PROF. RITIKA SONI SHIMLA.

1. DEFENCE MECHANISM
PRESENTED BY: MS. RITIKA SONI
(Asst. professor)
M.Sc. (N) (MHN)

2. INTRODUCTION
DEFENCE MECHANISM
ADJUSTMENT
/MENTAL
/BODILY
DEFENCE
MECHANISM
EGO DEFENCE
MECHANISM

3. Adjustment mechanism/ Mental
defence mechanism or ego
defence mechanism
INTRODUCTION:-
Adjustment is the process by which an individual maintains a
balance between his needs and circumstance that influence the
satisfaction of their needs.
Sigmund Freud in 1904 used this term “defence mechanism” ,
refers to the unconscious process that defends or protects a
person against anxiety, shame, loss of self esteem, conflict or
unacceptable feelings.
According to Freud, when Id is in serious conflict with ego
and superego, the individual suffer from tension or anxiety.

4. Defense mechanism enables a person to resolve
conflict and reduce the stress and anxiety.
Usually all defense mechanisms are operated at
unconscious level.
Most of defense mechanisms are self-deceptive in nature.
When these defense mechanisms are used moderately ,
are harmless but excessive and persistent defense use is
harmful.
In 1936, Anna Freud enumerated the ten defense
mechanisms that appear in the works of her father,
Sigmund Freud: repression, regression, reaction formation,
isolation, undoing, projection, introjections, turning
against one's own person, reversal into the opposite, and
sublimation or displacement.

5. DEFINITION:-
Defence mechanism is a pattern of adjustment through which an
individual relieves anxiety caused by an uncomfortable situation
that threaten self-esteem.
OR
Definition: Defense mechanisms are the techniques or
mechanisms used by an individual to handle tension or reduce
anxiety or resolve conflicts.
OR
Defense mechanisms refer to unconscious processes that defend a
person against anxiety.

6. CLASSIFICATION OF DEFENCE MECHANISM:-
The list of defense mechanisms are huge & there is no theoretical
consensus on exact number. Classifying defense mechanisms
according to some of their properties(like underlying mechanisms,
similarities or connection with personality) has been attempted.
Different theorists have different categorizations & conceptualization
of defense mechanisms.
These defense mechanisms are classified according to its results-
 Positive defense mechanism/ Healthy / Successful
 Negative defense mechanism/ Unhealthy/ Unsuccessful

7. POSITIVE DEFENCE MECHANISMS:-
1. Repression
2. Rationalization
3. Intellectualization
4. Compensation
5. Substitution
6. Sublimation
7. Undoing
7. Identification
8. Transference
9. Introjection

8. NEGATIVE DEFENCE MECHANISMS:-
1. Regression
2. Negativism
3. Displacement
4. Denial
5. Conversion
6. Suppression
7. Fantasy
8. Projection
9. Fixation
10. Reaction formation
11. Dissociation
12. Acting out

9. POSITIVE DEFENCE MECHANISMS
1. COMPENSATION:-
Compensation is a pattern
when individual makes an
attempt to make up for a
deficiency by directing his
energies to another
aspect of one’s
personality in which no
deficiency exists.
EXAMPLE:-
A student who fails in his
studies may compensate by
becoming the college
champion in atheletics.
a plain girl, who cannot
compete with her more
beautiful sisters, may
compensate by studying
hard and come 1st in her
class.

10. 2. SUBSTITUTION:-
It is a mechanism by which
tension or anxiety reduced
by replacing the
unachievable goal with
achievable goal.
OR
It is a pattern in which
original goals or desires are
substituted by others if not
achieved.
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.
A person aspire to become a
national level cricket player
and not selected. He may
substitue this goal by being a
coach at college level.

11. 3. SUBLIMATION:-
It is a mechanism that causes
channelization of instinctual
drives from socially
unacceptable desires into
acceptable form.
OR
In this mechanism primitive
impulses are transferred or
directed to a socially useful
goal.
EXAMPLE:-
An unmarried women interested
in children may give
expression to her repressed
maternal urge by engaging
herself in orphanages work.

12. 4. RATIONALIZATION:-
It is a defence 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 the
home and usually leave his wife at
home. He gives logic that his wife is
social shy.
 A girl fails to get admission for the
nursing course may point out a
number of difficulties of nursing
profession.
 A student who does not know how
to play badminton well, may not
participate in games, may justify by
saying, I don’t want to play
badminton.

