The document discusses Freud's concept of defence mechanisms, which are unconscious processes that protect against anxiety, shame, loss of self-esteem, and other uncomfortable feelings. Defence mechanisms are classified as either positive or negative. Positive defence mechanisms like sublimation, rationalization, and repression redirect uncomfortable feelings in socially acceptable ways. Negative defence mechanisms like projection, fantasy, and denial involve avoiding or distorting reality to avoid uncomfortable feelings. The document provides examples of different defence mechanisms and how they operate unconsciously to reduce psychological stress and tension.

1. GOVT.COLLEGE OF NURSING,Jodhpur
SUBJECT - Advance Nursing Practice
Presentation on
DEFENCE MECHNISM
SUBMITTED TO:- SUBMITTED BY:-
MRS.SUMI MATHEW ASHISH KUMAR YADAV
HOD. OBG. M.SC.NURSINGP REVIOUS
GOVT.COLLEGE OF GCON,JODHPUR
JODHPUR

2. Defence mechanism
1. INTRODUCTION:-
Sigmund Freud in 1904 used this term “defence mechanism” to refer 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.
 Defence mechanism enables a person to resolve conflict and reduce the stress and
anxiety.
 Usually all defence mechanisms are operated at unconscious level.
 Most of defence mechanisms are self-deceptive in nature.
2. DEFINITION:-
Defence mechanism is a pattern of adjustment through which an individual relieves
anxiety caused by an uncomfortable situation that threaten self-esteem.
When these defence mechanisms are used moderately are harmless but excessive and
persistent defence use is harmful.
3. CLASSIFICATION OF DEFENCEMECHANISM:-
These defence mechanisms are classified according to its results-
 Positive defence mechanism.
 Negative defence mechanism.

3. POSITIVE DEFENCEMECHANISMS NEGATIVE DEFENCE MECHANISMS
1. Compensation
2. Substitution
3. Sublimation
4. Rationalization
5. Repression
6. Undoing
7. Identification
8. Transference
9. Intellectualization
10. Introjection
1. Suppression
2. Displacement
3. Projection
4. Regression
5. Fixation
6. Fantasy
7. Reactionformation
8. Conversion
9. Dissociation
10. Denial
POSITIVE DEFENCEMECHANISMS :-
some defence mechanisms have positive impact over relations or development of
person.
1. COMPENSATION:-
Compensation is a pattern by which tension or anxiety relieved by an individual make up
for personal weakness.
Eg.:-
 A student who fails in his studies may compensate by becoming the college
champion in atheletics.
 A 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.
Eg:
 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.

4. 3. SUBLIMATION:-
It is a mechanism that causes channelization of socially unacceptable desires into
acceptable form. In this mechanism primitive impulses are transferred or directed to a
socially useful goal.
Eg:-
 A teenage boy with strong competitive and aggressive feelings becomes a football
player.
 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 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.
Eg: -
 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 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 bloking of unpleasant feelings and experiences from one’s
awareness.
6. UNDOING:-
Undoing is the act symbolically cancelling or reversing out a previous act which is
unaccetable.
Eg:-
 A man is jealous of his good friend’s success but is unaware of his feeling of
jealousy.
 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.

5. 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.
Eg:-
 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.
Eg:-
 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.
10. INTROJECTION:-
In introjection the values and characteristics of significant persons are incorporated in
one’s personality.
Eg:-
 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
 A women who likes to live in a simple way introjects in her the sophisticated
way, of living likes her husband.
NEGATIVE DEFENCE MECHANISMS:-
some defence mechanisms have negative impact over relations or development of
person.

6. 1. SUPPRESSION:-
Suppression is the voluntary blocking of unpleasant feelings and experiences from
one’s awareness to avoid discomfort and anxiety.
Eg:-
 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.
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. An
individual who is using displacement is unaware of this at that time, but later he can
realize it.
Eg:-
 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. One’s own unacceptable feelings and thoughts are expressed as they are
due to others.
Eg:-
 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:-
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.
Eg:-
 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.

7. 5. FIXATION:-
Fixation refers to the point in the individual’s development at which certain aspects of
the emotional development do not advance.
6. FANTACY:-
Fantacy is used to gratify frustrated desires by imaginary achievements and wishful
thinking. The tendency of day dreaming is most common during adolescence.
Eg:-
 Thumb sucking continuously till adult age. An unmarried, middle aged man still
depends on his mother to provide his basic needs.
 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 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.
Eg:-
 Women who actually dislike her mother in law hide her feelings by being
always nice to her.
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.
Eg:-
 A student nurse, who is very anxious about her examination, may develop a
headach.
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.
Eg:-
 Partial amnesia.

8. 10. DENIAL:-
Any individual refuses to face the reality. It protect the individual from shock of reality.
Person unconsciously use this mechanism and this reaction is for sometime.
.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.
conclusion:-
“defence mechanism” to refer to the unconscious process that defends or protects a
person against anxiety, shame, loss of self esteem, conflict or unacceptable feelings.
summary:-
defence mechnism is caseswhere people deal with difficult feelings by utilising them to
eliminate anxiety.

9. bibliography:-
1. Psychological Defenses from DSM-IV (see Repression), Virginia Commonwealth University.
Retrieved on December 12, 2014.
2. ^ Jump up to:a b Schacter, Gilbert, Wegner (2011), Psychology (2nd edition), Worth Publishers, p.
483
3. ^ Carlson, Neil R.. "Chapter 14." Psychology: the science of behaviour. Fourth Canadian Edition
ed. Toronto, Ont.: Pearson Education Canada Inc., 2010. 456. Print.
4. ^ McWilliams, Nancy (2011). Psychoanalytic Diagnosis: Understanding Personality Structure in the
Clinical Process, Second Edition. NewYork, NY: The Guilford Press. pp. 60, 63, 103. ISBN 978-
1609184940.
5. ^ Vaillant, George Eman (1992). Ego Mechanisms of Defense: A Guide for Clinicians and
Researchers. American Psychiatric Publishing. p. 238. ISBN 978-0-88048-404-6.
6. ^ Kramer, Ueli (June 2010). "Coping and defence mechanisms: What's the difference? - Second
act". Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice. 83 (Pt 2): 207–
221. doi:10.1348/147608309X475989. PMID 19883526.