their existence. Remarkable is the ability in such cases to "skip" unpleasant experienced events in their memories, replacing them with fiction. As a defense mechanism, denial consists in diverting attention from painful ideas and feelings, but does not make them completely inaccessible to consciousness.
Thus, many people are afraid of serious illness. And they would rather deny the presence of even the very first obvious symptoms than go to the doctor. And according to this, the disease is progressing. The same protective mechanism is triggered when someone from a married couple “does not see”, denies the existing problems in married life. And this behavior often leads to a break in relations.
The person who has resorted to denial simply ignores the painful realities for him and acts as if they did not exist. Being confident in his merits, he tries to attract the attention of others by all means and means. And at the same time he sees only a positive attitude towards his person. Criticism and rejection are simply ignored. New people are seen as potential fans. And in general, he considers himself a person without problems, because he denies the presence of difficulties / difficulties in his life. Has high self-esteem.
3.almighty control - the feeling that you are able to influence the world, have power, is undoubtedly necessary condition self-esteem, which originates in infantile and unrealistic, but at a certain stage of development, normal fantasies of omnipotence. The first who aroused interest in the "stages of development of the sense of reality" was S. Ferenczi (1913). He pointed out that in the infantile stage of primary omnipotence, or grandeur, the fantasy of having control over the world is normal. As the child grows up, it naturally transforms at a later stage into the idea of a secondary “dependent” or “derived” omnipotence, when one of those who initially cares for the child is perceived as omnipotent.
As they grow older, the child comes to terms with the unpleasant fact that no one person has unlimited possibilities. Some healthy remnant of this infantile sense of omnipotence persists in all of us and maintains a sense of competence and vitality.
For some people, the need to experience a sense of omnipotent control and to interpret what is happening to us due to their own unlimited power is completely irresistible. If a person organizes around the search and experience of pleasure from the feeling that she can effectively manifest and use her own omnipotence, in this connection, all ethical and practical considerations fade into the background, there are reasons to consider this person as psychopathic (“sociopathic” and “antisocial "- synonyms of later origin).
“Stepping over others” is the main occupation and source of pleasure for individuals in the personality, who are dominated by omnipotent control. They can often be found where cunning, a love of excitement, danger and a willingness to subordinate all interests to the main goal - to exert influence, are needed.
4. primitive idealization (and devaluation) - Ferenczi's thesis about the gradual replacement of the primitive fantasies of one's own omnipotence with primitive fantasies about the omnipotence of the caring person is still important. We are all prone to idealization. We carry with us the remnants of the need to ascribe special dignity and power to people on whom we are emotionally dependent. Normal idealization is an essential component of mature love. And the developmental tendency to de-idealize or devalue those to whom we have childhood attachment seems to be a normal and important part of the separation process - individualization. In some people, however, the need to idealize remains more or less unchanged from infancy. Their behavior reveals signs of archaic desperate efforts to counter the inner panic horror with the belief that someone to whom they are attached is omnipotent, omniscient and infinitely benevolent, and psychological fusion with this supernatural Other provides them with safety. They also hope to be free from shame; a by-product of idealization and the associated belief in perfection is that one's own imperfections are particularly painful to bear; merging with the idealized object is a natural remedy in this situation.
Primitive depreciation is the inevitable downside of the need for idealization. Since nothing is perfect in human life, archaic ways of idealization inevitably lead to disappointment. The more an object is idealized, the more radically devaluation awaits it; the more illusions there are, the harder the experience of their collapse.
In everyday life, the analogy to this process is the measure of hatred and anger that can fall on someone who seemed so promising and did not live up to expectations. Some people spend their entire lives replacing one intimate relationship with another in repeated cycles of idealization and devaluation. (Modifying the defenses of primitive idealization is a legitimate aim of any long-term psychoanalytic therapy.)
The second group of defense mechanisms is secondary (higher order) protection:
1. repression is the most universal means of avoiding internal conflict. This is a conscious effort of a person to consign frustrating impressions to oblivion by transferring attention to other forms of activity, non-frustration phenomena, etc. In other words, repression is an arbitrary suppression that leads to a true forgetting of the corresponding mental contents.