13. 5. REPRESSION:-
According to Freud, repression
refers to the process by which
an individual’s unacceptable,
painful, memories and feelings
splits in to unconscious layer of
mind.
6. UNDOING:-
Undoing is the act symbolically
cancelling or reversing out a
previous act which is
unaccetable
Consciously doing something to
counteract or wrong doing.
EXAMPLE:-
• A man is jealous of his good
friend’s success but is unaware of
his feeling of jealousy.
• A child may got punishment from
his mother for bad behavior but his
didn't remember this afterwards.
So these memories may goes in to
unconscious mind without
awareness.
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.

14. 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.
OR
An illiterate father often takes
his son’s higher education as
his own achievement.
OR
a teenage girl imitate the
dressing of a popular female
star whom she admire.

15. 8. TRANSFERENCE:-
In transference, the image of one
person is unconsciously
identified with that of another.
Or
redirection of feelings or
expectations from one person to
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.

16. 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.
OR
Distancing or separation of a painful
event from the facts involved ;
acknowledging the facts not the
emotions.
EXAMPLE:-
a young professor receives a letter
from his fiancee breaking off
their engagement. He shows no
emotion when discussing this
with his best friend.
Instead , he analyzes his
fiancee’s behavior and tries to
reason why the relationship
failed.
ANOTHER EXAMPLE:
During a car accident , a
person immediately call to
ambulance and try to control the
bleeding instead of showing
emotional reaction.

17. 10. INTROJECTION:-
In introjections the values and characteristics of
significant persons are incorporated in one’s
personality.
EXAMPLE:-
A women who likes to live in a simple way introjects in
her the sophisticated way of living likes her husband.

18. NEGATIVE DEFENCE MECHANISMS:-
some defence mechanisms have negative impact over relations or
development of person.
1. SUPPRESSION:-
Suppression is the
voluntary/conscious
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.
A patient may refuse to consider
his difficulties by saying that
he does not want to talk about
it.

19. 2. DISPLACEMENT:-
In this defence mechanism an
unconsciously emotional feeling is
transferred to person or object who
are less dangerous than those who
initially aroused the emotion.
OR
Discharging pent up of feelings from
higher threatening object to less
threatening objects.
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.

20. 3. PROJECTION:-
- Unconsciously or
consciously blaming
someone else for one’s
difficulties.
- Fails to learn to take
personal responsibility.
EXAMPLE:-
A surgeon who did mistake in
operation may insist that it
happened because theatre
nurse and ward boy did their
task badly.
OR
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.

21. 4. REGRESSION:-
Regression means an immature
way of responding to a stress or
go backwards.
In this the adult revert back to an
earlier developmental level in
order to deal with reality.
An individual does less mature form
of behavior when faced with
difficulties, where he finds less
conflict hence less anxiety.
Adults too may regress to the oral
stage of development and suck
their thumb when life gets
stressful.
EXAMPLE:-
Nurse makes an error in giving
medication and starts crying.
OR
A person who is depressed may
withdraw to his or her room, curl up
in a fetal position on the bed.
OR
A five year child may regress when a
sibling is born and feels neglected.
Or : An 8 yr old child sucks thumb
when they are experiencing stress
around them.

22. 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.
.

23. 6. . FANTASY:-
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

24. 7. REACTION
FORMATION:-
In this defence 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.
OR
A women who is very angry
with her boss and would like
to quit her job may instead
she was so kind and calm
towards her boss.

25. 8. CONVERSION:-
In this pattern of defence
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.

26. 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.
OR
Dissociation is when a person losses
track of time or person and instead
another representation of their self in
order to continue in the moment.
In extreme cases, dissociation can lead
to a person believing they have
multiple selves.
EXAMPLE:-
-Partial amnesia.
-MPD

27. 10. DENIAL:-
It is a pattern or mechanism of
refusal to accept or believe of
something that is very
unpleasant to us.
It protect the individual from
shock of reality.
Denial is quite harmless if
practiced in moderation but
can lead to serious
difficulties in health and life
style if practiced in excess.
EXAMPLE:-
-When some very near and
dear one die in the family.
Some people say no, he is
still alive.
- A patient may come to know
that he is diagnosed with
cancer and nor ready to
accept reality.

28. 11.Negativism
It is a mechanism in which individuals react to frustrating
situations by becoming negative. This means they refuse to
attack the problem instead they become stubborn. They do
opposite of what should be done.
EXAMPLE: The children who are discouraged or pampered
too much become like that.

29. 12. ACTING OUT
It is a pattern of performing an extreme behavior in order to
express thoughts or feelings the person feels incapable of
expressing.
Instead of saying , “ I am angry with you” , “ a person acts out
may instead throw a book or any object at the person, or punch
a hole through a wall.
When a person acts out, it can act as a pleasure release, or often
helps the individual feel calmer and peaceful once again.
EXAMPLE: A child’s temper tantrum is a form of acting out
when he/ she doesn't get his/ her way.
Self- injury may also be a form of acting out.