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Mechanisms of psychological defenses. Psychological protection

Neurotic defenses of the psyche.

- Defense mechanisms of the psyche. Characteristics of basic defenses (repression, projection, sublimation, etc.)

- Resistance - as a factor of personal growth.

Let us briefly consider the defense mechanisms common in the human psyche. These defenses are: repression, projection, identification, introjection, reactive formation, self-restraint, rationalization, annulment, splitting, denial, displacement, isolation, sublimation, regression and resistance.

crowding out

Repression is the process of eliminating from the sphere of consciousness thoughts, feelings, desires and drives that cause pain, shame or guilt. The action of this mechanism can explain many cases of a person forgetting to perform some duties, which, as it turns out upon closer examination, are unpleasant for him. Memories of unpleasant incidents are often suppressed. If any segment of a person’s life path is filled with particularly difficult experiences, amnesia can cover such segments past life person.

Projection

With projection, a person attributes his own undesirable traits to others, and in this way protects himself from awareness of these traits in himself. The projection mechanism allows you to justify your own actions. For example, unfair criticism and cruelty towards others. In this case, such a person unconsciously attributes cruelty and dishonesty to those around him, and since those around him are like that, then in his mind his similar attitude towards them becomes justified. By type - they deserve it.

Identification

Identification is defined as identifying oneself with someone else. In the process of identification, one person unconsciously becomes like another (the object of identification). Both people and groups can act as objects of identification. Identification leads to imitation of the actions and experiences of another person.

Introjection

Traits and motives of persons towards whom a certain person forms various attitudes can be introjected. Often the object that is lost is introjected: this loss is replaced by the introjection of the object into one’s self. Z. Freud (2003) gave an example when a child, feeling unhappy due to the loss of a kitten, explained that he was now a kitten himself.

Reactive education

In the case of this defensive reaction, a person unconsciously translates the transformation of one mental state into another (for example, hatred into love, and vice versa). In our opinion, this fact is very important in assessing the personality of a particular person, because it indicates that real human actions, because they can only be the result of a veiled distortion of his true desires.

For example, excessive anger in other cases is only an unconscious attempt to veil interest and good nature, and ostentatious hatred is a consequence of love that frightened a person who unconsciously decided to hide it behind an attempt to openly splash out negativity.

Self-restraint as an adaptation mechanism

The essence of the self-restraint mechanism is this: when a person realizes that his achievements are less significant compared to the achievements of other people working in the same field, then his self-esteem drops. In such a situation, many simply stop working. This is a kind of departure, a retreat in the face of difficulties. Anna Freud called this mechanism “limitation of the ego.” She drew attention to the fact that such a process is characteristic of mental life throughout the entire development of personality.

Rationalization

Rationalization as a defensive process is when a person unconsciously invents logical judgments and conclusions to explain his failures. This is necessary to maintain your own positive self-image.

Cancellation

Nullification is a mental mechanism that is designed to destroy thoughts or actions that are unacceptable to a person. When a person asks for forgiveness and accepts punishment, then the unacceptable act for him is annulled, and he can continue to live in peace.

Split

In the case of splitting, a person divides his life into the imperatives of “good” and “bad,” unconsciously removing everything uncertain, which may subsequently complicate his analysis of the problem (a critical situation that causes mental discomfort as a result of the development of, for example, anxiety). Splitting is a kind of distortion of reality, like, in fact, other defense mechanisms, through the action of which a person seeks to escape from reality, replacing the true world with a false one.

Negation

In the case of this protective reaction of the psyche, when any negative information for him appears in the person’s perception zone, he unconsciously denies its existence. The presence of the fact of denial of any events, etc., allows you to find out about true intentions and the reasons for a given person’s anxiety, since often he unconsciously denies not something that does not exist in reality, but something important for him, but which, for a number of reasons known to him alone, is unacceptable to such a person. Those. a person denies what he is trying to hide in the first place.

Bias

Such a protective function is expressed in a person’s unconscious desire to switch attention from an object of real interest to another, extraneous object.

Insulation

In this case, there is an unconscious abstraction from any problem, excessive immersion in which can lead to the development of symptoms of neurosis (for example, increased anxiety, restlessness, guilt, etc.) Also, if, when performing any work (activity), one is excessively immersed in the nature of such activity, then this may lead to a failure in the implementation of this activity. (If a boxer constantly thinks that the enemy’s blows can cause pain and various types of injuries, and even lead to death as a result of a strong blow, then such a boxer will initially lose due to the inability to fight due to fear, etc.)

Sublimation

Sublimation is the unconscious switching of negative mental energy to socially useful work. Sublimation is expressed in the fact that a person experiencing some kind of neurotic conflict finds replacing internal anxiety by switching to another activity (creativity, chopping wood, cleaning the apartment, etc.)

Regression

Such a defensive reaction of the psyche as regression manifests itself in the fact that a person, in order to avoid a neurotic conflict, unconsciously returns to that period of the past when everything was fine for him.

Resistance

Such a mental defense mechanism as resistance is very important both for understanding the specifics of defensive reactions in general, and serves as an opportunity to transition to new stage development of the individual as a personality, which, in favorable circumstances, helps him rise to the next step in the hierarchical ladder of social relations.

First of all, let us remember that the human psyche is divided into such components as consciousness (the left hemisphere of the brain; approximately 10% of the volume), the subconscious (the unconscious, approximately 90% of the volume, the right hemisphere), and censorship of the psyche (Super-I, Alter-ego). The censorship of the psyche is between consciousness and the unconscious; censorship of the psyche is a barrier of criticality in the way of information from the outside world and the psyche (brain) of a person, i.e. censorship of the psyche is assigned the role of critical analysis in assessing information coming from the outside world. Censorship passes some of this information into consciousness (which means a person is able to be aware of this information), and some - encountering obstacles in the psyche, the Super-Ego (Alter-Ego, censorship of the psyche) passes into the subconscious. In order from there to subsequently influence consciousness through emerging thoughts and the implementation of actions (actions - as a consequence of thoughts or unconscious, reflexive, desires, instincts). Resistance, being one of the protective functions (censorship) of the psyche, prevents information that is undesirable for consciousness from entering consciousness, being repressed into the unconscious. This becomes possible in cases where the nature of the new information, its semantic part, does not find a response in the soul of the individual, that is, at the initial level of perception it becomes impossible to correlate this information with information that already exists in the unconscious of a particular person, information that, being in memory of the individual - begins to clearly resist the receipt of new information. To the question: how is information received from the outside world consolidated in the psyche, one should answer that most likely there is some kind of coincidence of encodings (newly received and previously existing) information, i.e. new information becomes correlated with earlier information of similar content and direction, which by the time new information arrived was already in the unconscious of the psyche (having been formed in patterns of behavior after preliminary dominant consolidation in attitudes).

When information influences the brain, it should be said that any kind of influence becomes possible thanks to the suggestibility of the psyche. Suggestion in this case is a conscious change in a person’s existing psychological attitudes through the activation of archetypes of the unconscious psyche. Archetypes, in turn, involve previously formed patterns of behavior. If we consider this from the perspective of neurophysiology, then the corresponding dominant is activated in the human brain (focal excitation of the cerebral cortex), which means that the part of the brain that is responsible for consciousness slows down its work. In this case, the censorship of the psyche (as a structural unit of the psyche) is temporarily blocked or semi-blocked, which means information from the outside world freely enters the preconscious, or even immediately into consciousness. Sometimes, bypassing consciousness, it passes into the subconscious. The personal unconscious of the psyche (subconscious) is also formed in the process of repressing information by censorship of the psyche. At the same time, not all information coming from the outside world is displaced unconsciously into the subconscious. Some of it goes into the subconscious on purpose. For example, to feed the information already available in the unconscious and further shape archetypes, or specifically for the purpose of forming new archetypes, patterns of future behavior of the individual. And this, in our opinion, must be correctly understood and distinguished. If we talk about how this or that information is forced out by the censorship of the psyche, going into the subconscious, then we should say that such information has not been verified, i.e. did not receive the proper “response” in the soul of the person whose psyche evaluates such information. As S. Freud (2003) pointed out, any situations or life circumstances that are painful for the individual’s psyche are repressed, i.e. everything that he unconsciously does not want to let into consciousness. In this case, unwanted moments of life are forgotten, that is, deliberately repressed. Moreover, let us recall that both resistance and repression are the psyche’s ability to get rid of neurosis. At the same time, new information, finding a “response in the soul,” will strengthen information of similar content that previously existed in the brain (unconscious psyche, right hemisphere of the brain). As a result, it is quite possible that for some time a kind of information vacuum will arise, during which the brain will assimilate any information received from the outside world. This also occurs if special techniques manage to break a person’s will to perceive information by overcoming resistance. Then any information received is directly deposited in the subconscious, and subsequently affects consciousness. Psychotechnologies of hypnotic influence in the waking state of consciousness of a person (object of influence) are built on this principle. In other words, if we manage to break the resistance of another person in the way of him receiving new information, then this new information will not only be deposited in his subconscious, but the person will also have the opportunity to perceive it in a cognitive (conscious) way. Moreover, in terms of the strength of its own influence, similar information may have an incomparably greater impact in comparison with the modality of previously existing information in the psyche. If the modality coincides, then in this case the state of rapport occurs more easily, i.e. a reliable connection is established, whereby a person becomes receptive to receiving information from another person.

Attention should be paid to the fact that the psyche almost always protests to everything new and unknown. And this happens because, as it were, initially (when new information arrives), as we have already noticed, individual components of such information look for “certain family connections” with information that existed in the subconscious before (“coincidence of encoding”, as we define it). That is, when new information begins to be evaluated by the brain, the brain looks for something familiar in this information, through which it will either consolidate such information in consciousness or repress it into the subconscious. If the codes of new and previously existing information coincide, an associative connection arises between new and existing information, which means that specific contact, as a result of which new information seems to fall on fertile soil, and having some kind of basis under it, it serves as an opportunity to adapt new information, enrich it with symbolic, emotional and other components of already existing information, and then through transformation (without this there is no way , a person’s memory cannot help but be updated), some new information is born, which already passes into consciousness, which means, through thoughts that arise in the unconscious psyche, it is projected onto actions, which, although in most cases (in the absence of altered states of consciousness) are a consequence of activity consciousness, taking its basis in the unconscious of the psyche, forming there. At the same time, we must say that resistance allows us to identify a person’s unconscious impulses, his unconscious desires, attitudes that were early laid (by society, environment or another person) in the psyche of a given individual, and have already in one way or another begun to influence his real or future activities. In this case, it should be said that the subjugation of the psyche of another person occurs by programming his psyche by introducing into his subconscious various attitudes that can later be demanded by the manipulator (and then he activates them using code signals of an auditory-visual-kinesthetic nature); Moreover, the role of such a manipulator can be played by both specific individuals and society, social environment, any natural factors, etc. Thus, we must say that any kind of information that is involved in any representative or signaling system of a person - either immediately deposited in the unconscious of the psyche or finds confirmation in existing earlier information, thereby being enriched due to this and amplified - is capable of influencing consciousness, i.e. on the process of human life.

Note that by overcoming resistance, a person opens his psyche to perceive new information. Moreover, there is a high probability of obtaining completely new information. After all, if earlier, as we said, some information was already present in memory, then when new information is received, the censorship of the psyche unconsciously looks for confirmation of the newly received information in the memory stores. Probably the psyche in this case should react in a certain way, and it reacts. Visually, this is noticeable by the external changes that occur with a person in parallel “here and now” (redness or pallor of the facial skin, dilated pupils, variants of catalepsy (numbness of the body), etc.). Moreover, such changes can occur and not necessarily so noticeably, but still be caught by the eye of an experienced observer. Such changes indicate the onset, the possibility, of rapport (information contact) with the object of manipulation. And the probability that in this state the object will accept the information supplied to it without cuts reaches one hundred percent. Another question is that there may be individuals who cannot be brought into a state of rapport in the “here and now” transcription, but something similar, for example, can be done later. All the same, everyone has states when he is maximally susceptible to informational and psychological influence, to manipulation of his psyche, invasion of his psyche and control of the psyche of this person. Moreover, it is also possible to fully trace the choice of the right moment, but for this you need to have experience, knowledge, and a predisposition to realize this kind of opportunities. Those. at least relative, but abilities, and even better - talent. In this case, the likelihood of achieving the programming result increases significantly.

As a result of the fact that the barrier of criticality is broken, the psyche begins to perceive new information with unprecedented force. Such information is deposited in the subconscious and is reflected in the preconscious and consciousness. That is, in this case we can say that the attack is being carried out on several “fronts” at once. As a result, unusually strong programming of the psyche is observed, the emergence of powerful, stable mechanisms (patterns of behavior) in the unconscious. In addition, after the creation of something like this, there is an initiation of the emergence of more and more new mechanisms of a similar orientation in the unconscious of the psyche. However, now they find constant reinforcement in both consciousness and preconsciousness. This means that not only is the process of consolidating information once received in the subconscious possible (not just any information, but precisely that which caused such a process, information that, as a result of the receipt of which, patterns began to form in the unconscious), but also such information begins to become active , soon subordinating the thoughts and desires of the individual in a manner indicated by the semantic load of this kind of information. At the same time, a very important factor in the processing of such information is the characteristics of the individual’s psyche. It is known that the same information may have no effect on one individual, but cause another to almost radically change their life.