One of the striking examples of repression can be considered anorexia - refusal to eat. It is a constant and successful suppression of the need to eat. As a rule, "anorexic" repression is a consequence of the fear of gaining weight and, therefore, looking bad. In the clinic of neuroses, the syndrome of anorexia nervosa is sometimes found, which is more common in girls aged 14 to 18 years. During puberty, changes in appearance and body are pronounced. Forming breasts and the appearance of roundness in the thighs of a girl are often perceived as a symptom of incipient fullness. And, as a rule, they begin to struggle with this "completeness". Some adolescents cannot openly refuse the food offered to them by their parents. And therefore, as soon as the meal is over, they immediately go to the toilet room, where they manually induce the gag reflex. This, on the one hand, frees you from the threatening replenishment of food, on the other hand, it brings psychological relief. Over time, the moment comes when the gag reflex is triggered automatically by eating. And the disease is formed. The original cause of the disease has been successfully repressed. The consequences remained. Note that such anorexia nervosa is one of the most difficult to treat diseases.
2. regression is a relatively simple defense mechanism. Social and emotional development is never strictly straightforward; in the process of personality growth, fluctuations are observed that become less dramatic with age, but never completely disappear. The sub-phase of reunification in the process of separation - individuation, becomes one of the tendencies inherent in every person. It is a return to a familiar course of action after a new level of competence has been achieved.
To classify this mechanism, it must be unconscious. Some people use repression as a defense more often than others. For example, some of us react to the stress caused by growth and age-related changes by getting sick. This type of regression, known as somatization, is usually resistant to change and difficult to intervene therapeutically. It is widely known that somatization and hypochondria, like other forms of helplessness and childhood regression, can serve as the cornerstone of personality. Regression to oral and anal relationships in order to avoid oedipal conflicts is quite common in the clinic.
3.Intelligence is a variant of more high level isolation of affect from intellect. The person using isolation usually says that they have no feelings, while the person using intellectualization talks about feelings, but in such a way that the listener is left with the impression of a lack of emotion.
Intellectualization holds back the usual overflow of emotions in the same way that isolation holds back traumatic overstimulation. When a person can act rationally in a situation saturated with emotional meanings, this indicates a significant strength of the ego, and in this case the defense is effective.
However, if a person is unable to leave the defensive cognitive unemotional stance, then others tend to intuitively consider it emotionally insincere. Sex, good-natured teasing, display of artistry and other forms of play appropriate for an adult can be unnecessarily limited in a person who has learned to depend on intellectualization to cope with life's difficulties.
4. rationalization is finding acceptable reasons and explanations for acceptable thoughts and actions. Rational explanation as a defense mechanism is aimed not at resolving the contradiction as the basis of the conflict, but at relieving tension when experiencing discomfort with the help of quasi-logical explanations. Naturally, these "justifying" explanations of thoughts and actions are more ethical and noble than the true motives. Thus, rationalization is aimed at maintaining the status quo of the life situation and works to hide the true motivation. Protective motives are manifested in people with a very strong Super-Ego, which, on the one hand, does not seem to allow real motives into consciousness, but, on the other hand, allows these motives to be realized, but under a beautiful, socially approved facade. ...
The simplest example of rationalization is the exculpatory explanation of a student who receives a deuce. After all, it is so offensive to admit to everyone (and to myself in particular) that it is my own fault - I did not learn the material! Not everyone is capable of such a blow to pride. And criticism from other people who are important to you is painful. So the schoolboy justifies himself, comes up with "sincere" explanations: "It was the teacher who was in a bad mood, so he made everybody deuces for nothing," or "I'm not a favorite, like Ivanov, so he gives me deuces and answer. " He explains so beautifully, convinces everyone that he himself believes in all this.
Rationally defenders try to build their concept from different points of view as a panacea for anxiety. Think in advance about all the options for their behavior and their consequences. And emotional experiences are often masked by intensified attempts to rationalize events.
5. moralization is a close relative of rationalization. When someone rationalizes, he unconsciously looks for reasonable, from a reasonable point of view, justifications for the chosen decision. When he moralizes, it means: he is obliged to follow in this direction. Rationalization shifts what a person wants into the language of reason, moralization directs these desires into the realm of justifications or moral circumstances.
Sometimes moralization can be seen as a more highly developed version of splitting. The inclination to moralize will be a late stage in the primitive tendency of the global division into good and bad. While splitting in a child naturally occurs before the ability of his integrated self to tolerate ambivalence, the decision in the form of moralization through appeal to principles confuses the feelings that the developing self is capable of tolerating. In moralization, one can see the action of the super-ego, although usually rigid and punishable.
