VE 209 – PSYCHO-SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT

UNIT 9. DEFENSE MECHANISMS

Blessed day to everyone! Welcome to the 9 th unit of our subject. Let us begin this learning
material with a prayer.

PRAYER OF ST. THOMAS AQUINAS BEFORE STUDY

Creator of all things,

true Source of light and wisdom,
lofty origin of all being, graciously let a ray of Your brilliance
penetrate into the darkness of my understanding and take from me the double darkness
in which I have been born, an obscurity of both sin and ignorance.
Give me a sharp sense of understanding, a retentive memory, and the ability to grasp things
correctly and fundamentally.
Grant me the talent of being exact in my explanations,
and the ability to express myself with thoroughness and charm.
Point out the beginning, direct the progress, and help in completion;
through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Let us now begin the lesson. I suggest that you should read comprehensively all the
lessons. Almost all of the activities and discussions are taken from the book of Cencini A. &
Manenti A. (2000). Psychology and Formation.

Definition
- Defense mechanisms indicate a habitual, unconscious and at times even
pathological mental process which the ego uses to face conflicts with external
reality and/or internal affective reality.
o Thus, it indicates self-protection against everything that threatens one’s
own self-consideration.
o It is a way of defense or recuperation of self-esteem, but on a wrong
basis, eluding the problem.

Purposes
- To maintain the equilibrium of the ego in front of difficult situations.
- To protect or restore self-esteem threatened by drive forces.
- To neutralize conflicts with persons or parts of reality, felt otherwise as
unsolvable.

Characteristics:
a. They deny, falsify and deform the internal and external reality.
b. They are automatic, not deliberate acts.

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c. They operate in the unconscious and the person is not aware of what is
happening.

3 Criteria that distinguish the Adaptive (adequate) or non-adaptive

(inadequate) use of defenses:
a. Aim
- When defenses are directed to the solution of the conflict in realistic terms, they
are adaptive.
- Non-adaptives instead go in the direction of avoidance of conflict.
b. Modality of use
- A defense is adaptive when it is flexible, that is appropriate to the situation, and
when its use is confined to it.
- It is non-adaptive when it is rigid, automatic and generalized which in this case
the behavior driven by defense breaks out automatically and is not limited to a
particular situation.

c. Effects
- Defense is adaptive when it helps to control the conflict for it protects and
enables the person to function better.
- It is non-adaptive if it perpetuates the conflict or creates even more
disadvantages to the whole personality.

Differences:
Defense Mechanisms Coping Mechanisms
They avoid conflict They face conflict
They are automatic and generalized They are flexible and limited
They create ulterior disadvantages They facilitate a better functioning

Advantages of Defense Mechanism

- They help the person to avoid a confrontation with an internal or external
dangerous stimulus
- They allow substitute gratifications and reduce the effects of frustration to a
supportive level

Two Levels of Defense

a. Strategic defense
- These are central psychic transactions by means of which the person faces his
infantile needs.
b. Tactical defense
- These are secondary psychic operations which serve not to recognize
consciously the use of strategic defenses.

Hierarchy of Defenses (based on two variables)

a. Degree of distortion
- Certain defenses are more destructive or primitive than others
o How much does a defense distort or blind us?
b. Object of distortion
- Certain defenses associate themselves more with certain problems than others
o What distortion does a particular defense produce or to what is it blind?

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Examples of Defense Mechanisms:

a. Projection: Attributing to others, the unacceptable desires/impulses. Attributing your
own unacceptable thoughts or feelings to someone or something else
Example: When the student fails the examination he/she attribute his/her failure on the
teacher

b. Displacement/Scapegoat: Channeling a feeling or thought from its actual source to

something or someone else. It is shifting impulses from a threatening object to a safer or
weaker object.
Example 1: When the father is harassed by his boss, he direct impulses to the children or
wife at home.
Example 2: A man who is angry at his sister breaks his drinking glass by throwing it
against the wall.