Right hemisphere the brain, as we have already noted, extends into the spectrum of activity of the unconscious psyche. Whereas the left one forms a conscious personality. The right hemisphere thinks in images, feelings, grasping a picture, the left hemisphere analyzes information received from the outside world, the prerogative of logical thinking is the left hemisphere. The right hemisphere realizes emotions, the left - thoughts and signs (speech, writing, etc.) There are individuals who, in a completely new environment, have the impression of “already seen.” This is a typical example of right hemisphere activity. As a result, we can say that the activity of the brain is provided by two hemispheres, the right (sensual) and the left (sign, i.e. integrates objects of the external world with the help of signs: words, speech, etc.). The complementarity of the activities of the two hemispheres is often manifested by the simultaneous presence in the psyche of the individual of the rational and intuitive, reasonable and sensual. Hence the high efficiency of directive instructions to the brain in the form of such mechanisms of suggestive influence as orders, self-hypnosis, etc. This is due to the specifics of mental activity, when, while pronouncing or hearing a speech, a person’s imagination also turns on, which in this case noticeably enhances this kind of impact. In this case, you should once again pay attention to the need to break resistance. It is known that resistance is activated when new information enters the brain (psyche), information that initially does not find a response in the human soul, does not find something similar to the information already in memory. Such information does not pass the criticality barrier and is repressed into the subconscious. However, if through an effort of will (i.e., using consciousness; will is the prerogative of the activity of consciousness) we can prevent repression, and force the brain to analyze the incoming information (the part of such information that we need), then we will be able to overcome resistance, and therefore after some At that time it will be possible to experience that state that we called early satori, or insight. Moreover, the effect of this will be incomparably higher than information that methodically and over a long period of time penetrated the subconscious, later influencing consciousness. In our case, if the barrier of criticality, and therefore resistance, is broken, we will achieve incomparably more, because in this case the so-called state will be observed for some time. “green corridor”, when incoming information passes almost entirely, bypassing the criticality barrier. Moreover, in this case, the transition into consciousness of both their preconscious and from the unconscious occurs just as quickly. This means that we will no longer have to wait long, as in the case of the natural transition of information from the subconscious to consciousness, when such information begins its transition only when it finds a “response in the soul,” i.e. only when, clinging to similar information currently available in consciousness (temporary information, because any information in consciousness does not last long, and after time, from operative memory it enters long-term memory) it enters there. In the case of overcoming resistance, such information arrives immediately, changing the person’s worldview, because in this case consciousness is actively involved, and if something is realized by a person, it is accepted as a guide to action.

So, we have considered a far from complete list of existing defense mechanisms, but listing the main defenses, in our opinion, can bring us closer to understanding the possible features of interpersonal interactions. At the same time, the very fact of the existence of protective mechanisms in the psyche brings us closer to understanding the mechanisms of influence of one person on another. When considering the inclusion of neurotic defenses (and any defense of the psyche is a defense against developing neurosis), we must pay attention to the fact that, according to O. Fenichel (1945, 2005), anxiety and anger are a consequence of not receiving an outlet for mental energy as a result of traumatic events in the psyche circumstances, and represent a release of mental excitement. It should be noted that the protective mechanisms of the psyche restrain an excess of psychic energy, but in the event of a predominance or repetition of a situation traumatic to a person’s psyche, a release of energy is possible, which results in the development of neuropsychic symptoms. At the same time, someone who is predisposed to neurosis due to constitution and infantile fixation will react with the development of neurosis even in response to minimal activation of infantile conflicts. And for some, this will become possible only as a result of difficult life circumstances. By and large, we are dealing with psychoneuroses, i.e. with the reaction of the psyche to any conflict involving the consciousness, subconscious and the surrounding world. The basis of psychoneuroses is neurotic conflict. Neurotic conflict is a consequence of the conflict between the tendency to discharge and the tendency to prevent it. (O. Fenichel, 2005). The severity of the desire for discharge depends both on the nature of the stimuli and for the most part from physical and chemical reactions of the body. Tracing the psychoanalytic structure of the psyche, it should be noted that a neurotic conflict is a conflict between the I (Id) and the Id (Ego). At the same time, it already becomes clear that the motive for protecting the psyche is anxiety. It is with the help of defense mechanisms that the individual’s psyche is unconsciously saved from the danger of external influence, i.e. from the impact of information from the external world on the internal world of the individual. Moreover, a number of people in this case actually experience a conflict, because the incoming information has a negative impact, replacing the individual’s personality and forcing him to commit actions that were not typical for him earlier. A person is saved from such influence precisely by turning on the mental defense mechanisms, which we briefly discussed above. In some cases, anxiety is replaced by a feeling of guilt. The feeling of guilt in this case acts as one of the defenses of the psyche. The feeling of guilt itself serves sure sign neurosis, is characterized by a long-term state of persistent anxiety, and actually replaces the true “I” with a false image, which the person’s personality is forced to reckon with. Such a neurotic simply has no choice but to actually adjust his life to the feeling of guilt existing in his psyche. And the situation in most cases has quite serious consequences, because... forces a neurotic individual to perform actions, if controlled by consciousness, then at best partially; because unconscious desires take over, helping to “drown out” the feeling of guilt, causing strong provocations of neurosis in the psyche of a person who is forced to perform actions aimed at fulfilling someone else’s will and thereby eliminating anxiety. Guilt is a person's conscience. And in this case, there is a very significant conflict, rooted in the understanding of the issue, because the constant satisfaction of the urges of conscience in a neurotic ultimately leads to negative consequences, the consequence of which is difficult adaptation in society, i.e. Such a neurotic individual has disrupted contacts with the outside world, because his inner world is constantly forced to come into conflict between what needs to be done to survive in this world and the dictates of the inner state of the soul. At the same time, the negative aspects of the existence of a feeling of guilt for a neurotic person can manifest themselves in internal destructive impulses of a sadistic-masochistic nature, which consists in deliberate (unconscious, for the most part) causing implicit harm to one’s health (smoking, drinking alcohol, dangerous driving, parachute jumping, etc.) other extreme sports). Experiencing internal suffering from feelings of guilt, neurotics sometimes use some specific options for defense against feelings of guilt, manifested in the following: feelings of guilt can be repressed, projected (when someone else is accused of committing an undesirable act), or, for example, there is blaming , reproaching others for what they themselves could have done; A fairly typical example is with excessive intrusiveness, sociability, and sudden talkativeness. In this case, we should talk about a certain neurotic reaction, manifested in the neurotic’s desire to drown out his own feelings of guilt by obtaining approval for what is internally experienced as forbidden. Isolation of the feeling of guilt occurs when, for example, a neurotic person commits some offense with quite noticeable emotional indifference, while he sincerely repents for a completely harmless act.

It should be remembered that the protective mechanisms of the psyche for the psyche itself are a way to avoid neurosis. To establish contact and further influence on a person, it becomes possible to initially identify the protective mechanisms of his psyche (i.e., correctly interpret certain reactions of the body), so that in the future it becomes possible to establish rapport with a similar individual, and therefore after introducing him into a trance or a semi-trance state (depending on the individual characteristics of a particular psyche) to control such a person. It is also necessary to remember that rarely anyone is able to honestly and sincerely express their own feelings, thoughts, emotions, fantasies, desires, etc. Modern man, being a child of society, has learned to hide his feelings in the process of education, necessary for adaptation to the world around him. Therefore, the task is to influence a person, his psyche, to identify such concealment mechanisms, and to treat people as patients. And this is true, you just have to pay attention and observe the specifics of people’s behavior. Human nature itself forces him to be secretive. Moreover, this happens on an unconscious level and does not depend on the person himself. True, those individuals who, due to the geography of their residence (villages very remote from places of civilization, etc.) and their own moral preferences, have limited contact with the media, can still be as honest as possible, although civilization and culture exert their pressure on them , and over time, in order to survive, they must make a choice: either be like everyone else, i.e. lie, deceive, dodge, and in this case survive, become a full member of society, or remain completely honest and open, which means becoming an outcast of society, and a follower of marginal positions, and as a consequence of this - being deprived of the benefits of civilization. The choice is truly difficult, despite the fact that the majority simply do not realize it, since from birth their psyche is programmed by the media of mass communication and information, which means such people immediately begin to “play by the rules”, i.e. live in accordance with the laws of society.

Resistance is a factor in personal growth.

Having overcome such a protective mechanism of the psyche as resistance, an individual is able to move to a new level of his own perception of life, and therefore rise to the next step in the social ladder. This becomes possible in the following way. It is known that the individual’s psyche is divided into three important components: consciousness, subconscious (unconscious), and the so-called. mental censorship. The latter is assigned the role of critical analysis in assessing information coming from the outside world. Censorship passes some of this information into consciousness (which means a person has the ability to be aware of this information), and some of it, encountering barriers in the psyche in the form of the Super-I (censorship of the psyche), passes into the subconscious. In order to still subsequently influence conscious actions through the preliminary emergence of thoughts of an unconscious and conscious orientation.

Resistance, as we have noticed, is one of the defenses of the psyche. Without going into too much detailed analysis resistance, consider resistance - in the concept of an individual’s life growth, increasing his social status, his intellectual abilities, life adaptation, etc. And even then, we need to highlight the role of resistance - as a feature of the psyche that affects the memorization of new information. At the same time, for the most part we will not consider any new information, but only that which causes a certain “protest” in the psyche after it encounters a barrier of criticality, and in some cases, initiating it. This becomes possible if the nature of the new information, its semantic part, does not find a response in the soul of the individual; that is, at the initial level of its perception, it becomes impossible to correlate this information with information that already existed earlier in the individual’s unconscious, information that, being in the individual’s memory, begins to clearly resist the arrival of new information. Moreover, this kind of resistance manifests itself especially strongly if either the general information-target orientation of the new and previous information coincides, or if the new information is generally something new, perhaps even to some extent presented for the first time in the psyche of such an individual; which means that in assessing such information, the individual - unconsciously - will not refer only to that general idea of a particular problem (issue), which, as is known, exists in the soul of almost every person, and characterizes life experience, the amount of knowledge, etc. P..

At the same time, it is necessary to pay attention that the information received from the outside world (through any types of contacts: interpersonal, through the media, etc.) does not all and does not completely resonate in the soul of the individual. First of all, the influence is exerted by the information that seems to have hit a special wavelength, to which the individual’s psyche is tuned at the moment of receiving such information. At the same time, we must also say that at the next moment the same information may no longer be perceived. Even in general, invisible barriers of criticality may stand in its way, resulting from the activities of mental censorship. But if we say that information affecting the individual’s psyche was involved in the “here and now” mode, if this information was not, like other information, repressed into the subconscious, but almost unhindered, or without losing its basic essence, after which it is subsequently possible to restore its components, having assembled into a single whole, and so, if we say that such information has now penetrated into consciousness, then we should admit that this is quite possible. And this happens as a result of the fact that part of such information (its vanguard) not only entered with its codes (any information, as is known, can be presented in a system of codes) into a correlate with information already available in the individual’s psyche, but also as a result of such censorship The psyche weakened for a while and opened up (metaphorically speaking, the psyche opened a barrier to the entry of new information). This means that other information supplied with the information that penetrated through the coincidence of codes can also penetrate into consciousness. Except that in this case such information (information that entered consciousness fraudulently) does not linger for long, and soon turns out to be repressed into the subconscious. But if, as a result of censorship, information passes into the subconscious from the outside world, then in this case, this kind of information is forced out of consciousness. Although in both cases it ends up in the subconscious.

If we return to the issue of the receipt of information that, through the unconscious selection of codes, turned out to be in demand in consciousness, then in this case it should be noted that such a mental mechanism, which is capable of letting through, almost bypassing censorship, some information, is well known to specialists in mental manipulation. Moreover, the word “manipulation”, which has received a somewhat negative aspect, as we have already noted earlier, can be replaced with the more neutral word “management”. Control, or, for example, programming of the psyche. Rearranging words does not change the semantic effect. And, probably, the word “management” does not cause too obvious provocation of the psyche, an explosion of emotions, etc. barriers of the psyche, which, depending on the circumstances, can carry both positive and negative aspects as a result of voicing the word “manipulation”, and which involve one or another layer of the unconscious psyche, in the depths of which such deposits of sometimes priceless material are hidden that the one who knows how to extract from the subconscious at least insignificant a small part information hidden there, is able to significantly outstrip other individuals in information power. After all, it is quite clear that it is important not only to receive any information from the outside world, but also to remember it. Moreover, the memorization process is tested quite simply, and as one of the options, it includes such a component of the individual’s psyche as memory. The process of remembering is similar to the process of extracting information from the subconscious and bringing such information into consciousness. Despite the rather limited volume of consciousness (compared to the subconscious), it is impossible to live without consciousness. Because if a person were in an unconscious state all the time, this would mean that primary instincts would take precedence, the desires of a savage - to kill, eat, rape. And they would be implemented everywhere. Which would lead to the actual destruction of civilization.

How does information entering the psyche from the outside world “response in the soul” of an individual? As we have already noted, in this case we should say that we have before us a kind of coincidence of the encoding of new information with information that was previously already in the unconscious of the psyche of such an individual. In this case, attitudes and patterns of behavior are involved, as a result of which new information, practically bypassing the censorship of the psyche (which retreats, recognizing “its own” after receiving certain “password feedback”), immediately enters consciousness, and therefore has a direct impact on thoughts and human actions. Moreover, even if for some reason such information (or part of it) turns out to be repressed into the subconscious, most likely it will not penetrate further than the preconscious (there is also such a structure of the psyche, which, in Freud’s metaphorical expression, means “hallway”, that is something located between the front door (censorship of the psyche) and the living room (consciousness), or it will end up in the unconscious, but with some positive marking. As a result, the information that was already in the subconscious earlier will be enriched with another charge of a similar orientation (encoding), will be strengthened , which means we can talk (immediately or after some time) about the formation of full-fledged attitudes and patterns of behavior.

