1.
Laxmi Poudel
Nursing Officer, Bir Hospital
Topic :Defence Mechanism

2.
Defence Mechanism
First time this term was used by Sigmund Freud in
1904 AD.
It is a psychological processes that protect an
individual from anxiety, stress or unacceptable
feeling
Helps to resolve conflict and maintain self
integrity. Usually operated at unconscious level.

3.
Classification
These defence mechanism are classified according to
its results or impact over relations or development
of person:
 Positive defence mechanism
Negative defence mechanism

4.
Positive Defence
Mechanism
Negative Defence
Mechanism
Rationalization Reaction formation
Substitution Suppression
Sublimation Displacement
Compensation Withdrawal
Identification Conversion
Intellectualization Regression
Repression Projection
Introjections Fixation

5.
Compensation
People overachieve in one
area to compensate for
failures in another.
Examples :
• A student who fails in his studies
may compensate by becoming
the college champion in
athletics.
• Girl who is not beautiful may
compensate her weakness by
doing very good on her study.

6.
Substitution
A mechanism by which
tension or anxiety reduced
by replacing the
unachievable goal with
achievable goal.
Example :
• A student who has not
been able to get admission
to the MBBS course, may
try to substitute it with a
course of Bsc nursing.

7.
Rationalization
 An individual justifies his
failure by making excuses or
formulate logical reasons.
Examples :
• A person without a vehicle
says that he does not want to
risk his life by driving.
• A girl fails to get admission for
the nursing course may point
out a number of difficulties of
nursing profession.

8.
Denial
An individual refuse to face the reality.
Examples :
• A man hears that his wife has been killed, and
yet refuses to believe it, still setting the table for
her and keeping her clothes and other
accoutrements in the bedroom.
• Difficulty in accepting that he has some incurable
disease.

9.
Sublimation
 A mechanism that causes channelization of socially
unacceptable desires into acceptable form
Example :
• A person who has aggressive feeling and can not
express in society can become a boxer.
• A young man who has lost his lover may turn to
write poetry about love.

10.
Repression ( selective forgetting)
Process of unconscious forgetfulness or
Involuntary blocking of unpleasant experiences
from one’s awareness.
Examples :
• A man is jealous of his good friend’s success but is
unaware of his feeling of jealousy.
• A child who is abused by a parent later has no
recollection of the events, but has trouble forming
relationships.

11.
Suppression ( selective forgetting)
Voluntary blocking of unpleasant feeling and
experiences from one’s awareness.
Only one defence mechanism that occur at
conscious level.
Examples:
• Refuse to talk about child’s death by parents.
• student consciously decides not to think about her
insult in examination

12.
Identification
An individual attempts to increase self worth by
acquiring certain characteristics of an individual
one admires.
Example :
• An illiterate father often takes his son’s higher
education as his own achievement.

13.
Projection
Placing blame for own difficulties upon others
Others are seen as responsible for own mistakes.
Examples :
• The student who fails in her examination may feel
that the teacher was unfair.
• Shyam cheats on his spouse and blames the spouse
for cheating.

14.
Displacement
Discharging pent up feeling to a less threatening
object than those who initially aroused the emotion
Example :
• A person who is angry with his boss but can not
show it for fear of losing the job may fight with his
wife or children on return from the office.

15.
Regression
An immature way of responding to a stress or go
backwards, flight to childhood
The adult revert back to an earlier
developmental level to deal with reality
Example :
• Crying after hearing bad news or doing mistake
• Nail biting to reduce the anxiety

16.
Fixation
Fixation refers to the point in the individual’s
development at which certain aspects of emotional
development do not advance.
Example :
• Thumb sucking continuously till adult age.

17.
Conversion
Strong emotional conflicts which are not
expressed are converted into physical symptoms.
Example:
• A student who is very anxious about her
examination, may develop a headache.

18.
Reaction Formation
 Unacceptable real feelings
are repressed and
acceptable opposite
feelings are expressed.
Example :
• Women who actually
dislike her mother in law
hide her negative feeling
by being always nice to her.

19.
Withdrawal
Tendency to escape from or avoid situations that
may be experienced as emotionally or
psychologically challenging.
Example :
• Refuse to attend Loksewa exam due to fear of
not being able to pass the examination.