home

Mechanisms of psychological defenses. Psychological protection

Neurotic defenses of the psyche.

- Defense mechanisms of the psyche. Characteristics of the main defenses (displacement, 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 exclusion from consciousness of thoughts, feelings, desires and drives that cause pain, shame or guilt. The operation of this mechanism can explain many cases of a person forgetting the performance of some duties, which, as it turns out, on 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 especially difficult experiences, amnesia can cover such segments. past life person.

Projection

During projection, a person attributes his own undesirable traits to others, and in this way protects himself from the 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 ascribes 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. As a matter of fact, 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 individuals and groups can act as objects of identification. Identification leads to imitation of the actions and experiences of another person.

introjection

The traits and motives of persons to which 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. Freud (2003) gave an example when a child who felt unhappy due to the loss of a kitten explained that he was now a kitten himself.

Jet formation

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 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 the result 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 as follows: 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 falls. 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 "self-limitation". She drew attention to the fact that such a process is characteristic of mental life throughout the development of personality.

Rationalization

Rationalization as a defensive process lies in the fact that a person unconsciously invents logical judgments and inferences to explain his failures. This is necessary to maintain your own positive self-image.

Cancellation

Cancellation 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 an unacceptable act for him is canceled, and he can continue to live in peace.

Split

In the case of splitting, a person divides his life into the imperatives "good" and "bad", unconsciously removing everything indefinite, which may subsequently make it difficult for him to analyze the problem (a critical situation that causes mental discomfort as a result of development, for example, anxiety). Splitting is a kind of distortion of reality, as, 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 the action of this protective reaction of the psyche, if any information negative for him arises in the zone of perception of a person, he unconsciously denies its existence. The presence of the fact of denying any events, etc., allows you to find out about true intentions and the reasons for the concern of this person, 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 tries to hide in the first place.

Bias

Such a protective function is expressed in the unconscious desire of a person 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 neurosis symptoms (for example, increase anxiety, anxiety, guilt, etc.) the nature of such activity, then such a thing may lead to a failure in the implementation of this activity. (If a boxer thinks all the time that the opponent's blows can cause pain and various kinds of injuries, or 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 an 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 a replacement for internal anxiety by switching to another activity (creativity, chopping wood, cleaning an apartment, etc.)

Regression

Such a protective reaction of the psyche as regression is manifested 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 with him.

Resistance

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

First of all, remember that the human psyche is divided into such components as consciousness (the left hemisphere of the brain; about 10% of the volume), the subconscious (the unconscious, about 90% of the volume, the right hemisphere), and the censorship of the psyche (Super-I, Alter-ego). The censorship of the psyche is between the conscious and the unconscious; censorship of the psyche is a barrier of criticality on the way of information from the outside world and the psyche (brain) of a person, i.e. censorship of the psyche is given the role of critical analysis in assessing information coming from the outside world. Censorship allows some of this information to pass into consciousness (which means that a person is able to realize this information), and some of it, encountering obstacles in the psyche, the Super-I (Alter-Ego, mental censorship), passes into the subconscious. From there, in consequence, to influence consciousness through emerging thoughts and the implementation of actions (actions - as a result of thoughts or unconscious, reflex, desires, instincts). Resistance, being one of the protective functions (censorship) of the psyche, prevents the entry of information that is undesirable for consciousness into consciousness, being forced out 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 flow of new information. To the question: how the information coming from the outside world is fixed in the psyche, it should be answered that, most likely, there is a kind of coincidence of encodings (of newly received and previously existing) information, i.e. new information correlates with earlier information of similar content and direction, which by the time the new information arrived was already in the unconscious mind (formed in patterns of behavior after preliminary dominant fixation in attitudes).

When information influences the brain, it should be said that any kind of such influence becomes possible due 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 the archetypes of the unconscious psyche. Archetypes, in turn, involve early formed patterns of behavior. If we consider this from the standpoint 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 that 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 (subconsciousness) is also formed in the process of information displacement by the censorship of the psyche. At the same time, not all information coming from the outside world is forced out unconsciously into the subconscious. Part goes into the subconscious on purpose. For example, to feed the information already available in the unconscious and complete the formation of archetypes, or specifically for the purpose of forming new archetypes, patterns of the individual's future behavior. And this, in our opinion, must be properly understood and distinguished. If we talk about how this or that information is displaced by the censorship of the psyche, going to the subconscious, then we should say that such information has not passed verification, i.e. did not receive a proper “response” in the soul of a person whose psyche evaluates such information. As Z. Freud (2003) pointed out, any situations that are painful for the psyche of the individual, circumstances of life, i.e. everything that he unconsciously does not want to let into consciousness. In this case, the unwanted moments of life are forgotten, that is, deliberately repressed. Moreover, we recall that both resistance and repression are the ability of the psyche to get rid of neurosis. At the same time, new information, finding a “response in the soul”, will also strengthen the information of similar content that previously existed in the brain (the unconscious mind, the 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 absorb any information coming 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 incoming information is directly deposited in the subconscious, and subsequently affects the 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 on the way of receiving new information, then this new information will not only be deposited in his subconscious, but the person will also be able to perceive it in a cognitive (conscious) way. Moreover, by the strength of its own influence, similar information can have an incomparably greater impact in comparison with the modality of the information that existed earlier in the psyche. If the modality coincides, then in this case the state of rapport comes easier, i.e. a secure connection is established whereby the person becomes receptive to receiving information from the other person.