6. the term "displacement" refers to the redirection of emotions, preoccupation or attention from an original or natural object to another, because its original direction is alarmingly hidden for some reason.
Passion can also be displaced. Sexual fetishes, apparently, can be explained as a reorientation of interest from a person's genitals to an unconsciously connected area - legs or even shoes.
Anxiety itself is often biased. When a person uses the shift of anxiety from one area to a very specific object that symbolizes frightening phenomena (fear of spiders, fear of knives), then he suffers from a phobia.
Some unfortunate cultural tendencies - like racism, sexism, heterosexism, vocal exposure of society by disenfranchised groups with too little power to assert their rights - contain a significant element of bias. Transference, both in clinical and non-clinical manifestations, contains a displacement (of feelings aimed at objects that are important in early childhood) along with projection (internal characteristics of the characteristics of one's own self). Positive types of displacement include the transfer of aggressive energy into creative activity (a huge amount of homework is done if people are in an agitated state), as well as the redirection of erotic impulses from unreal or forbidden sexual objects to an available partner.
7. At one time, the concept of sublimation was widely understood among the educated public and was a way of considering various human inclinations. Sublimation is now less viewed in psychoanalytic literature and is becoming less popular as a concept. Initially, it was believed that sublimation is a good defense, thanks to which it is possible to find creative, healthy, socially acceptable or Constructive decisions internal conflicts between primitive aspirations and forbidding forces.
Sublimation was the term Freud originally gave for the socially acceptable expression of biologically based impulses (which include the urge to suck, bite, eat, fight, copulate, look at others and show oneself, punish, hurt, protect offspring, etc.) ... According to Freud, instinctive desires acquire the power of influence due to the circumstances of the individual's childhood; some drives or conflicts take on special meaning and can be directed towards useful creative activity.
This defense is seen as a healthy means of resolving psychological difficulties for two reasons: firstly, it fosters constructive behavior that is beneficial for the group, and secondly, it discharges the impulse instead of spending enormous emotional energy on transforming it into something else (for example as in the case of reactive formation) or to oppose it with an oppositely directed force (denial, repression). Such a discharge of energy is considered positive in nature.
Sublimation remains a concept that is still referred to in psychoanalytic literature if the author points to someone who has found a creative and useful way expressing problem impulses and conflicts. Contrary to the general misconception that the object of psychotherapy is to get rid of infantile impulses, the psychoanalytic position regarding health and growth implies the idea that the infantile part of our nature continues to exist in adulthood. We have no way to get rid of it completely. We can only contain it more or less successfully.
The goals of analytic therapy include understanding all aspects of one's self (even the most primitive and disturbing ones), developing compassion for oneself (and for others, as a person needs to project and displace previously unrecognized desires to humiliate) and expanding the boundaries of freedom for resolving old conflicts in new ways. These goals do not imply "cleansing" the self from disgusting aspects or blocking primitive desires. It is this that allows us to consider sublimation as the pinnacle of the development of the Ego, explains a lot about the attitude of psychoanalysis to the human being and its inherent capabilities and limitations, and also implies the importance of information from psychoanalytic diagnosis.
It remains to summarize, determine the role and function of protection. It would seem that psycho-protection has noble goals: to remove, stop the severity of psychological experience, emotional hurt by the situation. At the same time, emotional upset by the situation is always negative, always experienced as psychological discomfort, anxiety, fear, horror, etc. but how does this defensive reaction of negative experiences occur? Due to simplification, due to the imaginary palliative resolution of the situation. Due to the fact that a person cannot foresee the impact of his simplified solution to the problem on the future, the defense has a short range: beyond the situation, this particular one, it “sees” nothing.
Protection also has a negative meaning at the level of an individual situation and because the person emotionally experiences a certain relief and this relief, removal of negativity, discomfort occurs when using a specific protective technique. The fact that this success is imaginary, short-term and illusory relief is not realized, otherwise, it is understandable, and the experience of relief would not have come. But, undoubtedly, one thing: when experiencing the onset of relief when using a specific psychological protective technique, this technique is fixed as a skill of behavior, as a habit of solving similar situations in this very psycho-protective way. In addition, energy consumption is minimized every time.
Like every reinforcement, a psychological neoformation (in our particular case, a protective technique), having once completed its “noble” task of removing the acuteness of psychological experience, does not disappear, but acquires tendencies towards self-reproduction and transfer to similar situations and states, it begins to acquire the status of such a stable education as a psychological property. Ontoginetically, a similar discrepancy between the good intentions of psychoprotection and its high cost for any path in life is not only preserved, but also intensified.
