Psychological defense mechanisms help people cope with life situations, maintain self-esteem and experience difficult emotions. All people use some kind of psychological defense. A person uses defense mechanisms unconsciously. In psychological profiling, we say that people of certain psychotypes have their own set of defense mechanisms. For a better understanding of the characteristics of a person's personality, it is important to see and understand them. I'll talk about some of the "protections" in this article, let's look at some of them.
Negation
One way to deal with adversity is to refuse to believe in their existence. The psychological defense mechanism is rooted in childhood and qualitatively takes root in adulthood. Up to a certain age, a child is an egocentric being and in his model of the world, denial is a normal stage of development and can manifest itself as follows: “If I don’t recognize this, then it didn’t happen”
What happens in adulthood? Most people use denial to make life better in their own (or in others') eyes. By denying unpleasant reality, a person broadcasts the conviction that "everything is very good." An example of the work of a protective mechanism is a woman who continues to live with her alcoholic husband, endure periodic family scandals. On the statement of the fact that her husband is not adequate and is it not better for her to divorce, she will say that he is already correcting himself, and will soon correct that she keeps the family, and, in general, they have a lot of good things happening in their lives. In this case, she sincerely believes in it and the defense mechanism of denial helps her not to plunge into the harsh reality with which it is not very clear what to do.
Refusal to undergo annual examinations, refusal to admit that I am living beyond my means (or earning little), when I go into minus on a credit card every month, a person who regularly uses soft drugs and claims that this is not an addiction at all - all these are examples of the mechanism of denial.
Almighty control
This defense mechanism is also rooted in childhood. If the baby is cold and the person taking care of him notices this and somehow warms him up, the child has the experience of magically obtaining warmth by himself. This is the peculiarity of babies - they perceive the sources of the events that are taking place in this way. The realization that control is in other people separated from him, outside himself, has not yet appeared.
And what about in adulthood? The feeling that you are capable of influencing the world, that you have power, is undoubtedly a prerequisite for self-esteem.
However, for some people, the need to experience a sense of omnipotent control and to describe what is happening to them as an element of their own unlimited power is completely irresistible. When a person organizes his life around the fact that he can effectively manifest and use his own omnipotence, in connection with which all ethical norms fade into the background.
"Walking over the heads" of others is the main occupation and source of pleasure for people whose personality is 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. We will meet these people in leadership positions in business, where you need to take risks, in politics, in the army, in all those areas where there is a lot of power.
Projection
Projection is a process by which the inside is mistakenly perceived as coming from the outside. A person attributes some of his traits, emotions, behavior in general to another person. Since no one is able to penetrate someone else's head, to understand the world of another person, we rely on our own experience.
Projection in its pernicious forms is dangerous for misunderstandings and huge damage to relationships. In cases where the projected positions seriously distort the motives of another person, or when the projected content consists of denied and sharply negative parts of itself, all kinds of problems arise.
An example of the work of the projection mechanism is the suspiciousness and distrust of people of a paranoid psychotype in relation to others. As we know, people of a paranoid psychotype tend to use the resources of other people to achieve their own goals. What is characteristic of them, they project onto other people and, as a result, do not trust anyone.
Idealization and depreciation
In childhood, a child seeks to believe that mom or dad can protect him from all the dangers of life, that they are beautiful and perfect. As we grow older, we are faced with hostility and imperfection of those close to us, illness and failure. But the belief that somewhere there is the same “ideal” person remains.
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. For some people, the need for idealization is especially pronounced. “My doctor is the best,” “my child’s tutor is the best in the area,” “the company I work for is superior to all companies in this industry.” A side effect of idealization is that one's own imperfections are especially painful to bear.
Devaluation is the inevitable flip side of idealization. Since nothing is perfect in human life, the paths of idealization inevitably lead to disappointment. The more an object is idealized, the more severe devaluation awaits it; the more illusions there are, the more difficult it is to experience their collapse.
An example is people who replace one partner with another and cannot establish long-term trusting relationships in any way. Each time they perceive a new partner as an ideal, after once again the previous partner turned out to be an ordinary human being.
At the International Academy of Lie Research, you will learn not only to recognize, but also to "work" with each defense mechanism.
You can check it yourself.