Freud’s 12 Defense Mechanisms Listed by Name

1. Compensation
2. Denial
3. Displacement
4. Identification
5. Introjection
6. Projection
7. Rationalization
8. Reaction Formation
9. Regression
10. Repression
11. Ritual and Undoing
12. Sublimation

Explanatory List of Freud’s 12 Defense Mechanisms Follows:

1. COMPENSATION
Compensation is the process of masking perceived negative self-concepts by developing
positive self-concepts to make up for and to cover those perceived negative self-
concepts.
For example, if you think you are an idiot, then you may work at becoming physically more
fit than others to make up for this shortcoming by compensating for it in another area of
human activity. The reasoning is that by having a good self-concept about being
physically fit, you can then ignore, cover, or even negate your negative self-concept about
your reasoning capability.

2. DENIAL
Denial is the subconscious or conscious process of blinding yourself to negative self-
concepts that you believe exist in you, but that you do not want to deal with or face. It is
“closing your eyes” to your negative self-concepts about people, places, or things that
you find too severe to admit or deal with.
For example, a family may pretend and act as if their father is only sick or having a hard
time when it is evident to everyone that he is an abusive alcoholic. The negative self-
concept for each family member comes from identifying with the father because he is a
part of the family; the father cannot be viewed as a negative image, or everyone else in
the family, too, will be considered to be that negative image.

3. DISPLACEMENT
Displacement is when you express feelings to a substitute target because you are
unwilling to express them to the real target. The feelings expressed to the substitute
target are based on your negative self-concepts about the real target and yourself in
relation to the real target. That is, you think poorly of someone and yourself in relation to
them.
“Crooked anger” or “dumping” on another are examples of displacement. In such
examples, you let out your anger and frustration about the negative self-concepts you
are feeling about someone else and yourself in relation to them onto a safer target. The
safer target can be someone below you in rank or position, someone dependent upon
you for financial support, or someone under your power and control.
Generally, alternate targets are targets that cannot object or fight back as opposed to
actual targets that might object and fight back. For example, the father comes home
from work angry at his boss, so he verbally abuses his wife and children. This process
is often seen in bureaucracies: abuse and blame are passed down the ladder.

4. IDENTIFICATION
Identification as a defense mechanism is the identification of yourself with causes,
groups, heroes, leaders, movie stars, organizations, religions, sports stars, or whatever
you perceive as being good self-concepts or self-images. This identification is a way to
think of yourself as good self-concepts or images.
For example, you may identify with a crusade to help hungry children so that you can
incorporate into your ego some of the good self-images associated with that crusade.
Worldwide sports prey upon this defense mechanism to make money. Countries also
prey upon this defense mechanism to make war by using identification with the
government to enlist cannon fodder, a.k.a. soldiers.

5. INTROJECTION
Introjection is the acceptance of the standards of others to avoid being rated as
negative self-concepts by their standards. For example, you may uncritically accept the
standards of your government or religion to be accepted as good self-concepts by them.
Introjection can be considered as the extreme case of conformity because introjection
involves conforming your beliefs as well as your behaviors. So-called educational
systems prey upon this defense mechanism to produce parrots to spread their dogmas
as if they were factual and superior.

6. PROJECTION
Projection is the attribution to others of your negative self-concepts. This projection
occurs when you want to avoid facing negative self-concepts about your behaviors or
intentions, and you do so by seeing them, in other people, instead.
For example, you are mad at your spouse and subconsciously damning them, but, you
instead think or claim that they are mad at you and damning you in their mind.
Alternatively, you may believe that you are inferior and therefore attack another race,
ethnicity, or belief system, claiming it is inferior.

7. RATIONALIZATION
Rationalization is the process of explaining why, this time, you do not have to be judged
as negative self-concepts because of your behaviors or intentions. That is, you justify
and excuse your misdeeds or mistakes with reasons that are circumstantial at best and
unfounded at worst.
Rationalization is sometimes referred to as the “sour grapes” response when, for
example, you rationalize that you do not want something that you did not get because “It
was lousy, anyway.” Rationalization can also take the opposite tack or what is
sometimes referred to as the “sweet lemon” response. In this case, you justify, for
example, an error in purchasing by extolling some of the insignificant good points of the
product.
People commonly excuse their poor behavior as being due to poor circumstances but
hold other people accountable for their poor behavior as being due to their poor
character.

8. REACTION FORMATION
Reaction formation is the process of developing conscious positive self-concepts to
cover and hide opposite, negative self-concepts. It is the making up for negative self-
concepts by showing off their reverse.
For example, you may hate your parents; but, instead of showing that, you go out of
your way to show care and concern for them so that you can be judged to be a loving
child. Another typical example is someone with a speech impediment going to school to
become a public announcer to have themselves believe through others that they are a
good speaker. Another example is the concrete thinker joining a group for abstract
thinkers (for example General Semantics) and pretending they understand the
abstractions by memorizing and defending definitions held by the group.

9. REGRESSION
Regression is the returning to an earlier time in your life when you were not so
threatened with becoming negative self-concepts. You return to thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors of an earlier developmental stage to identify yourself as you used to back
then.
For example, you may be being criticized as an adult and feeling horrible about it. To
escape this, you revert to acting like a little child, because you did not then own criticism
as defining you as negative self-concepts, because others mostly thought of you as
good images back then.

10. REPRESSION
Repression is the unconscious and seemingly involuntary removal from awareness of
the negative self-concepts that your ego finds too painful to tolerate. For example, you
may completely block out thoughts that you have of wanting to kill one of your parents.
Repression is not the same as suppression, which is the conscious removal from the
consciousness of intolerable negative self-concepts. Unconsciousness was Freud’s
renaming of the spiritual concept of internal darkness. Repression is a choice, but a
decision that we choose to remain unaware of as part of the defense of repression.

11. RITUAL AND UNDOING

Ritual and undoing as a defense mechanism is the process of trying to undo negative
self-concept ratings of yourself by performing rituals or behaviors designed to offset the
behaviors that the negative evaluations of you were based on.
For example, a millionaire might give to charities for the poor to make up for profiting
from the poor. Alternatively, a parent might buy his or her children many gifts to make
up for not spending time with them. Classically, a person may wash his or her hands
many times in order not to think of themselves as “dirty” like their mother used to call
them.

12. SUBLIMATION
Sublimation is the process of diverting your feelings about the negative self-concepts
that you have of yourself or others into more socially acceptable activities.
For example, if you generally hate people, then you might be an aggressive
environmental activist, an aggressive political activist, or join a fighting army. This way,
you can get some approval for the feelings that you disapprove of. As another example,
the criminally minded often become police as a way to think well of their meanness and
attitudes of being entitled to take advantage of and abuse others.