Top 5 emotional defense mechanisms | Steem Bounty
We aren’t always conscious about the mental processes that guide us from the shadows.
They exist, but in a form of some emotional defense mechanisms.
Mental defense is a term that was first utilized by Freud. Defense mechanisms are psychological strategies that help us avoid being conscious of some ideas or situations that we aren’t prepared for.
They manifest in a subtle way, at a subconscious level and they distort reality, which makes us react in a wrong way at some external stimuluses.
These are a few examples of emotional defense mechanisms.
Denial.
When reality is painful, we refuse to accept it and we deny what’s happening to us. This defensive system that protects us from pain is activated when we go through a trauma or when we feel a threat.
The same thing happens in emotional conflicts or anxiety. Sometimes, a short period of denial can be a healthy mechanism that gives us time to accommodate to a new situation.
Projection.
This is strongly tied to denial. When we’re not willing to admit and accept some of our features, intentions or wishes, we project them on others.
This way we become very critical with people around us and we attribute them our own defects.
Displacement.
A distinctive sign of this system is transferring unacceptable feelings toward a close person. More clearly, when we have problems at work, we come home stressed and we yell at a family member.
Rationalization.
It’s the way we justify an experience that had negative effects on us. Even if we fail in something, we have to accept that it’s normal not to succeed all the time, it’s normal not to be perfect.
We shouldn’t find excuses or try to put the guilt on somebody else.
Regression.
According to a Freud theory, this emotional defense mechanism makes us go back to our childhood period, when we were safe and happy.
Because we can’t accept our frustrations and we aren’t allowing ourselves to feel them, we start acting like children.
Besides these emotional defense mechanisms, there are other mental strategies discovered by Freud, such as humor, avoidance, excessive altruism and compensation.
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I remember the days when I in college my classmates sometimes calls me Mr. Rationalization not because I it is my character but because I am always rationalizing
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Human adults are usually egoistic who can't accept their mistakes, flaws and failures. Adverse situations basically trigger a fight or flight responce in us. You either try to tackle the problem (fight) or flee to safety and just avoid the problem (flight). However, you can't avoid the problem for long and would ultimately have to tackle it. In other words, Procrastination doesn't help and makes you even more stressed.
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these are definitely the "biggies". I'd have to say I have a pretty good handle on these but I definitely use humor and avoidance to my detriment.
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Good post on emotional defences.In addition to these 3 more emotional mechanisms are sublimation,reaction formation,repression.
By Repression we can make the decision to bury the memory in the subconscious, thereby preventing painful, disturbing or dangerous thoughts.
With Reaction fromation, we behave in the opposite way to which we think or feel.
Sublimation is a positive form of defence.if u have a fight with your partner it rurns to play music.
Anyhow nice to meet u
Thank you
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indeed those defense mechanisms are often triggered by cognitive dissonance, it is very upsetting to try to have two conflicting ideas for a lot of people.
At one point years ago I would come home daily with so much stress from work that I was just angry. People wouldn't do their jobs yet my hands were tied and couldn't get rid of them. Was a really crappy time in my life and I would come home and my Wife would end up taking a lot of crap from me. It had nothing to do with her, it was all me. Never knew what to call it, but after reading this it clearly was Displacement.
I can relate quite well with the first 3....
Lol
Well, I really do think that the emotional defense mechanism is largely because of our egoistic nature.
We let our ego come in the way instead of accepting our mistakes and use denial, projection or displacement to attribute it to someone else.
I've gained substantial info from this post, thanks lot for sharing....
For many of us, any situation that brings uncertainty triggers an unconscious protective measure that allows us to cope with unpleasant emotions. And in the short-term, many mechanisms can be adaptive. We don’t dwell. We don’t say or do something with potentially damaging ramifications. We keep ourselves in a better state.
This really should be posted in psychology channel as well. Great post and thanks for spreading education. Imagine is more people were self-aware, how the world would become a much a better place? Most people aren't even when they're defensive, never the less know WHICH defense they're experiencing. It's a wonderful thing to self-audit and learn about one's own defense mechanisms and how to recognize them in others through their speech and body language. I believe very strongly a lot of wars, arguments, and misunderstanding could be empathized with if people understood themselves and others better at a psychological level. I look forward to other posts of yours if you decide to post more on this topic.