The use of psychological defense is evidence of an anxious perception of the world, there is an expression of distrust towards him, towards himself, towards others, there is an expectation of "getting a catch" not only from the environment, but also from his own person, there is an expression of the fact that a person perceives himself as an object of the unknown and formidable forces. The psycho-protective living of life removes from a person his creativity, he ceases to be the creator of his own biography, following the lead of history, society, a reference group, his unconscious drives and prohibitions. The more the protection, the less the "I" instance.
With the development of society, develop and individual ways psycho-protective regulation. The development of mental neoplasms is endless and the development of forms of psychological defense, because defense mechanisms are inherent in normal and abnormal forms of behavior between healthy and pathological regulation, psycho-protective occupies the middle zone, the gray zone.
Mental regulation by means of defense mechanisms, as a rule, occurs at an unconscious level. Therefore, they, bypassing consciousness, penetrate the personality, undermine its position, weaken its creative potential as a subject of life. The psycho-protective solution of the situation is presented to the deceived consciousness as a real solution to the problem, as the only possible way out of difficult situation.
Personal development presupposes a readiness for change, a constant increase in one's psychological reliability in various situations. Even a negative emotional state (fear, anxiety, guilt, shame, etc.) can have a useful function for personality development. For example, the same anxiety may be with a tendency to experiment with new situations, and then the function of psycho-protective techniques is more than ambivalent. Aimed at neutralizing the psycho-traumatic impact “here and now,” within the current situation, psychoprotection can cope quite effectively, it saves from the severity of the shock experienced, sometimes providing time and respite for preparing other, more effective ways of experiencing. However, its very use testifies to the fact that, firstly, the palette of a person's creative interaction with culture is limited, and the inability to sacrifice the private and the momentary, the fascination with the actual situation - all this leads to a contraction of consciousness towards oneself, to quench and diminish psychological discomfort. at any cost; secondly, by substituting a real solution to constantly emerging problems, a solution that may even be accompanied by negative emotional and even existential experiences, comfortable but palliative, the personality deprives itself of the possibility of development and self-actualization. Finally, a psycho-protective existence in life and culture is a complete immersion in norms and rules, an inability to change them. Where the change ends, there begins a pathological transformation and destruction of the personality.
"Protection". The meaning of this word speaks for itself. Protection involves at least two factors. Firstly, if you are defending yourself, then there is a danger of attack; secondly, protection, which means that measures have been taken to repel the attack. On the one hand, it is good when a person is ready for all kinds of surprises, and has in his arsenal the means that will help preserve his integrity, both external and internal, both physical and mental. The feeling of security is one of the basic human needs. But you should get acquainted with the economics of the issue. If all the mental strength of a person is spent on maintaining a sense of security, isn't the price too high? If not to live, but to defend against life, then why is it needed at all? It turns out that the most effective, "global" protection is death or "non-birth"?
All this is only partially true. Under certain circumstances, protective mechanisms, designed in other conditions to help hide feelings, often perform positive functions.
In connection with the above, an understanding of the acute topical topic of research on coping mechanisms and their connection with defense mechanisms comes. Overcoming and protection are complementary processes: if the potential of coping mechanisms turns out to be insufficient for the psychological processing of affect, then the affect reaches an unacceptable level, and instead of coping mechanisms, defense mechanisms begin to operate. If the potential of protection is also exhausted, then there is a fragmentation of experiences through splitting. The choice of protective mechanisms is also carried out taking into account the degree and type of overloads. (S. Menuos "Key concepts of psychoanalysis", 2001).
Normal coping mechanisms include humorous comprehension of a difficult situation through detached contemplation of certain circumstances that make it possible to discern something funny in them, and the so-called sublimation, which implies the rejection of the desire for direct satisfaction of attraction and the choice of not just acceptable, but beneficially influencing the personality of the way of satisfaction ... It should be noted that only sublimation can be called a mechanism of overcoming, and not any suppression of drives for the sake of observing conventions.
Since virtually any psychological process can be used as a defense, no review and analysis of defenses can be complete. The phenomenon of protection has many aspects that require in-depth study, and if it is developed quite fully in the monpersonal plan, then the interpersonal ones conceal tremendous opportunities for the application of research potential.