Answering the question of how this or that information is suppressed by the censorship of the psyche, going into the subconscious, we assume that such information has not received the proper “response” in the soul of the individual evaluating such information. After all, it is known that almost any information from the outside world is assessed by the psyche of the “receiving party”. And it depends on this what information the individual’s psyche will allow into consciousness and immediately begin to work with such information, and will displace some information. As Prof. pointed out. Freud (2003), any situations or life circumstances that are painful for the individual’s psyche are repressed, i.e. everything that he unconsciously does not want to let into consciousness. In this case, it is also appropriate to say that as a result of this, mental resistance is activated, as a result of which undesirable moments of life are forgotten, that is, deliberately repressed. Or, for example, in the way of information trying to penetrate consciousness, there is censorship of the psyche, which has various methods of defense, one of which is resistance, and as a consequence of the work of resistance - repression. Moreover, all this (both resistance and repression) is also nothing more than the ability of the psyche to get rid of neurosis, because any flows of information undesirable for the psyche can, after some time, lead to the appearance of symptoms of neurosis, and as a consequence - mental illnesses, disorders psyche. “...the prerequisite for the existence of a symptom,” wrote S. Freud, “is that some mental process did not occur completely in a normal way, so that it could not become conscious. The symptom is a substitute for what has not been realized... Strong resistance had to be directed against... the mental process penetrating into consciousness; so he remained unconscious. As an unconscious person, he has the ability to form a symptom. ...The pathogenic process, manifested in the form of resistance, deserves the name of repression.” Thus, we trace the emergence of repression through the resistance of the censorship of the psyche, which resists allowing unwanted, painful information for the psyche to pass into consciousness, and therefore subjugate the thoughts, desires, and actions of the individual. While the fact that after sometimes a very short period of time, these same pathogenic microbes, which have settled in the unconscious of the psyche, will begin to wander in search of “supporters” (information codes), and having found the latter, they will still be able to break through the defense and find themselves in consciousness, about In this case, the psyche, which through the barrier of criticality initiated obstacles to the flow of information from the outside world, does not seem to think. Nor do all those who mistakenly believe that nothing exists except consciousness, denying the subconscious under far-fetched pretexts, and thereby falling by their actions under the systematics of defense mechanisms described at one time by the Freud family (father and daughter Anna, professor psychology), and continued in the developments of modern scientists.

Before considering in more detail the role of resistance in the life of an individual, we note that prof. R. Greenson distinguished psychoanalysis from all other psychotherapeutic techniques precisely by the fact that it considered the issue of resistance. According to R. Greenson (2003), resistance can be conscious, preconscious, subconscious, and can be expressed in the form of emotions, thoughts, ideas, attitudes, fantasies, etc. In addition, one of the forms of resistance is silence. “Silence is the most transparent and frequent form of resistance encountered in psychoanalytic practice,” writes Prof. R. Greenson. - This means that the patient is consciously or unconsciously unwilling to communicate his thoughts or feelings to the analyst. ...our task is to analyze the reasons for silence. …Sometimes, despite silence, the patient may involuntarily reveal the motive or content of the silence by his posture, movements or facial expression.”

Making a small digression, we would like to draw attention to the methodology of applied psychoanalysis, which, in our opinion, is one of the most effective systems for controlling the psyche of humans and the masses; Moreover, our use of such a technique is supported (enriched) by some other approaches to influencing the psyche, which, in our opinion, are also effective. We should also talk about a number of differences between classical psychoanalysis and the so-called. therapeutic aspect, and applied psychoanalysis, where theories of influence on the conscious-subconscious are developed not for a psychotherapeutic effect (in terms of treating a specific individual or group of patients), but for the purpose of controlling a person, modeling his thoughts, desires, actions, etc., etc. their effectiveness are applicable both to the individual in particular and to society as a whole. In this case, we can already talk about the art of crowd control. About the preliminary modeling of the behavior of the masses by programming their psyches to carry out the necessary settings. Those who give such instructions are called manipulators. But they, as we have already noted, can also be called managers, managers, or anyone, if we approach such a question in the context of management, the power of some people over others. And this, in our opinion, is an important feature of the general approach to the possibility of controlling the psyche. Yes, this is justified, especially considering the fact that the enemy is not asleep, developing more and more new ways of manipulating the psychic consciousness and discovering new methods of influencing the subconscious in order to manipulate the individual. Therefore, the one who will win will not only be able to identify the enemy’s attempts, but will also be able to defeat the enemy using his own methods, at best forcing him to follow his lead, and at least avoiding his psychological attacks.

Returning to the issue of resistance, we should pay attention to the fact that the psyche almost always protests to everything new and unknown. And this happens because, as if initially (when new information arrives), the individual components of such information look for some kind of related connections (similar encoding in the process of afferent connections between neurons of the brain), that is, something similar that could be “clung on to.” " That is, when new information begins to be evaluated by the brain, it looks for something familiar in this information, through which it could gain a foothold. When the codes of new information and information already existing in the unconscious psyche coincide, in this case a certain associative connection between the new and existing information becomes possible, which means a certain contact is established, as a result of which the new information seems to fall on fertile soil, and having a basis some kind of basis - serves as the possibility of adapting new information, enriching it with existing information, and through some transformation, new information is born, which already passes into consciousness, which means, through thoughts that arise in the unconscious psyche, it is projected onto actions, which, although they are in the majority cases, a consequence of the activity of consciousness, nevertheless take their basis in the unconscious of the psyche, and it is there that they are born (formed). At the same time, we must say that resistance allows us to identify the unconscious impulses of an individual, his unconscious desires, attitudes that were early embedded in the psyche of such an individual, and already in one way or another influence his current or future life. One can even say that the programming of an individual occurs in part by introducing various attitudes into his subconscious, which can later be demanded by the manipulator (and then he activates them through code signals of an auditory-visual-kinesthetic nature); Moreover, the role of such a manipulator can be played by both specific individuals and society, the social environment, any natural factors, etc. Thus, we must say that any kind of information that is involved in any representative or signaling system of a person - either immediately deposited in the unconscious of the psyche, or finds confirmation in existing earlier information, thereby being enriched due to this and strengthened - turns out to be capable of influencing on the life activity of the individual we are considering (i.e., either immediately forming full-fledged dominants in the cerebral cortex, or attitudes in the subconscious, or first forming half-dominants and half-attitudes, and then, upon receiving new information of similar encoding, forming full-fledged attitudes and behavior patterns).

R. Greenson (2003), considering the role of resistance, drew attention to the fact that resistance can be explicit or implicit, but it almost always exists and manifests itself in different ways. For example, when receiving any information, a person may not outwardly show any emotions, but this is where resistance can be seen, because the absence of affect is observed precisely when actions that “should be extremely laden with emotions” are being considered. But at the same time, the person’s comments are “dry, boring, monotonous and inexpressive.” Thus, we have the erroneous idea that the person himself is not interested, and the information received does not touch him. Absolutely not, he is actively experiencing, for example, but strives not to show his attitude to this or that situation precisely by unconsciously turning on resistance. “In general, inconsistency of affect is the most striking sign of resistance,” notes R. Greenson. - the patient’s statements seem strange when the content of the statement and the emotion do not correspond to each other.” In addition, R. Greenson draws attention to postures that can serve as a sure non-verbal sign of resistance. “When the patient is rigid, motionless, curled up in a ball, as if protecting himself, this may indicate protection. In addition, any postures that are adopted by the patient and sometimes do not change during the session and from session to session are always a sign of resistance. If the patient is relatively free from resistance, his posture will somehow change during the session. Excessive movement also shows that something is being discharged in movement rather than in words. Contradiction between posture and verbal content is also a sign of resistance. A patient who talks calmly about an event while he himself writhes and squirms is telling only part of the story. His movements retell another part of her. Clenched fists, arms tightly crossed over the chest, ankles pressed together indicate concealment... Yawning during a session is a sign of resistance. The way the patient enters the office without looking at the analyst or makes small talk that does not continue on the couch, or the way he leaves without looking at the analyst are all indicators of resistance." R. Greenson also pointed out resistance if a person always tells something consistently about the present, without diving into the past, or about the past, without jumping into the present. “Attachment to a specific time period is avoidance, analogous to rigidity, fixation of emotional tone, posture, etc. ". Resistance is also indicated by the fact that a person, when telling something, talks about superficial and unimportant events for a long time, as if unconsciously avoiding what may be truly important for him. “When there is repetition of content without development or affect, or without deepening understanding, we are forced to assume that some kind of resistance is at work. If talking about little things does not seem superfluous to the patient himself, we are dealing with “escape.” Lack of introspection and completeness of thought is an indicator of resistance. In general, verbalization that may be abundant but does not lead to new memories or new insights or greater emotional awareness is an indicator of defensive behavior."

Resistance should also include avoidance of any topics that are painful for the psyche of this person. Or a story in general phrases about what actually caused a storm of emotions in the soul of a given individual at one time. In addition, in resistance one should guess any unconscious reluctance to change any established order in conducting conversations, meetings, forms of communication, etc. At the same time, we can also say that performing the same type and established actions is also one of the forms of protection against neurotic dependence. At one time, O. Fenichel (2004) drew attention to the fact that in all psychoneuroses, control on the part of the Ego is weakened, but with obsessions and compulsions, the Ego continues to control the motor sphere, but does not completely dominate it, and only in accordance with the circumstances. In this case, there may be a clear transition of a phobia into an obsession. “At first a certain situation is avoided, then, in order to ensure the necessary avoidance, attention is constantly tense. Later, this attention becomes obsessive or another “positive” obsessive attitude develops, so incompatible with the initially frightening situation that its avoidance is guaranteed. Touching taboos are replaced by touching rituals, fears of contamination by washing compulsions; social fears - social rituals, fears of falling asleep - ceremonies of preparation for bed, inhibition of walking - mannered walking, phobias of animals - compulsions when dealing with animals." An indicator of resistance according to R. Greenson is also “the use of clichés, technical terms or sterile language,” which indicates that such a person, in order to avoid personal self-disclosure, avoids the figurativeness of his speech. For example, he says “I felt hostility,” when in fact he was furious, thereby “avoiding the image and feeling of fury, preferring to it the sterility of “hostility.” “From my clinical experience working with patients in such situations, I concluded,” writes R. Greenson, “that “in fact” and “honestly” usually mean that the patient feels ambivalent, aware of the contradictory nature of his feelings. He wants what he said to be the whole truth. “I really think so” means that he really wants to think so. “I'm sincerely sorry” means that he would like to be sincerely sorry, but he is also aware that he has opposing feelings. “I think I was angry” means: I am sure that I was angry, but I am reluctant to admit it. “I don’t know where to start” means: I know where to start, but I’m hesitant to start. A patient who says to the analyst several times, “I'm sure you really remember my sister...” usually means: I'm not at all sure, idiot, whether you really remember her, so I'm reminding you of it. All this is very subtle, but usually repetitions indicate the presence of resistances and should be seen as such. The most frequently repeated clichés are manifestations of character resistance and are difficult to deal with before the analysis is in full swing. Isolated clichés can be easily accessed in early stage analysis".

Various types of manifestations of resistance should also include tardiness, omissions, forgetting, boredom, acting out (this can manifest itself in the fact that a person tells about the same facts to different people; in this case, by the way, unconscious evidence is also manifested, confirming the importance of such information for a person), deliberate gaiety or sadness. "...great enthusiasm or prolonged elation shows that there is something that is being averted - usually something of the opposite nature, some form of depression."

Speaking about resistance, we must also say that if we manage to break such a defensive reaction of the psyche on the way to obtaining new information, then in this case, by weakening the censorship of the psyche, we will be able to achieve an effect incomparably greater than if new information , through associative connections and the appearance of empathic attachment, would pass through the barrier of the psyche and would remain conscious. And a greater effect is achieved precisely due to the fact that the psyche, as if wanting to “justify itself” for its previous inaccessibility, opens up almost to its maximum on the path of new information. Moreover, such information can fill the depths of the psyche and be projected (later) onto consciousness in at least two directions. In the first, she can - even if she initially finds herself in the unconscious - create there those stable formations on which she can subsequently rely if she wants to take power into her own hands while introjecting information stored in the unconscious into consciousness. Such a period can be, depending on the time, short-term and intense; or be noticeably distributed over time, and, as it were, prepare for a performance, i.e. to the transition of information from the unconscious to consciousness. Whereas in the second option, we can say that for some time such information (newly received information) will not only be inactive, but there will also be an assumption that it lies exclusively in those depths of the psyche from which it is not so it will be easy to remove when the appropriate time comes. Moreover, such a time (such a suspicion may arise) may not come.

Actually this is not true. And it is in the second case, more often than in the first, that we witness that such information, information that had previously entered the subconscious, is activated in such a strong way that it will literally pull with it other information stored in the unconscious, if it is found in such information any similarity. Moreover, the newly formed flow of such information, information to some extent that does not have personal historical unconscious experience associated with the psyche of a particular individual, will not only fill the resulting void, but will also clearly lead to the fact that it will pull this entire flow along with it, and ultimately over a long period of time will be able to subordinate to his perception almost any other information that will then enter the psyche, and thus it will indeed turn out to be much higher in effectiveness. Moreover, in our opinion, this is closely related to the specifics of education and training. For if in this way we manage to break the resistance of another individual on the path of receiving new information, then it is likely that such information will not only be deposited in the subconscious, but the individual will also have the opportunity to perceive it in a cognitive (conscious) way. Moreover, we repeat once again that in terms of the strength of its own impact on the individual’s psyche, such information can have an incomparably greater impact in comparison with the modality of previously existing information in the psyche. Yes, if the modality coincides, then in this case the state of rapport occurs more easily, i.e. a reliable connection is established whereby one individual (or group) becomes receptive to receiving information from another individual (group). The state of rapport also turns out to be very effective during manipulative influence, i.e. when controlling one person, the psyche of another. At the same time, for such an impact, for its effectiveness, it is necessary to find something in the supplied information that will find confirmation with the information that already exists in the psyche. A.M. Svyadosch (1982) noted that processes of probabilistic forecasting occur in the brain, accompanied by processes of verification of all incoming information, i.e. there is an unconscious determination of its reliability and significance. In this connection, if you need to suggest something to another person, then it is necessary to ensure the introduction of information that is accepted by the person without critical evaluation and has an impact on neuropsychic processes. At the same time, not all information has an irresistible persuasive effect. Depending on the form of presentation, the source of receipt and the individual characteristics of the individual, the same information may or may not have a suggestive effect on the individual. The state of rapport is generally considered invaluable in using all the possibilities of trance influence. We do not need to put the object into a sleep state for this. More precisely, he falls into sleep, but this will be the so-called. a dream in reality. And just such a state, in our opinion, turns out to be the most effective and unusually effective in realizing the possibilities of informational and psychological influence on an individual, on an object, with the aim of inspiring the latter to perform certain actions necessary for us.

