UNZA Pharmacy Training Lecture notes

1. Defense Mechanisms
S. CHUNGU
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2. Objectives
• Definition
• Categories of defence mechanisms.
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3. • What are defense mechanisms?
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4. Introduction
• According to Freud, everyone uses defense
mechanisms on an ongoing basis to screen out
potentially disturbing experiences.
• A problem arises when they are used in a rigid
or extreme manner.
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5. Definitions
• Defence mechanisms are unconscious mental
techniques used by the ego to keep conflict
out of the conscious mind, thus decreasing
anxiety and maintaining person’s, equilibrium,
and self esteem.
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6. Definition cont.
• Psychological strategies brought into play by
the unconscious mind to manipulate, deny, or
distort reality and to maintain a socially
acceptable self image.
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7. • To protect against anxiety, people use various
tactics to keep unacceptable thoughts,
instincts and feelings out of conscious
awareness.
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8. • Occur when the id impulses are in conflict
with the super ego values and beliefs.
• Almost all defence mechanisms used in
normal individuals.
• Excessive and exclusive use make it abnormal.
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9. Purpose of Defence Mechanisms
• The purpose of defence mechanisms is to
protect the self from:
– Anxiety
– Provide a refuge from a situation with which one
cannot currently cope.
• Usually operate on an unconscious level
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10. Purpose cont.
• To resolve a mental conflict.
• To reduce anxiety or fear.
• Protect one’s self esteem.
• Protect one’s sense of security.
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11. Categories of Defence Mechanism
• Adaptive defences
– Healthy responses to stressful situations
• Maladaptive defences
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12. Adaptive Defence Mechanisms
• Suppression
– Deliberately pushing unacceptable emotions out
of conscious awareness.
– Only defence mechanism that includes some
aspects of consciousness.
– e.g. Making a conscious decision not to think
about financial problems while studying for an
exam.
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13. 1. Humour
– Expressing personally unacceptable feelings
without causing emotional discomfort.
– e.g. John jovially talks about the humiliating
experience in which he slipped on the mud while
a group of people watched.
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14. 2. Sublimation
– Expressing a personally unacceptable feeling in a
socially useful way.
– e.g. A man who got into fights as a teenager
becomes a professional boxer.
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15. 3. Self assertion
– Dealing with difficult situations by directly
expressing feelings and thoughts to others.
– e.g. John telling his mother that he is disappointed
that she was too busy to attend his graduation.
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16. Maladaptive Defence Mechanisms
• Displacement
– Shifting unacceptable feelings or impulses from
the target of those feelings to someone less
threatening or to an object.
– e.g. after John was criticised by his boss, he
remained quiet but later shouted at his
subordinate for no good reason.
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17. 1. Denial
• Denial is the refusal to accept reality or fact,
acting as if a painful event, thought or feeling
did not exist.
• EG. a person who is a functioning alcoholic
will often simply deny they have a drinking
problem, pointing to how well they function in
their job and relationships.
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18. 2. Intellectualization
– Using the higher functions to avoid experiencing
emotions.
– e.g. Rather than focus on the upsetting aspects
having the mother admitted to the old people’s
home, john spoke at length about the difficult
economic times.
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19. 4. Reaction formation
– Adopting opposite attitudes to avoid personally
unacceptable emotions.
– E.g, a person who is angry with a colleague
actually ends up being particularly courteous and
friendly towards them.
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20. 5. Repression
– Unconscious expelling disturbing wishes, thoughts
or experiences from awareness.
– e.g. John was unable to remember any of the
details associated with his traumatic road traffic
accident.
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21. 6. Devaluation
– Dealing with emotional conflicts or stress by
attributing negative qualities to oneself or others.
– e.g. John claimed that the communication
problems with his wife were due to her
immaturity and low IQ.
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22. 7. Projection
– Attributing one’s own personally unacceptable
feelings to others.
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23. 8. Rationalization
– Distorting one’s perception of an event so that its
negative outcome seems reasonable.
– e.g. A footballer who failed to score saying, “the
wind really carried the ball”
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24. 9. Passive aggression
– Presenting a facade of over compliance to mask
hidden resistance, anger or resentment.
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25. 10. Regression
– Dealing with emotional conflict or stress by
reverting to childish behaviours.
– e.g. Following even the most minor of
disagreements with a friend, Jane rushed to the
bathroom in tears and waited until someone came
to console her.
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26. 11. Acting out
– Dealing with emotional conflict or stress by
actions rather than thoughts and feelings.
– e.g. A depressed 14 year old girl has sexual
encounters with multiple partners after her
parent’s divorce.
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27. Summary
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