DEFENSE MECHANISMS

Defense mechanisms refer to patterns of thinking and behaving as ways to adapt and adjust to
difficult life circumstances. Freud (1901) first described these thinking and behavior patterns as
being abnormal because he believed that they were ways in which people deluded themselves to
deal with conflicts between id impulses and superego constraints and punishments. More recent
perspectives suggest that these mechanisms may be viewed as protective in that they develop in
response to either perceived or real threats. These threats can arise from how the person
interprets reality. Defenses allow the personto cope with these threats. The most common
defense mechanisms are:
• Denial
• Repression
• Displacement
• Substitution
• Sublimation
• Projection
• Reaction formation
• Rationalization
• Isolation
In the school setting it is not unusual for teachers to encounter the defense mechanism of
projection in aggressive or acting-out students.

DEPRESSION

Depression, currently the most common psychiatric diagnosis given in the United States, is an
illness that involves an individual’s cognitive, emotional, and physical functioning. In contrast to
the normal feelings of sadness, shifting moods, or loss, depression is persistent and can interfere
with the way one eats and sleeps, feels about one’s self, and the way one thinks. It can affect
people of any age, race, ethnic, or economic group. Depression affects an estimated 9.9% of
adults older than 18 years, 8% of adolescents, and 2.5% of children in a given year in the United
States.

SYMPTOMS AND TYPES OF DEPRESSION

Symptoms of depression include:

• Sadness or crying
• Loss of interest or pleasure (whether work, school, family, or friends)
• Increases or decreases in appetite
• Loss or gain in weight (when not dieting)
• Difficulty sleeping or oversleeping
• Physically slowing down or feeling agitated
• No energy to do things
• Feelings of worthlessness or guilt (without any
reason)
• Difficulty thinking or concentrating
• Recurrent thoughts of death or suicide