Returning to the topic of resistance, let us once again highlight the important function of such a defensive reaction of the psyche. And then we will notice that by overcoming resistance we are the most amazingly We open our psyche to perceive new information. Moreover, there is a high probability of obtaining completely new information. After all, if earlier, as we said, some information was already present in memory, then when new information is received, the censorship of the psyche unconsciously looks for confirmation of the newly received information in the memory stores. Probably the psyche in this case should react in a certain way, and it reacts. Visually, this is noticeable by the external changes that occur with a person in parallel “here and now” (redness or pallor of the facial skin, dilated pupils, variants of catalepsy (numbness of the body), etc.). Moreover, such changes can occur and not necessarily so noticeably, but still be caught by the eye of an experienced observer. Such changes indicate the onset, the possibility, of rapport (information contact) with the object of manipulation. And the probability that in this state the object will accept the information supplied to it without cuts reaches one hundred percent. Another question is that there may be individuals who cannot be brought into a state of rapport in the “here and now” transcription, but something similar, for example, can be done later. All the same, everyone has states when he is maximally susceptible to informational and psychological influence, to manipulation of his psyche, invasion of his psyche and control of the psyche of a given person. Moreover, it is also possible to fully trace the choice of the right moment, but for this you need to have experience, knowledge, and a predisposition to realize this kind of opportunities. Those. at least relative, but abilities, and even better - talent. In this case, the likelihood of achieving the programming result increases significantly.

Let's return to resistance. So, as a result of the fact that the barrier of criticality is broken, the psyche begins to perceive new information with unprecedented force. Such information is deposited in the subconscious and is reflected in the preconscious and consciousness. That is, in this case we can say that the attack is being carried out on several fronts at once. As a result, unusually strong programming of the psyche is observed, the emergence of powerful, stable mechanisms (patterns of behavior) in the unconscious. In addition, after the creation of something like this, there is an initiation of the emergence of more and more new mechanisms of a similar orientation in the unconscious of the psyche. However, now they find constant reinforcement in both consciousness and preconsciousness. This means that not only is the process of consolidating information once received in the subconscious possible (not just any information, but precisely that which caused such a process, information that, as a result of the receipt of which, patterns began to form in the unconscious), but also such information begins to become active , soon subordinating the thoughts and desires of the individual in a manner indicated by the semantic load of this kind of information. At the same time, a very important factor in the processing of such information is the characteristics of the individual’s psyche. It is known that the same information may have no effect on one individual, but cause another to almost radically change their life.

Considering the impact of information on the psyche, let us pay attention to the role of resistance in the assessment of information coming from the outside, both from the immediate surrounding world (buildings, architectural monuments, landscape, infrastructure, etc.) and from other individuals (as a result of interpersonal contacts) , as well as transporting information over long distances using mass media and information (QMS and media). As we have already noted, the same information can either have or not influence an individual. In the first case, we should talk about establishing rapport (contact), as a result of which the barrier of criticality of the psyche is weakened (censorship of the psyche according to Freud), which means that such information is able to penetrate into consciousness, or from under consciousness (where all information is stored) to have an impact on consciousness, i.e. in the process of initial encoding of the psyche, control of it is achieved, because it has long been proven by various scientists (S. Freud, K. Jung, V.M. Bekhterev, I.P. Pavlov, V. Reich, G. Lebon, Moscovici, K. Horney , V.A. Medvedev, S.G. Kara-Murza, I.S. Kon, L.M. Shcheglov, A. Shchegolev, N. Blagoveshchensky, and many others), that it is the subconscious that controls the thoughts and actions of an individual , unconscious. But we must pay attention that if we make attempts to break the barrier of criticality, then it becomes possible to achieve as a result of this step (note, very dangerous, and necessary to be carried out under the guidance of specialists of the appropriate profile) something like “enlightenment”, satori. Just such states were the goal of martial arts and meditative practice in martial arts and Eastern philosophy (religion), or the state of enlightened consciousness in Russian pagan practices, or similar states in other systems of the world. Moreover, it should be noted that the state of satori is a temporary state, passing over time (lasts from several seconds to several minutes, for some a little more or less); Moreover, this is not an eternal state, i.e. are not states in the “once and for all” paradigm, therefore, after some time it is necessary to again plunge into the depths of consciousness or overcome resistance in order to achieve a similar effect. Unless in this case we can note that most likely for the majority after the first achievement of such a state, the subsequent induction of the state of “enlightenment” will be easier. Although in this case it is necessary to take into account the greater predictability of achieving this for “artists” (in the context of the division of the psyche proposed at one time by Academician I. P. Pavlov, who divided the psyche of individuals into “thinkers” and “artists”). Pavlov classified the former as those who remember logical information well, and the latter (“artists”) as visual. According to academician I.P. Pavlov (1958), the input of the left hemisphere includes speech, reading, writing, counting, solving problems requiring logic (rational, analytical, verbal thinking). In the introduction of the right - intuition and spatial-imaginative thinking (i.e. visual and auditory figurative memory). Let us add that the input of the left hemisphere includes consciousness (10% of the brain), and the right hemisphere includes the subconscious, or unconscious (90% of the brain). Moreover, the mechanisms of brain functioning are the result of the functioning of the individual’s psyche, and therefore the methods of subsequent influence on the psyche of the object of manipulation, so let us dwell in a little more detail on the activity of the brain hemispheres.

The developed left hemisphere of the brain predisposes a person to speech, logical thinking, abstract inferences, has external and internal verbal speech, as well as the ability to perceive, verify, remember and reproduce information and the individual life experience of a particular individual. In addition, there is an interrelation between the work of the left and right hemispheres of the brain, since the left hemisphere perceives reality through the corresponding mechanisms (images, instincts, feelings, emotions) of the right hemisphere of the brain. As, indeed, through one’s analytical and verification psychophysiological mechanisms (life experience, knowledge, goals, attitudes). The right hemisphere of the brain, as we have already noted, extends into the spectrum of activity of the unconscious psyche. Whereas the left one forms a conscious personality. The right hemisphere thinks in images, feelings, grasping a picture, the left hemisphere analyzes information received from the outside world, the prerogative of logical thinking is the left hemisphere. The right hemisphere realizes emotions, the left - thoughts and signs (speech, writing, etc.) There are individuals who, in a completely new environment, have the impression of “already seen.” This is a typical example of right hemisphere activity. As a result, we can say that the activity of the brain is provided by two hemispheres, the right (sensual) and the left (sign, i.e. integrates objects of the external world with the help of signs: words, speech, etc.). The complementarity of the activities of the two hemispheres is often manifested by the simultaneous presence in the psyche of the individual of the rational and intuitive, reasonable and sensual. Hence the high efficiency of directive instructions to the brain in the form of such mechanisms of suggestive influence as orders, self-hypnosis, etc. This is due to the specifics of mental activity, when, while pronouncing or hearing a speech, a person’s imagination also turns on, which in this case noticeably enhances this kind of impact. We consider in more detail the specifics of brain activity when processing information coming from the outside world separately, therefore, without dwelling on the mechanisms of the brain, we will return once again to the state of enlightenment, satori, insight, insight, etc. numerous names denoting the essence of the same thing - the establishment from now on (from the beginning of the activation of such a mechanism) of a stable connection between the manipulator and the object at which the manipulative influence is directed.

Any kind of manipulation is suggestion, i.e. conscious change of the object’s existing attitudes through the involvement (activation) of archetypes of the unconscious psyche; archetypes, in turn, involve previously formed patterns of behavior. If we consider this from the perspective of neurophysiology, then the corresponding dominant is activated in the subject’s brain (focal excitation of the cerebral cortex), which means that the part of the brain that is responsible for consciousness slows down its work. In this case, the censorship of the psyche (as a structural unit of the psyche) is temporarily blocked or semi-blocked, which means information from the outside world freely enters the preconscious, or even immediately into consciousness. Sometimes, bypassing consciousness, it passes into the subconscious. The personal unconscious of the psyche (subconscious) is also formed in the process of repressing information by censorship of the psyche. But not all information coming from the outside world is repressed unconsciously into the unconscious. A part still seems to pass into the subconscious intentionally (for example, to feed the information already available in the unconscious and to further form archetypes, or specifically and exclusively for the purpose of forming new archetypes, patterns of future behavior of the individual). And this, in our opinion, must be correctly understood and distinguished. At the same time, attention should once again be paid to the need to overcome resistance. It is known that resistance is activated when new information enters the brain (psyche), information that initially does not find a response in the human soul, does not find something similar to the information already in memory. Such information does not pass the criticality barrier and is repressed into the subconscious. However, if through an effort of will (i.e., using consciousness; will is the prerogative of the activity of consciousness) we can prevent repression, and force the brain to analyze the incoming information (the part of such information that we need), then we will be able to overcome resistance, and therefore after some At that time it will be possible to experience that state that we called early satori, or insight. Moreover, the effect of this will be incomparably higher than information that methodically and over a long period of time penetrated the subconscious, later influencing consciousness. In our case, if the barrier of criticality, and therefore resistance, is broken, we will achieve incomparably more, because in this case the so-called state will be observed for some time. “green corridor”, when incoming information passes almost entirely, bypassing the criticality barrier. Moreover, in this case, the transition into consciousness of both their preconscious and from the unconscious occurs just as quickly. This means that we will no longer have to wait long, as in the case of the natural transition of information from the subconscious to consciousness, when such information begins its transition only when it finds a “response in the soul,” i.e. only when, clinging to similar information currently available in consciousness (temporary information, because any information in consciousness does not last long, and after time, from operative memory it enters long-term memory) it enters there. In the case of overcoming resistance, such information arrives immediately, changing the person’s worldview, because in this case consciousness is actively involved, and if something is realized by a person, it is accepted as a guide to action.

It is also necessary to say that any kind of information passing by the consciousness and subconscious of the individual, i.e. falling under the spectrum of action of its representational system (auditory, visual, and kinesthetic) and two signaling systems (feelings and speech) is invariably deposited in the subconscious. This means that ultimately it begins to influence the individual’s consciousness, because everything that is in the subconscious affects consciousness, the emergence of corresponding thoughts, desires, and actions in the individual. That is, in this case we can talk about modeling a person’s actions through the initial formation of the unconscious of his psyche. And this is a truly serious issue, attention to which would allow us to avoid many problems, including and in raising children and adults. Moreover, in a situation with a child, it becomes possible to calculate his adult behavior, and in the case of an adult, it should be said that such an influence can begin to have an impact, incl. and for enough short term. The presence of the object among other people especially enhances the schemes originally embedded in the subconscious, i.e. when we talk about mass behavior. In the case of the latter, the mechanisms of mass and crowd are activated (in this case we do not separate these concepts), which means the effect is much more effective than in the case of preliminary influence on one individual. At the same time, as a result of our influence on the object, we should achieve a state of empathy, when the internal world of the object is perceived by us as our own. Professor Carl Rogers wrote about empathy: “To be in a state of empathy means to perceive the inner world of another accurately, with the preservation of emotional and semantic nuances. It’s as if you become that other person, but without losing the “as if” feeling. Thus, you feel the joy or pain of another as he feels them, and you perceive their causes as he perceives them. But there must definitely remain a shade of “as if”: as if it were me who was happy or sad. If this shade disappears, then a state of identification arises... The empathic way of communicating with another person has several facets. It implies entering the personal world of another and staying in it “at home.” It involves constant sensitivity to the changing experiences of another - to fear, or anger, or emotion, or embarrassment, in a word, to everything that he or she experiences. This means temporarily living another life, delicately staying in it without evaluation and condemnation. This means grasping what the other is barely aware of himself. But at the same time, there are no attempts to reveal completely unconscious feelings, since they can be traumatic. This includes communicating your impressions of inner world another when you look with fresh and calm eyes at those elements of it that excite or frighten your interlocutor. This involves asking the other person frequently to check your impressions and listening carefully to the answers you receive. You are a confidant for another. By pointing out possible meanings to another's experiences, you help them experience more fully and constructively. To be with another in this way means to put aside one's own points of view and values for a while in order to enter the other's world without prejudice. In a sense, this means that you are leaving your Self. This can only be accomplished by people who feel safe enough in a certain sense: they know that they will not lose themselves in the sometimes strange or bizarre world of another and that they can successfully return to their world whenever they want.

Psychoanalysis understands resistance as everything that prevents the penetration into the consciousness of an individual’s secret (deep, unconscious) thoughts. E. Glover identified explicit and implicit forms of resistance. By the first in psychoanalytic work, he understood lateness, missed sessions, excessive talkativeness or complete silence, automatic denial or misunderstanding of all statements of the psychotherapist, playing at naivety, constant absent-mindedness, interruption of therapy. He attributed everything else to the second (implicit forms), for example, when the patient formally fulfills all the working conditions, but at the same time his indifference is clearly noticeable. The classification of types of resistance (according to Freud) includes: repression resistance, transference resistance, id and superego resistance, and resistance based on secondary benefit from the disease. Resistance occurs when the individual’s psyche resists the penetration into consciousness of any painful information from the subconscious. At the same time, according to J. Sandler, Dare et al., this type of resistance can be considered a reflection of the so-called. “primary benefit” from the disease neurosis. As a result of the method of free associations, information previously hidden in the unconscious can come out (pass into consciousness), therefore the psyche resists this - by engaging (activating) resistance mechanisms. Moreover, the closer the material previously repressed from consciousness (and transferred to the subconscious) approaches consciousness, the more resistance increases. Transference resistance characterizes infantile impulses and the fight against them. Infantile impulses are understood as impulses caused by the personality of the analyst and arising in direct or modified form: the analytical situation in the form of a distortion of reality at a certain moment contributes to the recall of previously repressed material (material that, once in the unconscious, caused a neurotic symptom). Transference resistance varies depending on which transference relations (positive or negative) underlie it. Patients with an erotic transference (for example, with a hysterical type of personality organization) may strive for a sexual relationship with the therapist or demonstrate resistance in order to avoid awareness of strong sexual desire. Patients with a negative transference (for example, with a narcissistic type of personality organization) are filled with aggressive feelings towards the therapist and may strive through resistance to humiliate him, make him suffer, or in the same way avoid the transference awareness of these feelings. “It” resistance is characteristic of cases when negative and eroticized forms of transference become an insoluble obstacle to continuing therapy. At the same time, Freud considered the resistance of the Superego (“Super-Ego”) to be the strongest, since it is difficult to identify and overcome. It stems from an unconscious sense of guilt and hides impulses that the patient finds unacceptable (for example, sexual or aggressive). One of the manifestations of superego resistance is a negative therapeutic reaction. Those. the patient, despite the clearly successful result of the treatment, has a very negative attitude towards both the therapist and the manipulations performed on him. At the same time, just from the awareness of such nonsense, their mental health worsens, because it is known that for our psyche it is virtually indifferent whether an event actually happens, in reality, or whether it scrolls only in a person’s thoughts. The brain will receive impulses from such an impact that are identical and almost equivalent in terms of involvement and activation of neurons. As a result of psychotherapy, resistance may be observed based on the so-called. “secondary” benefit, i.e. when the patient benefits from his “disease”. In this case, we see a clear trace of the masochistic accents of the psyche of a neurotic individual, because the patient likes it when people feel sorry for him, and he does not want to get rid of the support provided to him “as a patient.”

