PREPARED BY
PRIYANKA RANA KAMBOJ
NURSING TUTOR
CIMS COLLEGE OF NURSING

 Defense mechanisms is a broad term, but popularly known as ego
defense mechanism which falls under psychology.
 In physiology, the defense reaction of an organism as against a
pathogenic microorganism.
 In psychology, an unconscious process, as denial that protects an
individual from acceptable or painful ideas or impulses.
 A FREUDIAN term referring to an unconscious avoidance of
something that produces anxiety or some other unpleasant
emotion.

Bodily
defense
mechanisms
Ego defense
mechanisms

 Lymphocyte cells: a lymphocyte is a type of white blood cells in
the vertebrate immune system, and play a major role in defending
the body from both tumors and virally infected cells. They number
about one trillion.
 Reticuloendothelial system: reticulo-endothelial system
,mononuclear system, is involved in the acquisition of nutrients in
the immune system ,it is a major mechanism used to remove
pathogens and cells debris,it engulfs and destroy bacteria,
viruses,and other foreign substances or abnormal body cells. These
cells are mostly located in tissues such as the lymph
nodes,liver,spleen,brain and subcutaneous tissues.

 Endocrine system: the endocrine system is a complex
network of glands and hormones the regulates many of the
body’s functions, including growth, development and
maturation , as well as the way various organs operate. The
endocrine glands including the pituitary, thyroid, adrenal,
thymus, pancreas, ovaries and testes, release carefully
measured amounts of hormones into the bloodstream that
act as natural chemical messengers, traveling to different
parts of the body in order to control & adjust many life
functions. The systems works in parallel with the nervous
system to control growth and maturation along with
homeostasis.

DEFINITION:
“Unconscious ,specific intra psychic ways of coping which are
employed by persons to resolve emotional conflict and to cope with
anxiety”.
 It is used by individuals to relieve or decrease anxiety caused by
uncomfortable situations that threatened self esteem.
 It decreases emotional conflicts, provide relief from stress, protect
from feelings of anxiety and maintain an individuals self esteem.

SUPEREGO
EGO
ID

I M ID!!! I OPERATE ON THE
“PLEASURE PRINCIPLE” AND I
ALWAYS DEMAND FOR THE
IMMEDIATE GRATIFICATION OF MY
NEEDS..

I M THE EGO!!!
MY ROLE TO BALANCE THE ID AND
THE SUPEREGO..
I OPERATE BASED ON “REALITY
PRINCIPLE”..
I INDIVIDUALIZES A PERSON..

I M SUPER EGO!!! I M
STUBBORN AND AS BLIND AND
RUTHLESS AS THE ID..I M
BASED ON WHATS IDEAL
RATHER THAN REAL..

S
SELF SECURITY
PROTECTION
A
ANXIETY
REDUCTION
M
MENTAL
CONFLICT
RESOLUTION
E
ESTEEM [SELF]
PROTECTION

These defense mechanisms are classified according to its
results-
 Positive defense mechanism
 Negative defense mechanism

POSITIVEDEFENSE
MECHANISMS
1.Compensation
2. Substitution
3. Sublimation
4. Rationalization
5. Repression
6. Undoing
7. Identification
8. Transference
9. Intellectualization
10. Introjection
NEGATIVE defense
MECHANISMS
1.Suppression
2. Displacement
3. Projection
4. Regression
5. Fixation
6. Fantasy
7. Reaction formation
8. Conversion
9. Dissociation
10. Denial

1.COMPENSATION: A person tries to make up for his/ her weakness by
developing strength in other areas.
EXAMPLE:
 A student who fails in his studies may compensate by becoming
the college champion in athletics.
 A plain girl, who cannot compete with her more beautiful sisters,
may compensate by studying hard and come 1st in her class.

2.SUBSTITUTION: It is 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 physiotherapy or nursing.

3.SUBLIMATION: It is a mechanism that causes channelization of socially
unacceptable desires into acceptable form.
EXAMPLE:
 A young man who has lost his lover may turn to write poetry about
love.
 A person who has aggressive feeling and cannot express in society
can become a soldier or boxer.

4. RATIONALIZATION : It is a defense mechanism in which an individual
justifies his failures and socially unacceptable feelings and behaviors
by making excuses or formulate logical reasons / socially approved
reasons.
EXAMPLE:
 A husband does not enjoy the company of wife outside the home and
usually leave his wife at home. He gives logic that his wife is social
shy.
 A person without a vehicle says that he does not want to risk his life
by driving.