c. Rationalization: Make up excuses for inadequacies, failure, or loss. People distort reality
in order to justify something that has happened, explaining away to justify a specific
behavior.
Example 1: A person who did not get an award says she didn’t really want to it in the first
place.
Example 2: When you fail to join a degree program at the university and say, “The
University produces jobless people anyway!”
Example 3: “I always study hard for tests and I know a lot of people who cheat. So it is
not a big deal I cheated this time. If I had wanted to try hard, I could have done it too.”

d. Denial: Not accepting reality because it is too painful. People refuse to accept or
acknowledge anxiety-producing pieces of information.
Example 1: A student refuses to believe that he has flunked/ failed a course.
Example 2: You are arrested for drunk driving several times but don’t believe you have a
problem with alcohol.

e. Sublimation: Redirecting unacceptable, instinctual drives into personally and socially

acceptable channels. People divert unwanted impulses into socially approved thoughts,
feelings or behaviors.
Example 1: A person a person with strong feelings of aggression becomes a soldier.
Example 2: Intense rage/anger redirected in the form of participation in sports such as
boxing and football.

f. Suppression: The effort to hide and control unacceptable thoughts or feelings.

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Example 1: You are attracted to someone but say that you really don’t like the person at
all.

g. Compensation: Develop or strengthen positive traits to make up for limitations. Distract

attention from the weaknesses. Psychological counterbalancing perceived weaknesses by
emphasizing strength in other arenas.
Example 1: Weak in school, excellent in sports, Class clown etc.
Example 2: A person says” I may not know how to cook, but can sure do the dishes”.

h. Regression: Revert back to behavior of an earlier stage. Use childhood coping

mechanisms. People behave as if they were at the earlier stage of development.

 Example 1: The boss has a temper tantrum swearing, fighting, sulking, and crying
when an employee makes a mistake.

i. Reaction-Formation: Unconscious impulses are expressed as their opposite in

consciousness.

Example 1: A mother who unconsciously resents (hates) her child acts in an overly loving
way to the child.
Example 2: Someone frightens you so you snub (ignore) him/her.
Example 3: The sex offender becomes the great protector of society

j. Fantasy: Dreaming, imagining instead of living in the present world, because you don’t
feel competent to achieve.
Pretending
Example 1: Wanting to look good and pretending to yourself that you are one of the
movie stars you read about.
Example 2: Making up stories about how successful you are, rather than working on your
success.

k. Repression: Keep painful thoughts and feelings away from consciousness. Burying a
painful feeling or thought from your awareness though it may resurface in symbolic form.
Sometimes considered a basis of other defense mechanism. Unacceptable or unpleasant
impulses are pushed back into the unconscious.
Don’t think about it!
Example 1: A woman is unable to recall that that she was raped.
Example 2: You can’t remember your father’s funeral. Early abuse. Lies you have told Painful
memories

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Activities

Provide a coupon bond and copy the template provided if you are not able to print this paper.

Psycho-spiritual’s Activity # 8
1. Explain the defense mechanisms as Habitual, Unconscious and
Pathological mental process which the Ego uses against conflicts.

A habitual, unconscious and pathological mental process which the ego seeks to restore
balance through various protective measures known as defense mechanisms. When certain
events, feelings, or yearnings cause an individual anxiety, the individual wishes to reduce
that anxiety. To do that, the individual’s unconscious mind uses ego defense mechanisms,
unconscious protective behaviors that aim to reduce anxiety. When we use defense
mechanisms, we are unaware that we are using them. Further, they operate in various ways
that distort reality. There are examples of defense mechanisms which are the denial
(refusing to accept real events because they are unpleasant), displacement ( transferring
inappropriate urges for behaviors onto a more acceptable or less threatening target),
projection ( attributing unacceptable desires to others), rationalization ( justifying behaviors
by substituting acceptable reasons for less – acceptable real reasons), reaction formation
( reducing anxiety by adopting beliefs contrary to your own beliefs), Regression ( returning
to coping strategies for less mature stages of development), Repression ( suppressing painful
memories and thoughts) and Sublimation (redirecting unacceptable desires through socially
acceptable channels) and so on.

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