The conditional scheme for working with resistance is as follows:

1) recognition (it is necessary for resistance to be noticed not only by the therapist, but also by the patient);

2) demonstration (any type of resistance noticed in the patient is verbally demonstrated in order to draw the patient’s attention to it);

3) clarifying resistance (which involves confronting what the patient is avoiding, why he is doing it and how).

After clarifying the cause of resistance, its form is analyzed. The result of this stage is the discovery of an instinctive urge, the attempt to satisfy which led to conflict. After this, the history of the experience is revealed through the method of interpretation. At this stage, it becomes clear how the conflict arose, how it manifested itself and is manifesting itself throughout the patient’s life, what patterns of behavior and emotional response it gave rise to, etc. The history of the experience allows us to include the identified conflict in the broader context of obstacles to life. at this stage psychodynamic therapy. At the same time, the therapist must remember that criticism or disagreement with something by the patient does not always mean a manifestation of resistance. At the conclusion of therapy for working with resistance, resistance is worked through, which is a tracing of the influence of an already realized conflict on various life events in order to repeat, deepen, and expand the analysis of resistance. Elaboration allows you to enhance your understanding of the client by increasing the amount of material involved. This is also where the interpretation of new resistances that arise occurs, which further clarifies the basic issues and leads to more sustainable results. This stage is not limited in time; its duration depends on the individual characteristics of the patient, the form and content of resistance, the stage of psychotherapy, the state of the working alliance and many other factors.

And finally, I would like to once again draw attention to the fact that the activity of resistance is an unconscious act, and thus it is quite logical that if we want to unravel the nature of man, the nature of his psyche, to unravel the mechanisms of mental control, we will certainly first in turn, we must pay attention to his unconscious reactions, by analyzing and comparing various facts, reveal what a person is hiding, and therefore, in the future, such methods can bring us even closer to the path of understanding the human psyche, help reveal the mechanisms of the psyche, how to trace certain other human reactions, and to identify the mechanisms of impulses that result in these reactions. That is, we are saying that analysis is absolutely important, carrying out analytical work, paying attention to every little detail, because they will ultimately allow you to collect the most full picture about the psyche of this or that individual, and therefore subsequently - and learn (develop, identify, etc.) the mechanisms of influence both on such an individual and on society as a whole, for society consists precisely of various individuals who, uniting in masses, collectives, meetings, congresses, processes, symposia, crowds, etc. forms of association of people are part of the environment. For the environment is precisely represented incl. and the constant unification and separation of people, this process is fluid like mercury, the mass is changeable and fickle not only in its desires and interests, but also in the composition of participants, etc. Thus, the solution to the psyche of each individual person can bring us closer to the secrets and clues of society, and therefore to the development of a methodology for managing a person, modeling his thoughts and projecting such thoughts into actions.

When difficult situations or problems arise in our lives, we ask ourselves the questions “what to do?” and “what should we do?”, and then we try to somehow resolve the existing difficulties, and if it doesn’t work out, then we resort to the help of others. Problems can be external (lack of money, no job...), but there are also internal problems, which are more difficult to deal with (often you don’t want to admit them even to yourself, it’s painful, unpleasant).

People react to their internal difficulties in different ways: they suppress their inclinations, denying their existence, “forget” about the traumatic event, look for a way out in self-justification and indulgence in their “weaknesses,” try to distort reality and engage in self-deception. And all this is sincere, in this way people protect their psyche from painful stress, defense mechanisms help them in this.

What are defense mechanisms?

This term first appeared in 1894 in S. Freud’s work “Defensive Neuropsychoses.” The psychological defense mechanism is aimed at depriving significance and thereby neutralizing psychologically traumatic moments (for example, the Fox from the famous fable “The Fox and the Grapes”).

Thus, we can say that defense mechanisms are a system of regulatory mechanisms that serve to eliminate or reduce e reduction to minimal negative, traumatic experiences. These experiences are mainly associated with internal or external conflicts, states of anxiety or discomfort. Defense mechanisms are aimed at maintaining the stability of a person’s self-esteem and image I and the image of the world, which can be achieved, for example, in such ways as:

– eliminating sources of conflict experiences from consciousness,

– transformation of conflict experiences in such a way as to prevent the emergence of conflict.

Many psychologists, psychotherapists and psychoanalysts have been studying the protective mechanisms of the psyche; their work shows that a person uses these mechanisms in cases where he has instinctual drives, the expression of which is under social prohibition (for example, unrestrained sexuality), protective mechanisms also act as buffers in relation to our awareness of the disappointments and threats that life brings us. Some consider psychological defense to be a mechanism for the functioning of the normal psyche, which prevents the occurrence of various types of disorders. This special shape psychological activity, implemented in the form of individual techniques for processing information in order to maintain integrity Ego. In cases where Ego cannot cope with anxiety and fear, it resorts to mechanisms of a kind of distortion of a person’s perception of reality.

Today, over 20 types of defense mechanisms are known, all of them are divided into primitive defenses and secondary (higher order) defense mechanisms.

So, let's look at some types of defense mechanisms. The first group includes:

1. primitive insulation- psychological withdrawal into another state is an automatic reaction that can be observed in the tiniest human beings. An adult version of the same phenomenon can be observed in people who withdraw from social or interpersonal situations and replace the tension that comes from interactions with others with the stimulation that comes from the fantasies of their inner world. The tendency to use chemicals to alter the state of consciousness can also be considered a type of isolation. Constitutionally impressionable people often develop a rich internal fantasy life, but perceive the external world as problematic or emotionally impoverished.

The obvious disadvantage of the isolation defense is that it shuts the person out of active participation in solving interpersonal problems; individuals who are constantly hiding in their own world test the patience of those who love them, resisting communication on an emotional level.

The main advantage of isolation as a defensive strategy is that it allows psychological escape from reality, it requires little or no distortion of reality. A person who relies on isolation finds peace not in not understanding the world, but in moving away from it.

2. negation - this is an attempt not to accept events that are undesirable for oneself as reality, another early way coping with troubles is a refusal to accept their existence. What is noteworthy is the ability in such cases to “skip” unpleasant experienced events in one’s memories, replacing them with fiction. As a defense mechanism negation consists of diverting attention from painful ideas and feelings, but does not make them completely inaccessible to consciousness.

So, many people are afraid of serious diseases. And they would rather deny the presence of even the very first obvious symptoms than consult a doctor. And therefore the disease progresses. The same protective mechanism is triggered when one of the married couple “does not see” and denies the existing problems in married life. And such behavior often leads to a break in relationships.

A person who has resorted to denial simply ignores painful realities and acts as if they do not exist. Confident in his merits, he tries to attract the attention of others by all means and means. And at the same time he sees only a positive attitude towards his person. Criticism and rejection are simply ignored. New people are seen as potential fans. And in general, he considers himself a person without problems, because he denies the presence of difficulties/difficulties in his life. Has high self-esteem.

3. omnipotent control- the feeling that you are able to influence the world, that you have power, is undoubtedly a necessary condition for self-respect, which originates in infantile and unrealistic, but at a certain stage of development, normal fantasies of omnipotence. The first to arouse interest in the “stages of development of the sense of reality” was S. Ferenczi (1913). He pointed out that in the infantile stage of primary omnipotence, or grandiosity, the fantasy of having control over the world is normal. As the child grows up, this naturally transforms at a later stage into the idea of a secondary "dependent" or "derived" omnipotence, where one of those who initially cares for the child is perceived as omnipotent.

As the child grows further, he comes to terms with the unpleasant fact that no person has unlimited capabilities. Some healthy remnant of this infantile sense of omnipotence persists in all of us and maintains a sense of competence and effectiveness in life.

For some people, the need to feel a sense of omnipotent control and to interpret what happens to us as determined by their own unlimited power is completely irresistible. If a personality is organized around the search and experience of pleasure from the feeling that he can effectively manifest and use his own omnipotence, and therefore all ethical and practical considerations fade into the background, there is reason to consider this personality as psychopathic ("sociopathic" and "antisocial") " - synonyms of later origin).

“Stepping over others” is the main activity and source of pleasure for individuals in a personality dominated by omnipotent control. They can often be found where cunning, a love of excitement, danger and a willingness to subordinate all interests are needed. main goal- show your influence.

4. primitive idealization (and devaluation)- Ferenczi’s thesis about the gradual replacement of primitive fantasies of one’s own omnipotence with primitive fantasies about the omnipotence of a caring person is still important. We are all prone to idealization. We carry with us remnants of the need to attribute special virtues and power to people on whom we are emotionally dependent. Normal idealization is an essential component of mature love. And the developmental tendency to de-idealize or devalue those to whom we have childhood attachments seems to be a normal and important part of the separation-individuation process. In some people, however, the need to idealize remains more or less unchanged from infancy. Their behavior reveals signs of archaic desperate efforts to counteract the internal panic horror with the certainty that someone to whom they are attached is omnipotent, omniscient and infinitely benevolent, and psychological fusion with this supernatural Other provides them with security. They also hope to be free from shame; a by-product of idealization and the associated belief in perfection is that one’s own imperfections are especially painful to bear; merging with the idealized object is a natural remedy in this situation.

Primitive devaluation is the inevitable flip side of the need for idealization. Since nothing is perfect in human life, archaic ways of idealization inevitably lead to disappointment. The more an object is idealized, the more radical devaluation awaits it; The more illusions there are, the more difficult the experience of their collapse.

In everyday life, the analogy for this process is the amount of hatred and anger that can fall on someone who seemed so promising and did not live up to expectations. Some people spend their entire lives replacing one another in repeated cycles of idealization and devaluation. intimate relationships others. (Modification of the defense of primitive idealization is a legitimate goal of any long-term psychoanalytic therapy.)

The second group of protective mechanisms is secondary (higher order) protection:

1. crowding out - the most universal means of avoiding internal conflict. This is a person’s conscious effort to forget frustrating impressions by transferring attention to other forms of activity, non-frustrating phenomena, etc. In other words, crowding out- voluntary suppression, which leads to true forgetting of the corresponding mental contents.

One of the most striking examples of repression can be considered anorexia - refusal to eat. This is a constantly and successfully implemented displacement of the need to eat. As a rule, “anorexic” repression is a consequence of the fear of gaining weight and, therefore, looking bad. In the clinic of neuroses, anorexia nervosa syndrome is sometimes encountered, which most often affects girls aged 14 - 18 years. During puberty, changes in appearance and body are clearly expressed. Girls often perceive developing breasts and the appearance of roundness in the hips as a symptom of beginning fullness. And, as a rule, they begin to struggle intensively with this “fullness”. Some teenagers cannot openly refuse food offered to them by their parents. And therefore, as soon as the meal is over, they immediately go to the toilet room, where they manually induce a gag reflex. On the one hand, this frees you from food that threatens replenishment, and on the other, it brings psychological relief. Over time, there comes a time when the gag reflex is triggered automatically by food intake. And the disease is formed. The original cause of the disease has been successfully supplanted. The consequences remain. Note that such anorexia nervosa is one of the most difficult to treat diseases.

2. regression is a relatively simple defense mechanism. Social and emotional development never follows a strictly straight path; During the process of personality growth, there are fluctuations that become less dramatic with age, but never completely go away. The reunification subphase in the process of separation - individuation becomes one of the tendencies inherent in every person. It is a return to a familiar way of acting after a new level of competence has been achieved.

To classify this mechanism, it must be unconscious. Some people use repression as a defense more often than others. For example, some of us react to the stress caused by growth and age-related changes by getting sick. This type of regression, known as somatization, usually proves resistant to change and difficult to intervene therapeutically. It is widely known that somatization and hypochondria, like other types of regression that represent helplessness and childish behavior patterns, can serve as the cornerstone of personality. Regression to oral and anal relationships in order to avoid oedipal conflicts is a very common phenomenon in the clinic.

3. intellectualization called a variant of a higher level of isolation of affect from intellect. A person using isolation usually says that he has no feelings, while a person using intellectualization talks about feelings, but in such a way that the listener is left with the impression of a lack of emotion.

Intellectualization curbs normal emotional overload in the same way that isolation curbs traumatic overstimulation. When a person can act rationally in a situation saturated with emotional meanings, this indicates significant ego strength, and in this case the defense is effective.

However, if a person is unable to leave a defensive cognitive unemotional position, others tend to intuitively consider him emotionally insincere. Sex, good-natured teasing, artistic expression, and other adult-appropriate forms of play may be unnecessarily restricted in a person who has learned to depend on intellectualization to cope with life's challenges.