5. REPRESSION: Repression is a process of unconscious forgetfulness of
our unpleasant experiences. Repression is the involuntary blocking of
unpleasant feelings and experiences from one’s awareness.
EXAMPLE: A man is jealous of his good friend’s success but is unaware
of his feeling of jealousy.

6. UNDOING: Undoing is the act symbolically cancelling or reversing out
a previous act which is unacceptable.
EXAMPLE: A daughter shout at her father as there is no petrol in the
car and is getting late for office, brings a favourite film for her father
to watch. This is an example of undoing her behavior of shouting and
then bringing a film.
7. IDENTIFICATION: Through this process, an individual attempts to increase
self worth by acquiring certain attributes and characteristics of an
another individual one admires. It plays a large part in the
development of personality. In this individual feels personal
satisfaction in the success and achievement of other group or person.
EXAMPLE: The young son of a famous civil rights worker adopts his
father’s attitudes and behavior with the intent of pursuing similar
aspirations. An illiterate father often takes his son’s higher education
as his own achievement.

8.TRANSFERENCE: In transference, the image of one person is
unconsciously identified with that of another.
EXAMPLE: A patient who is fond of his daughter finds the nurse of the
same age and height as his daughter. So he transfer his positive
emotions to the nurse as his daughter. It is also possible that if he
dislikes his daughter he transfers his negative emotions to the nurse by
being rude, abusive, or aggressive without any cause.
9. INTELLECTUALIZATION: Intellectualization is an attempt to avoid
expressing actual emotions associated with a stressful situation by
using the intellectual processes of logic, reasoning and analysis.
EXAMPLE: If a person A is rude to person B, person B may think about
the possible reasons for person A’s behavior. They may rationalize that
person A was having a stressful day.

some defense mechanisms have negative impact over relations or
development of person.
1. SUPPRESSION: Suppression is the voluntary blocking of unpleasant
feelings and experiences from one’s awareness to avoid discomfort and
anxiety.
EXAMPLE: Student consciously decides not to think about her insult in
examinations hall so that he can study effectively.

2. DISPLACEMENT: In this defense mechanism an unconsciously emotional
feeling is transferred to person or object who are less dangerous than
those who initially aroused the emotion. An individual who is using
displacement is unaware of this at that time, but later he can realize
it.
EXAMPLE: A person who is angry with his boss but cannot show it for
fear of losing the job may fight with his wife on return from the office.
3. PROJECTION: Placing blame for own difficulties upon others. Here,
others are seen as responsible for own mistakes.
EXAMPLE:
 A surgeon who did mistake in operation may insist that it happened
because theatre nurse and ward boy did their task badly.
 A businessperson who values punctuality is late for a meeting and
states , “sorry I’m late. My assistant forgot to remind me of the time.

4. REGRESSION :
In this the individual cope with stressors by acting out in a childish,
immature, or age- inappropriate manner, that is, they regress earlier
developmental stages.
EXAMPLE:
 Nurse makes an error in giving medication and starts crying.
 A person who is depressed may withdraw to his or her room, curl up
in a fetal position on the bed.
5. FIXATION: Fixation refers to the point in the individual’s development
at which certain aspects of the emotional development do not
advance.
EXAMPLE:
 Thumb sucking continuously till adult age.
 An unmarried, middle aged man still depends on his mother to
provide his basic needs.

6. FANTACY :Fantasy is used to gratify frustrated desires by imaginary
achievements and wishful thinking. The tendency of day dreaming is
most common during adolescence.
EXAMPLE: A young boy who could not help his ailing father due to
shortage of money, day dreams that he has got lot of money from
lottery ticket and his father, mother and family members has best of
the facilities for everything.
7. REACTION FORMATION: In this defense mechanism the unacceptable
real feelings are repressed and acceptable opposite feelings are
expressed. It is defined as unconscious transformation of
unacceptable impulse into exactly opposite attitudes, impulse,
feelings or behaviors.
EXAMPLE: Women who actually dislike her mother in law hide her
feelings by being always nice to her

8. CONVERSION: In this pattern of defense mechanism strong emotional
conflicts which are not expressed are converted into physical
symptoms. It has two benefit for person-
 It resolves the conflict.
 It brings him a great deal of attention and sympathy.
EXAMPLE: A student nurse, who is very anxious about her examination,
may develop a headache.
9. DISSOCIATION: Dissociation is involuntary suppression of a mental
function from rest of personality in a manner that allows expression of
forbidden unconscious impulse without having any sense of
responsibility for actions.
EXAMPLE: Partial amnesia.

10. DENIAL: In this individual refuses to face the reality of the situation to
avoid the anxiety.
EXAMPLE: When some very near and dear one die in the family. Some
people say no, he is still alive.