4. rationalization is finding acceptable reasons and explanations for acceptable thoughts and actions. Rational explanation as a defense mechanism is not aimed at resolving the contradiction as the basis of the conflict, but at relieving tension when experiencing discomfort with the help of quasi-logical explanations. Naturally, these “justifying” explanations for thoughts and actions are more ethical and noble than the true motives. Thus, rationalization is aimed at preserving status quo life situation and works to hide true motivation. Motives of a protective nature appear in people with very strong Super Ego, which, on the one hand, does not seem to allow real motives to come to consciousness, but, on the other hand, allows these motives to be realized, but under a beautiful, socially approved façade. .

The most simple example Rationalization can be provided by the justifying explanations of a student who received a bad grade. It’s so offensive to admit to everyone (and to yourself in particular) that it’s your own fault – you didn’t learn the material! Not everyone is capable of such a blow to their pride. And criticism from others who are significant to you is painful. So the student justifies himself, comes up with “sincere” explanations: “It was the teacher who was in a bad mood, so he gave a bad mark to everyone for no reason,” or “I’m not a favorite, like Ivanov, so he gives me bad marks for the slightest faults.” answer." He explains so beautifully, convinces everyone that he himself believes in all this.

People who use rational defense try to build their concept on the basis of various points of view as a panacea for anxiety. They think about all the options for their behavior and their consequences in advance. And emotional experiences are often masked by intense attempts to rationally interpret events.

5. moralization is a close relative of rationalization. When one rationalizes, one unconsciously seeks rationally acceptable justifications for the chosen solution. When he moralizes, it means: he is obliged to follow in a given direction. Rationalization puts what a person wants into the language of reason; moralization directs these desires into the realm of justification or moral circumstances.

Moralization can sometimes be seen as a more highly developed version of splitting. The tendency to moralize will be a late stage of the primitive tendency of the global division into bad and good. While splitting in the child naturally arises before the capacity of his integrated self to bear ambivalence, the solution in the form of moralization through appeal to principles confuses the feelings which the developing self is able to bear. In moralization one can see the action of the superego, although usually rigid and punishable.

6. term " bias"refers to the redirection of emotion, preoccupation, or attention from an original or natural object to another because its original focus is alarmingly obscured for some reason.

Passion can also be displaced. Sexual fetishes can apparently be explained as a reorientation of interest from a person's genitals to an unconsciously associated area - feet or even shoes.

The anxiety itself often turns out to be displaced. When a person uses anxiety displacement from one area to a very specific object that symbolizes frightening phenomena (fear of spiders, fear of knives), then he suffers from a phobia.

Some unfortunate cultural trends—such as racism, sexism, heterosexism, and vocal denunciations of society's problems by disenfranchised groups with too little power to assert their rights—contain a significant element of displacement. Transference, in both clinical and non-clinical manifestations, contains displacement (feelings directed toward objects important in early childhood) along with projection (internal characteristics of features of the self). Positive types of displacement include the translation of aggressive energy into creative activity (a huge amount of housework is done if people are in an excited state), as well as the redirection of erotic impulses from unreal or forbidden sexual objects to an available partner.

7. One time concept sublimation was widely understood among the educated public and represented a way of viewing various human tendencies. Sublimation is now seen less in the psychoanalytic literature and is becoming less and less popular as a concept. Sublimation was originally thought to be a good defense through which one could find creative, healthy, socially acceptable or constructive solutions to internal conflicts between primitive aspirations and prohibitive forces.

Sublimation was the name that Freud originally gave to the socially acceptable expression of biologically based impulses (which include the desires to suck, bite, eat, fight, copulate, look at others and demonstrate oneself, punish, inflict pain, protect offspring, etc.) . According to Freud, instinctual desires acquire their power of influence due to the circumstances of the individual's childhood; some drives or conflicts acquire special significance and can be directed towards useful creative activity.

This defense is regarded as a healthy means of resolving psychological difficulties for two reasons: firstly, it favors constructive behavior that is useful for the group, and secondly, it discharges the impulse instead of wasting enormous emotional energy on transforming it into something else (e.g. , as in reactive formation) or to counteract it with an oppositely directed force (denial, repression). This discharge of energy is considered positive in nature.

Sublimation remains a concept that is still referred to in psychoanalytic literature when the author points out a creative and useful way that someone has found to express problematic impulses and conflicts. Contrary to the common misunderstanding that the object of psychotherapy is the release of infantile drives, the psychoanalytic position on health and growth implies the idea that the infantile part of our nature continues to exist in adulthood. We have no way to completely get rid of it. We can only contain it more or less successfully.

The goals of analytical therapy include understanding all aspects of one's self (even the most primitive and disturbing ones), developing compassion for oneself (and for others, as one needs to project and displace previously unacknowledged desires to humiliate), and expanding the boundaries of freedom to resolving old conflicts in new ways. These goals do not involve “cleansing” the self of aversive aspects or blocking primitive desires. This is what allows us to consider sublimation as the pinnacle of ego development, explains a lot about psychoanalysis’s relationship to the human being and its inherent capabilities and limitations, and also implies the significance of the information of a psychoanalytic diagnosis.

It remains to summarize and determine the role and function of protection. It would seem that psychoprotection has noble goals: to relieve, stop the severity of psychological experience, emotional hurt by the situation. At the same time, the emotional impact of the situation is always negative, always experienced as psychological discomfort, anxiety, fear, horror, etc. but due to what does this defensive reaction to negative experiences occur? Due to simplification, due to an imaginary palliative resolution of the situation. Due to the fact that a person cannot foresee the impact of his simplified solution to a problem on the future, the defense has a short range: beyond the situation, this specific one, it “sees” nothing.

Defense also has a negative meaning at the level of an individual situation and because the person emotionally experiences a certain relief and this relief, the removal of negativity and discomfort, occurs when using a specific protective technique. The fact that this success is imaginary, short-term and the relief is illusory is not realized, otherwise, it is understandable, and the experience of relief would not have occurred. But one thing is certain: when experiencing the onset of relief when using a specific psychological protective technique, this technique is consolidated as a behavioral skill, as a habit of solving similar situations in precisely this psychoprotective way. In addition, energy consumption is minimized each time.

Like every reinforcement, a psychological new formation (in our particular case, a protective technique), once having completed its “noble” task of removing the severity of psychological experience, does not disappear, but acquires tendencies towards self-reproduction and transfer to similar situations and conditions, it begins to acquire the status of already such a stable formation as a psychological property. Ontogenetically, such a discrepancy between the good intentions of psychoprotection and its high cost for any life path not only persists, but also intensifies.

The use of psychological defense is evidence of an anxious perception of the world, it is an expression of distrust in it, in oneself, in others, there is an expectation of “getting a dirty trick” not only from the environment, but also from one’s own person, it is an expression of the fact that a person perceives himself as an object of unknown and formidable forces. Psychoprotective living of life removes a person’s creativity; he ceases to be the creator of his own biography, following the lead of history, society, the reference group, his unconscious drives and prohibitions. The greater the protection, the smaller the “I” authority.

With the development of society, individual methods of psychoprotective regulation also develop. The development of mental new formations is endless and the development of forms of psychological defense, because protective mechanisms are characteristic of normal and abnormal forms of behavior between healthy and pathological regulation, psychoprotective occupies the middle zone, the gray zone.

Mental regulation through protective mechanisms, as a rule, occurs at an unconscious level. Therefore, bypassing consciousness, they penetrate the personality, undermine its position, and weaken its creative potential as a subject of life. A psychoprotective resolution of the situation is presented to the deceived consciousness as a real solution to the problem, as the only possible way out of a difficult situation.

Personal development presupposes a readiness to change, a constant increase in one’s psychological reliability in various situations. Even a negative emotional state (fear, anxiety, guilt, shame, etc.) can have a useful function for personality development. For example, the same anxiety may be accompanied by a tendency to experiment with new situations, and then the function of psychoprotective techniques is more than ambivalent. Aimed at neutralizing the psycho-traumatic impact “here and now”, within the current situation, psychoprotection can cope quite effectively; it saves from the severity of the experienced shock, sometimes providing time and respite to prepare other, more effective ways of experiencing. However, its very use indicates that, firstly, the palette of creative interaction of the individual with culture is limited, and the inability to sacrifice the private and momentary, the fascination with the current situation - all this leads to a concentration of consciousness on oneself, to quench and diminish the psychological discomfort of any price; secondly, by replacing a real solution to constantly arising problems, a solution that may even be accompanied by negative emotional and even existential experiences, with a comfortable but palliative one, the individual deprives himself of the opportunity for development and self-actualization. Finally, psychoprotective existence in life and culture is complete immersion in norms and rules, it is the inability to change them. Where change ends, pathological transformation and destruction of personality begins.

"Protection". The meaning of this word speaks for itself. Protection requires the presence of at least two factors. Firstly, if you are defending yourself, then there is a danger of attack; secondly, defense, which means measures have been taken to repel an attack. On the one hand, it is good when a person is prepared for all kinds of surprises, and has in his arsenal the means that will help maintain his integrity, both external and internal, both physical and mental. A sense of security is one of the basic human needs. But you should become familiar with the economics of the issue. If it takes everyone to maintain a sense of security mental strength person, isn't the price too high? If you don’t live, but protect yourself from life, then why is it needed at all? It turns out that the most effective, “global” protection is death or “non-birth”?

All this is only partly true. Under certain circumstances, protective mechanisms, designed in other conditions to help hide experiences, often perform positive functions.

In connection with the above, we come to understand the urgent topic of research on coping mechanisms and their connection with defense mechanisms. Coping and defense are complementary processes: if the potential of coping mechanisms is insufficient for the psychological processing of affect, then the affect reaches an unacceptable level, and defensive mechanisms begin to operate instead of coping mechanisms. If the potential for protection is also exhausted, then fragmentation of experiences occurs through splitting. The choice of protective mechanisms is also carried out taking into account the degree and type of overload. (S. Menuos “Key Concepts of Psychoanalysis”, 2001).

Normal coping mechanisms include a humorous understanding of a difficult situation through detached contemplation of certain circumstances, allowing one to see something funny in them, and the so-called sublimation, which implies the renunciation of the desire for direct satisfaction of desire and the choice of not just an acceptable, but a beneficially influencing way of satisfaction . It should be noted that only sublimation can be called a coping mechanism, and not any suppression of drives for the sake of complying with conventions.

Since virtually any psychological process can be used as a defense, no review or analysis of defenses can be complete. The phenomenon of protection has many aspects that require in-depth study, and if on a monopersonal level it has been developed quite fully, then interpersonal aspects contain enormous opportunities for the application of research potential.

According to Freud, defense mechanisms are a certain reaction of the brain to external stimuli that arise unconsciously. By distorting reality and falsifying its perception, they help reduce the threat of stress.

Definition of the concept

Defense mechanisms are one of the most important concepts of psychoanalysis, which are ways of self-defense (namely, protecting one’s “I”), regulating negative impulses that emanate from a person’s consciousness. This happens under the influence of social rules and norms, which, one way or another, put pressure on the individual. The defense mechanism is designed to protect a person from possible experiences and anxieties that are caused by the discrepancy between social views and a person’s personal views. This term was first coined in 1894 by the famous psychologist Sigmund Freud.

Types of defense mechanisms

Due to individual characteristics, people react differently to stimuli, stress and internal impulses. In this regard, the following types of protective mechanisms can be distinguished:

crowding out;
projection;
substitution;
rationalization;
reactive formation;
regression;
sublimation;
negation.

Basic properties of defense mechanisms

Defense mechanisms according to Freud have a number of features. With examples from real life It is worth reading in order to understand the nature of this phenomenon. Thus, protective mechanisms have the following properties:

are a kind of self-deception, as they manifest themselves on an unconscious level;
distort the perception of reality, which can be even more dangerous for a person than a real threat;
represent the emotional side of the reaction to surrounding events;
may arise based on the fear that negative impulses will become conscious.

crowding out

Considering Freud's defense mechanisms, first of all it is worth noting repression. This is a kind of basis with the help of which more complex mechanisms can subsequently be formed. Repression is the “forgetting” or “removing” from consciousness of those feelings and thoughts that cause psychological discomfort. At the same time, events that preceded the injury may disappear from memory.

It is worth noting that repression is not absolute. There is always a risk that memories of unpleasant events will burst out, and therefore you have to spend a huge amount of energy to suppress them. This can negatively affect a person's personal development. Moreover, even if the repression mechanism has worked, the stimulus may appear again in a dream or slip through in slips of the tongue.

Defense mechanisms according to Freud are reflected in real life. So, for example, a decent spouse, by virtue of his moral principles, does not allow the possibility of cheating on his wife. He does his best to repress such thoughts and fantasies. Nevertheless, it is possible that in a dream he takes part in pleasures with a stranger.

Projection

In stressful situations, defense mechanisms almost always come into play. According to Freud, projection comes in second place. Its meaning is that the individual tries to transfer his thoughts, feelings and life circumstances to other people. Thus, he relieves himself of all blame and responsibility for his own failures and troubles.

An example would be a student or student who has not prepared for an exam. My bad rating he is trying to justify on the part of the teacher. If we talk about athletes, they often blame their defeat on low quality sports equipment, playing field or unfair refereeing.

Substitution

When considering examples of psychological defenses, one cannot ignore substitution. Its mechanism is to redirect attention from the threatening object to another object. The most striking example of this mechanism is a child punished by his parents for a prank. Unable to answer them, he takes out his anger on younger brother or sister, kicking him or breaking toys.

It is typical not only for children, but also for many adults. For example, employees are often attacked and criticized by management. The fear of losing their job stops them from responding to their bosses. However, when they come home, they can take out their aggression on their family members.

It is worth noting that some individuals implement the replacement mechanism in a very unique way. Being weak by nature, they cannot take out their aggression on a stranger, and therefore begin to suppress themselves. As a result, a person suppresses himself emotionally, engaging in self-criticism and self-flagellation.

Rationalization

As a way of coping with stress, it can manifest itself in the form of rationalization. This is a deliberate distortion of reality in order to maintain a high level of self-esteem. Occurs a complex system argumentation that is intended to justify irrational behavior. One of the most striking examples of such a mechanism can be found in Aesop's fables. He describes a fox who cannot reach the branch with grapes. To justify her failure, she claims that the fruits are not yet ripe.

Similar examples can be found in everyday life. For example, a woman does not always reciprocate a man’s attention and courtship. Not wanting to accept this fact, a man may convince himself of her unattractiveness or spread damaging rumors. Another situation is related to student life. So, for example, if an applicant fails to enter a certain faculty, he begins to convince himself and those around him that this profession is not at all interesting to him.

Reactive education

Freud's depth psychology also identifies a mechanism in which the It is realized at two levels:

a negative or unacceptable impulse is suppressed;
At the subconscious level, impulses of opposite content are formed.

Most often, such mechanisms take place in public life. Thus, expressed sexual desire is considered extremely indecent in society. Thus, a woman who has a similar feature tries in every possible way to suppress it in herself. To earn a positive image in society, she can even act as an ardent fighter for morality and ethics. The same applies to men who strongly oppose homosexual relationships, but themselves secretly have similar inclinations.

Regression

Regression is another defense mechanism. Psychology describes it as a return to childhood behavior patterns in order to protect oneself from shock and stress. This is due to the fact that this particular age is the most comfortable and safe in terms of worldview. Thus, crying can be considered the most elementary form of regression.

Sublimation

Psychological defense mechanisms according to Freud also include sublimation. This mechanism allows a person to change his impulses and views so that they can be expressed in a form that is acceptable in society. In psychology, sublimation is considered as the healthiest and most correct defense mechanism. This is due to the fact that a person does not restrain himself in the manifestation of his impulses, but only changes the form of their presentation.

Freud, given the specifics of his theory, tended to turn Special attention to the sublimation of sexual desire. It is with this phenomenon that he links the incredible rise of culture and science that occurred in Western Europe. If we project this mechanism onto modern reality, we can give the example of teenagers who can sublimate their unfulfilled sexual needs into sports achievements.

Despite the fact that many people hide it, quite often you can meet people with sadistic tendencies. Thus, individuals with such deviation may well become successful surgeons. Also, such fantasies can be sublimated into writing detective novels.

Negation

Personal defense mechanisms according to Freud include such an element as denial. It consists in the fact that a person categorically refuses to acknowledge that a negative event has occurred. Most a shining example can be considered a child's reaction to the death of a loved one pet. He refuses to acknowledge this loss, believing that the animal is still somewhere nearby. A similar example can be given in connection with the loss of a loved one. Refusal to accept the obvious can develop into a religious belief that the relative now lives in heaven or that his spirit is still present in the house.

Often the denial mechanism is triggered when it comes to health. Thus, feeling the symptoms of a particular disease, a person can simply ignore them, telling himself that this cannot happen to him. A similar reaction can be observed to an already confirmed diagnosis.

worth reading

Sooner or later, any person begins to be interested in certain mechanisms of the work of the conscious and subconscious. The best way get acquainted with the works of such a psychologist as Sigmund Freud. Books in which human psychology is best presented are:

"Introduction to Psychoanalysis" is one of the most famous books, moreover, this work is considered the most significant in all of Freud's activities. Here are the main provisions that had a decisive influence on further development not only psychology and medicine, but also fiction.
"The Interpretation of Dreams" is a monumental work that has become one of the most striking in the twentieth century. Here is the result of Freud's study of the unconscious part of consciousness, which controls human instincts, but is difficult to study. The symbolism of dreams is discussed here, which helps to understand the problems, desires and fears of the individual.
is Freud's second monumental study. The book is relevant to this day, and therefore is key in the study of psychology. The main attention is paid to unconscious motives, which not only can act as incentives, but also often become the cause of psychological disorders.
“I and It” is a kind of collection of works by a psychologist, which can be considered the culmination of his work. Their sources and justifications are also presented here.
"Totem and Taboo" is a work in which Freud, drawing on his own research and theories, tries to uncover the problems of genesis. Thus, the author addresses the problem of culture, religion, morality, law and other aspects of social life.
“The Psychology of the Masses and the Analysis of the Human Self” is a work in which Freud carried out fundamental work on the study of crowd behavior. The need of the masses for a leader is also explained.
"Essays on the Psychology of Sexuality" is a collection in which the psychologist raises the most sensitive topics. From here you can learn about the nature and causes of intimate deviations, a tendency towards perversion, as well as sadism, homosexuality, etc.

It is worth noting that these are not all books on psychology that are worth reading. It is also important to study the work of other specialists who had a slightly different view of things than Freud.

conclusions

Defense mechanisms according to Freud are a kind of unconscious reaction that is triggered in a stressful situation or in the face of a threat. Regardless of what type of barrier is triggered, in any case, we are talking about a significant expenditure of energy, which has an overwhelming effect on the ego. In addition, the more effective a particular mechanism turns out to be, the more energy it requires, and the more it distorts objective reality.

Given the unconscious nature of defensive reactions, not every person can control them. However, having noticed the effectiveness of a particular barrier, an individual can consciously resort to it in a stressful situation. You should not rely excessively on such a technique, because it can become a very fertile ground for the emergence of psychological problems.

Ecology of life: Psychological defense is probably one of the most controversial phenomena of the human psyche. On the one hand, she stands guard over our “I”

Psychological defense is probably one of the most controversial phenomena of the human psyche. On the one hand, it stands guard over our “I”, protecting it from stress, increased anxiety, negative thoughts, external and internal conflicts. On the other hand, it can act destructively and prevent a person from growing and developing, achieving success, discovering new opportunities, creating and enjoying life.

Psychological defense mechanisms are formed in early childhood. Their set is individual for each person and is selected according to his temperament, parenting style, child-parent and intra-family relationships (with grandparents, aunts, uncles and other parental figures).

It has been proven that greatest influence The formation of protective mechanisms is influenced by negatively significant adults who caused fear and anxiety in the child. It is these experiences and feelings that are the direct sources that feed the psychological defenses of the individual and are associated with internal or external conflicts.

There are entire defensive strategies that Transactional Analysis are treated as games. Their main goal is to prevent awareness of information about themselves and their partner that could threaten the existing relationship. In essence, this is a replay of strategies for building relationships in the parental family, types of responses to stressful situations that made it possible to avoid true intimacy (open, confidential communication about feelings, thoughts, behavior and motives for actions between partners).

All defense mechanisms have two common characteristics: they operate on an unconscious level and are therefore self-deception. They either distort, deny, transform, or falsify the perception of reality in order to make the anxiety or fear less threatening to the person.

Today, more than twenty types of defense mechanisms are known. Most of them are listed in this article.

Looking through the list of psychological defenses, you will inevitably come across those that are unique to you personally. I suggest not reacting too emotionally to them. Remember that, as a rule, a person is not aware of defense mechanisms, and only a well-trained specialist who has studied them or has encountered them himself in personal psychotherapy can recognize them.

Types of defense mechanisms

Crowding out. With the help of this mechanism, impulses that are unacceptable to a person: desires, thoughts, feelings that cause anxiety - become unconscious. A person can easily forget some things, especially those that reduce self-esteem. Everything that is repressed from consciousness into the unconscious does not disappear and has a certain impact on human behavior. From time to time, a spontaneous “return of the repressed” to the level of consciousness occurs, which occurs in the form of dreams, erroneous actions, and slips of the tongue.

Deflection (deviation) is an unconscious withdrawal mechanism aimed at ending contact and increasing a person’s isolation, both from others and from his own experience. The person abstracts himself from the situation and makes irrelevant remarks.

This mechanism often arises as a result of mistrust, fear, security threats that happened in the past, and protects a person from emotional breakdowns. Externally, deflection can manifest itself in avoiding eye contact with the interlocutor, constant movements, marking time, etc.

Substitution is the satisfaction or suppression of unsatisfied (often sexual) desires with the help of another object. For example, sexual desire for an “unavailable” person can be satisfied by a more accessible person.

Identification - increasing a sense of self-worth by identifying oneself with outstanding individuals.

Introjection is the inclusion of external values and standards into the ego structure so that they cease to act as an external threat. Empowering yourself with the qualities of other people. This mechanism is the opposite of the projection mechanism.

Internalization. This discharge mechanism can most easily be described with the phrase “I didn’t really want to.” If you can’t achieve what you want, sometimes it’s easier to convince yourself that you don’t need it.

Intellectualization is the suppression of experiences caused by an unpleasant situation, or the ordering of incompatible attitudes using logical manipulations. Commitment to certain values and attitudes even in the presence of clear evidence in favor of opposing attitudes.

Compensation is covering up one’s own weaknesses by emphasizing desired traits or overcoming unpleasant feelings in one area by over-satisfaction in other areas. For example, a person who cannot play football becomes an outstanding chess player.

Catharsis is a defense associated with a change in values that leads to a weakening of the influence of the traumatic factor. To do this, a certain external, global value system is sometimes used as an intermediary, in comparison with which the situation traumatic for a person loses its significance.

Changes in the structure of values can only occur in the process of powerful emotional tension and heightened passions. The human value system is very inertial, and it resists change until irritations arise that are so powerful or so inconsistent with the entire existing system of human norms and ideals that they break the protective barrier of all other forms of psychological defense.

Catharsis has a cleansing effect. This is both a means of protecting the individual from unbridled impulses (a kind of valve that saves from primitive instincts), and a way of creating a new direction in striving for the future.

The mechanism of escape into illness or the formation of symptoms. Dealing with symptoms and illness is a unique solution to unsolvable problems in an individual’s life. As psychoanalysts would say. for his inability and his powerlessness to change anything in his life, a person finds somatic expression. When forming a withdrawal from illness, the patient refuses responsibility and independent decision problems, justifies his inadequacy with illness, seeks care and recognition, playing the role of the patient.

Denial - I don’t see what everyone else sees. Usually we are talking about personal characteristics of oneself or significant people. The denial mechanism operates on the principle “if I don’t admit it, then it didn’t happen.” Undesirable events are not accepted by consciousness. Denial is often the first reaction to irreversible events - death or serious illness.

Displacement is the release of suppressed feelings, usually feelings of hostility, directed towards an object less dangerous than the one that caused the negative emotions. For example, a boss has a quarrel with his wife, and spends the whole day venting his anger on his subordinates.

Dreaming is a type of substitution in which reorientation occurs, i.e. transferring an inaccessible action to another plane: from the real world to the world of dreams. Secret repentance or remorse leads to their breakthrough in a dream.

In a dream, the conflict is eliminated not on the basis of its logical resolution and transformation, which is typical for defense by the type of rationalization, but with the help of the language of images. An image emerges that reconciles antagonistic attitudes and thereby reduces tension. Thus, the scene of crossing a bridge can serve as a metaphor for the need for acceptance important decision or a significant change in life. The drop in tension simultaneously eliminates the need for repression.

Dreams constantly compensate and complement something. And unlike reality, a dream can endow you with supernatural powers and unlimited possibilities.

Suppression is the refusal to be aware of unpleasant and dangerous thoughts that have already entered the consciousness and to formulate them. A classic example is the reasoning of a boy who decides not to stand up for his friend in front of teenagers because he wants to seem like an adult, and not as small and helpless as his “unwanted” friend.

Projection is shifting responsibility for difficulties onto other people or attributing to others one’s moral qualities and motives.

Thus, it seems to a deceiver that everyone around him is trying to deceive him, and a person who lacks money tends to scold beggars and beggars more often than others.

Not only negative, but also positive emotions can be projected. In a broad sense, we all use projection to explain the world - how else can we understand others except by finding similar feelings in ourselves?

Discharge is the reduction of anxiety caused by forbidden desires through its external expression. Such behavior often manifests itself in crime or delinquency (antisocial illegal behavior of a person, embodied in his misconduct (actions or inactions) that harm both individual citizens and society as a whole).

Rationalization. This defense mechanism involves the search for convincing reasons for insufficiently approved actions and desires, attempts to prove that behavior is rational and justified, and therefore socially approved. What is more convenient: to admit that you are not hired for the job you have always dreamed of due to insufficient experience - or to believe that this is hindered, for example, by your bright appearance.

Rationalization allows you to isolate yourself from the world with a set of simple stereotypes, spend a minimum of effort on analyzing incoming information - and at the same time feel like d’Artagnan against the background of a dull reality.

Reactive formations – A fairly transparent way of psychological defense is reactive formations - when a person replaces his own feelings with the opposite ones. Classic examples of reactive formations can be found in the behavior of adolescents who seek to turn inside out feelings that they consider shameful. That’s why you have to laugh in a movie at an episode that brings tears to your eyes, or pull the hair of a girl you like, but you’re afraid of “what the other guys will say.”

Regression. This defense is based on the objective fact that small child people usually tend to be more protective than an adult. Preserving memories of the feeling of security that most of us had in childhood, a person unconsciously uses, at first glance, a paradoxical method of protection from troubles - he begins to display childish, maladaptive character traits and behavior patterns.

Often this actually leads to the fact that those around them begin to protect the “defenseless child,” but not always: regression can work even when there is simply no one nearby.

Demonstration of sickness, inferiority and helplessness also relates to regression, since it contains the same message: “I am sick. I am unable to take care of myself. Protect me." As a result, some people who abuse regression may develop chronic diseases, which in turn can develop into hypochondria and be accompanied by somatization. When regression becomes a life strategy for overcoming problems, such a personality is called infantile.

Repression is preventing unpleasant and dangerous thoughts from entering the mind.

Retroflection is projection in reverse. The subject returns to himself what was addressed environment: Slaps one's own hand or kicks a chair instead of hitting someone. The highest form of retroflection is suicide.

Merger. With this type of protection, a person completely “dissolves” in the environment, group or person, abandons his life, his own individuality, needs, carefully avoiding conflicts. In speech – consistent use of the pronoun “we”.

Empathy is the desire to win the sympathy of other people and thus maintain self-esteem, despite failures.

Sublimation is the satisfaction or suppression of unsatisfied desires, often of a sexual nature, through other activities. This usually refers to a change in the method of gratification rather than in its object. For example, a person who experiences a strong sexual attraction to another person and is unable to satisfy this attraction may find partial release in acceptable activities, for example, dancing, chopping wood, or playing bells.

Fantasy is the satisfaction of unfulfilled desires in one’s imagination.

Fantasies can take many forms: conscious fantasies, day dreams, and unconscious fantasies.

A person can escape from a disappointing reality into virtual computer worlds and movies, the main distinguishing feature of which is the ability to interact with a fictitious ideal “reality.”

Formation of reactions - preventing dangerous aspirations by strengthening attitudes and types of behavior that oppose them in order to use them as “barriers”. For example, a person may become an anti-alcohol activist because his father or another family member was an alcoholic.

Emotional isolation - withdrawing into oneself and passivity to protect from pain and resentment.

Now that you have become acquainted with your psychological defenses, ask yourself the question: are they as important to you today as they were in distant childhood? Or has it come time to let them go, making room for new life experiences? published

Based on media and online publications

Prepared by Ksenia Panyukova

The publication also used the Dissertation for the degree of Candidate of Psychological Sciences by Elena Chumakova.

Psychological protection– these are unconscious processes occurring in the psyche, aimed at minimizing the impact of negative experiences. Defense tools are the basis of resistance processes. Psychological defense as a concept was first voiced by Freud, who initially meant, first of all, repression (active, motivated elimination of something from consciousness).

The functions of psychological defenses are to reduce the confrontation that occurs within the individual, relieve tension caused by the confrontation of impulses of the unconscious and the accepted requirements of the environment, arising as a result of social interaction. By minimizing such conflict, safety mechanisms regulate human behavior, increasing its adaptive capacity.

What is psychological protection?

The human psyche is characterized by the ability to protect itself from negative surrounding or internal influences.

Psychological protection of the individual is present in every human subject, but varies in degree of intensity.

Psychological protection guards the mental health of people, protects their “I” from the effects of stressful influences, increased anxiety, negative, destructive thoughts, and from confrontations leading to poor health.

Psychological defense as a concept was born in 1894 thanks to the famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who came to the conclusion that a subject can show two different responses to unpleasant situations. He can either detain them in a conscious state, or distort such circumstances in order to reduce their scope or deflect them in a different direction.

All protective mechanisms are characterized by two features connecting them. First of all, they are unconscious. activates protection spontaneously, without understanding what it is doing. Secondly, the main task of protective tools is to distort reality as much as possible or completely deny it, so that the subject stops perceiving it as alarming or unsafe. It should be emphasized that human individuals often use several protection mechanisms simultaneously in order to protect themselves from unpleasant, threatening events. However, such a distortion cannot be considered intentional or an exaggeration.

At the same time, despite the fact that all available protective acts are aimed at protecting the human psyche, preventing him from falling into depression, and helping him endure stress, they often cause harm. The human subject cannot exist constantly in a state of renunciation or blaming others for his own troubles, replacing reality with a distorted picture that has fallen out of reality.

Psychological defense, in addition, can hinder human development. It can become an obstacle to the path of success.

The negative consequences of the phenomenon under consideration occur with the stable repetition of a certain defense mechanism in similar situations of life, however, individual events, although similar to those that initially provoked the activation of the defense, do not need cover-up, since the subject himself can consciously find a solution to the problem that has arisen.

Also, defense mechanisms turn into a destructive force when a person uses several of them at the same time. A subject who frequently resorts to defense mechanisms is doomed to be a failure.

Psychological protection of the individual is not an innate skill. It is acquired as the baby goes through it. The main source of the formation of internal defense mechanisms and examples of their use are parents, who “infect” their own children with their example of using protection.

Mechanisms of psychological defense of the individual

A special system of personality regulation aimed at protecting against negative, traumatic, unpleasant experiences caused by contradictions, anxiety and a state of discomfort is called psychological protection, the functional purpose of which is to minimize intrapersonal confrontation, relieve tension, and relieve anxiety. By weakening internal contradictions, psychological hidden “safeties” regulate the behavioral reactions of the individual, increasing its adaptive ability and balancing the psyche.

Freud had previously outlined the theories of the conscious, unconscious and the concept of the subconscious, where he emphasized that defensive internal mechanisms are an integral part of the unconscious. He argued that the human subject is often confronted with unpleasant stimuli that are threatening and can generate stress or lead to a breakdown. Without internal “safeties,” the ego of the individual will undergo disintegration, which will make it impossible to make decisions in everyday life. Psychological protection acts as shock absorbers. It helps individuals cope with negativity and pain.

Modern psychological science identifies 10 internal defense mechanisms, which are classified according to the degree of maturity into defensive (for example, isolation, rationalization, intellectualization) and projective (denial, repression). The first ones are more mature. They allow negative or traumatic information to enter their consciousness, but interpret it for themselves in a “painless” way. The second ones are more primitive, since traumatic information is not allowed into consciousness.

Today, psychological “safeties” are considered to be reactions that an individual resorts to unconsciously in order to protect his own internal mental components, the “Ego,” from anxiety, confrontation, sensation, guilt, and feelings.

The fundamental mechanisms of psychological defense are differentiated by such parameters as the level of conflict processing within, the reception of reality distortion, the level of the amount of energy spent on maintaining a certain mechanism, the level of the individual and the type of probable mental disorder that appears as a result of addiction to a certain defense mechanism.

Freud, using his own three-component model of the structure of the psyche, suggested that individual mechanisms arise in childhood.

Psychological protection, examples of it are found all the time in life. Often, in order not to vent anger on the boss, a person pours out streams of negative information on employees, since they are less significant objects for him.

It often happens that the safety mechanisms begin to work incorrectly. The reason for this failure lies in the individual’s desire for peace. Hence, when the desire for psychological comfort begins to prevail over the desire to comprehend the world, minimizing the risk of going beyond the boundaries of the familiar, well-functioning defense mechanisms cease to function adequately, which leads to.

Protective defense mechanisms constitute the security complex of the personality, but at the same time they can lead to its disintegration. Each individual has his own favorite variation of protection.

Psychological defense is an example of this: the desire to find a reasonable explanation for even the most ridiculous behavior. This is how the tendency towards rationalization manifests itself.

However, there is a fine line that runs between adequate use of the preferred mechanism and a violation of the equivalent balance in their functioning. Troubles arise for individuals when the chosen “fuse” is absolutely inappropriate for the situation.

Types of psychological protection

Among the scientifically recognized and frequently encountered internal “shields,” there are about 50 types of psychological defense. Below are the main defense techniques used.

First of all, we can highlight sublimation, the concept of which was defined by Freud. He considered it a process of transformation of libido into sublime aspiration and socially necessary activity. According to Freud's concept, this is the main effective defense mechanism during personality maturation. The preference for sublimation as the main strategy speaks of mental maturation and personality formation.

There are 2 key variations of sublimation: primary and secondary. With the first, the original task towards which the personality is directed is preserved, which is expressed relatively directly, for example, infertile parents decide to adopt. In the second, individuals abandon the initial task and choose another task, which can be achieved at a higher level of mental activity, as a result of which sublimation is indirect.

An individual who has failed to adapt using the primary form of the defense mechanism can switch to the secondary form.

The next frequently used technique is, which is found in the involuntary movement of unacceptable impulses or thoughts into the unconscious. Simply put, repression is motivated forgetting. When the function of this mechanism is insufficient to reduce anxiety, other defense techniques are used that help the repressed information appear in a distorted light.

Regression is an unconscious “descent” into an early stage of adaptation, allowing the satisfaction of desires. It can be symbolic, partial or complete. Lots of problems emotional orientation have regressive features. In its normal manifestation, regression can be found in game processes, in case of illness (for example, a sick individual requires more attention and increased care).

Projection is a mechanism for assigning to another individual or object desires, feelings, thoughts that the subject consciously rejects. Individual variations of projection are easily detected in everyday life. Most human subjects are completely uncritical of personal shortcomings, but easily notice them in those around them. People tend to blame the surrounding society for their sorrows. At the same time, projection can be harmful, since it often causes an erroneous interpretation of reality. This mechanism mainly works in vulnerable individuals and immature individuals.

The opposite of the technique described above is introjection or inclusion of oneself. It plays an important role in early personal maturation, since parental values are learned on its basis. The mechanism is updated due to the loss of a close relative. With the help of introjection, the differences between one's own person and the object of love are eliminated. Sometimes or towards someone, negative impulses are transformed into devaluation of oneself and self-criticism, due to the introjection of such a subject.

Rationalization is a mechanism that justifies the behavioral response of individuals, their thoughts, feelings, which are actually unacceptable. This technique is considered the most common psychological defense mechanism.

Human behavior is determined by many factors. When an individual explains behavioral reactions in the most acceptable way for his own personality, then rationalization occurs. An unconscious rationalization technique should not be confused with a conscious lie or deliberate deception. Rationalization helps maintain self-esteem, avoid responsibility and feelings of guilt. In every rationalization there is some amount of truth, but there is more self-deception in it. This makes her unsafe.

Intellectualization involves the exaggerated use of intellectual potential in order to eliminate emotional experiences. This technique is characterized by a close relationship with rationalization. It replaces the direct experience of feelings with thinking about them.

Compensation is an unconscious attempt to overcome real or imagined defects. The mechanism under consideration is considered universal, because acquiring status is the most important need of almost every individual. Compensation can be socially acceptable (for example, a blind person becomes a famous musician) and unacceptable (for example, compensation for disability is transformed into conflict and aggression). There is also a distinction between direct compensation (in an obviously unwinnable area the individual strives for success) and indirect compensation (the tendency to establish one’s own personality in another area).

Reactive formation is a mechanism that replaces unacceptable impulses for awareness with exorbitant, opposing tendencies. This technique is characterized by two stages. In the first turn, the unacceptable desire is repressed, after which its antithesis increases. For example, overprotection may hide feelings of rejection.

The mechanism of denial is the rejection of thoughts, feelings, impulses, needs or reality that are unacceptable at the level of consciousness. The individual behaves as if the problem situation does not exist. The primitive way of denial is inherent in children. Adults more often use the described method in situations of serious crisis.

Displacement is the redirection of emotional responses from one item to an acceptable substitute. For example, subjects take out aggressive feelings on their family instead of their employer.

Methods and techniques of psychological defense

Many eminent psychologists argue that the ability to protect yourself from negative emotional reactions of envious people and ill-wishers, the ability to maintain spiritual harmony in all sorts of unpleasant circumstances and not respond to annoying, offensive attacks, is a characteristic feature mature personality, an emotionally developed and intellectually formed individual. This is a guarantee of health and the main difference between a successful individual. This is precisely the positive side of the function of psychological defenses. Therefore, subjects who experience pressure from society and take on negative psychological attacks from spiteful critics need to learn adequate methods of protecting themselves from negative influences.

First of all, you need to realize that an irritated and emotionally depressed individual cannot restrain emotional impulses and adequately respond to criticism.

Methods of psychological defense that help cope with aggressive manifestations are given below.

One of the techniques that helps repel negative emotions is the “wind of change.” You need to remember all the words and intonations that cause the most painful intonation, understand what can be guaranteed to knock the waters off, unbalance or plunge you into depression. It is recommended to remember and vividly imagine the circumstances when an ill-wisher tries to make you angry using certain words, intonation or facial expressions. You should also say inside yourself the words that hurt you the most. You can visualize the facial expressions of your opponent uttering offensive words.

This state of powerless anger or, on the contrary, loss, must be felt inside, sorted out by individual sensations. You need to become aware of your own sensations and changes occurring in the body (for example, your heartbeat may become faster, anxiety may appear, your legs may become “numb”) and remember them. Then you should imagine yourself standing on strong wind, which blows away all the negativity, hurtful words and attacks of an ill-wisher, as well as reciprocal negative emotions.

It is recommended to do the described exercise several times in a quiet room. It will help you subsequently be much calmer about aggressive attacks. When faced with a situation in which someone is trying to insult or humiliate, you should imagine yourself as being in the wind. Then the words of the spiteful critic will sink into oblivion without reaching their goal.

The next method of psychological defense is called an “absurd situation.” Here a person is advised not to wait for aggression, an outburst of offensive words, or ridicule. We need to adopt the well-known phraseology “making a mountain out of a molehill.” In other words, it is necessary to bring any problem to the point of absurdity using exaggeration. If you feel ridicule or insult from your opponent, you should exaggerate this situation in such a way that the words that follow only generate laughter and frivolity. This method of psychological defense can easily disarm your interlocutor and permanently discourage him from offending other people.

You can also imagine your opponents as three-year-old babies. This will help you learn to treat their attacks less painfully. You need to imagine yourself as a teacher, and your opponents as a kindergarten child who runs, jumps, and screams. He is indignant and capricious. Is it possible to be seriously angry with a three-year-old, stupid little girl?!

The next method is called “ocean”. The expanses of water, which occupy a huge part of the land, constantly absorb the seething flows of rivers, but this cannot disturb their majestic steadfastness and calm. Likewise, a person can take an example from the ocean, remaining confident and calm, even when streams of abuse pour out.

A psychological defense technique called “aquarium” involves imagining yourself behind the thick edges of an aquarium when you sense the environment’s attempts to unbalance you. Pouring a sea of negativity onto the opponent and endlessly pouring hurtful words, you need to look from behind the thick walls of the aquarium, imagining his face distorted with anger, but not feeling the words, because they are absorbed by the water. Consequently, negative attacks will not achieve their goal, the person will remain balanced, which will further disperse the opponent and force him to lose balance.

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Mechanisms of psychological defenses. Psychological protection

Definition of the concept

Types of defense mechanisms

Basic properties of defense mechanisms

crowding out

Projection

Substitution

Rationalization

Reactive education

Regression

Sublimation

Negation

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conclusions

Types of defense mechanisms

What is psychological protection?

Mechanisms of psychological defense of the individual

Types of psychological protection

Methods and techniques of psychological defense

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