Attention should be paid to the fact that the psyche almost always protests everything new, unknown. And this happens because, as it were, initially (when new information arrives), as we have already noticed, the individual components of such information are looking for “some kindred relationships” with information that existed in the subconscious before (“coding match”, 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 fix such information in the mind or force it out into the subconscious. In the event that when the codes of the new and previously existing information coincide, an associative connection arises between the new and existing information, which means that specific contact, as a result of which new information, as it were, falls on fertile ground, and having some kind of basis under it, it serves as an opportunity for adapting new information, enriching 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 but be updated) some new information is born, which already passes into consciousness, and therefore, through thoughts that have arisen in the unconscious mind, it is projected onto actions that, although in most cases (in the absence of altered states of consciousness) are the result 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 reveal the unconscious impulses of a person, his unconscious desires, attitudes that were previously laid down (by society, the environment or another person) in the psyche of this individual, and already in one way or another began to influence his real or future activity. In this case, it should be said that the subordination of the psyche of another person occurs by programming his psyche by introducing various settings into his subconscious, which can later be demanded by the manipulator (and then he activates them with the help of 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 representational or signaling system of a person - either immediately deposited in the unconscious of the psyche or finds confirmation from the existing early information, thereby enriching and strengthening due to this - turns out to be able to influence consciousness, i.e. on the process of human life.

Note that overcoming resistance, a person opens the psyche for the perception of new information. Moreover, there is a high probability of obtaining radically new information. After all, if earlier, as we said, some information was already present in the memory, then when new information is received, the censorship of the psyche unconsciously seeks confirmation of the newly received information in the storehouses of memory. Probably the psyche in this case should react in a certain way, and it reacts. Visually, this is noticeable by external changes that occur with a person in the “here and now” parallel (reddening or blanching of the skin of the face, dilated pupils, variants of catalepsy (stiffness of the body), etc.). At the same time, such changes can occur and not necessarily so noticeable, 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 is up to one hundred percent. Another question is that individuals are possible who cannot be brought into a state of rapport in the transcription “here and now”, but this, for example, can be done later. Anyway, everyone has states when he is most susceptible to information and psychological influence, to manipulation of his psyche, intrusion into his psyche and control of the psyche this person. Moreover, it is also possible to trace the choice of the right moment to the end, but for this it is necessary to have experience, knowledge, and a predisposition to this kind of realization of opportunities. Those. though relative, but abilities, and even better - talent. In this case, the probability of achieving the programming result is significantly increased.

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, as it were, on several “fronts” at once. As a result, an 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 a similar one, the initiation of the emergence of more and more new mechanisms of a similar direction in the unconscious psyche is observed. However, now they find constant reinforcement both in the consciousness and in the preconscious. This means that not only the process of fixing the information once received in the subconscious is possible (not any information, but precisely the one that caused such a process, the information that, as a result of the receipt of which patterns began to form in the unconscious), but already such information begins to be activated , soon subordinating the thoughts and desires of the individual in the key 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 psyche of an individual. It is known that the same information may have no effect on one individual, and force another to almost radically change life.

Right hemisphere The brain, as we have already noticed, 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 the 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 the activity of the right hemisphere. As a result, we can say that the activity of the brain is provided by two hemispheres, the right (sensory) and the left (sign, that is, it integrates the objects of the external world with the help of signs: words, speech, etc.). The complementarity of the activity of the two hemispheres is often manifested by the simultaneous presence in the psyche of the individual of rational and intuitive, rational 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 the activity of the psyche, when, speaking or hearing a speech, a person also turns on his imagination, which in this case significantly enhances this kind of impact. In this case, one should once again pay attention to the need to break the resistance. It is known that resistance turns on 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 the memory. Such information does not pass the barrier of criticality and is forced out into the subconscious. However, if by an effort of will (that is, by 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 we need), then we will be able to overcome the resistance, which means that after some more at that time it will be possible to experience that state which we have called early satori or illumination. Moreover, the effect of this will be incomparably higher than the information methodically and in a long way penetrated into the subconscious, later influencing the consciousness. In our case, in the event of a breakdown of the barrier of criticality, and hence resistance, we will achieve incomparably more, because in this case, for some time, the state of the so-called. "green corridor", when the incoming information passes almost completely and completely, bypassing the barrier of criticality. And just as quickly in this case there is a transition into consciousness both of their preconsciousness and from the unconscious. This means that we will no longer have to wait a long time, 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 the mind (temporary information, because any information in the mind does not last long, and after a while, from the operative memory enters the long-term memory), it enters there. In the case of overcoming resistance, such information comes immediately, while changing the worldview of a person, because in this case consciousness is actively involved, and if something is realized by a person, then it is accepted as a guide to action.

So, we have considered a far from complete list of existing protection mechanisms, but the enumeration of the main protections, 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 defense mechanisms in the psyche brings us closer to understanding the mechanisms of the influence of one person on another. Considering the issues of the inclusion of neurotic defenses (and any defense of the psyche is a defense against a developing neurosis), we must pay attention to the fact that, according to O. Fenichel (1945, 2005), anxiety and anger are the result of not receiving an outlet of mental energy as a result of traumatic psyche circumstances, and represent a discharge of mental excitation. At the same time, attention should be paid to the fact that the protective mechanisms of the psyche restrain an excess of mental energy, but in the case of a predominance or repetition of a situation that traumatizes the human psyche, an energy release is possible, resulting in the development of neuropsychic symptoms. At the same time, those who are predisposed to neurosis due to the constitution and infantile fixation will react with the development of neurosis even in response to minimal activation of infantile conflicts. And for someone, 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 consciousness, subconsciousness and the world around. The basis of psychoneuroses is a neurotic conflict. Neurotic conflict is the result of a conflict between the tendency to discharge and the tendency to prevent it. (O. Fenichel, 2005). The severity of the desire for relaxation depends both on the nature of the stimuli and on for the most part from the 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 becomes clear that the motive for protecting the psyche is anxiety. It is with the help of defense mechanisms that the individual's psyche unconsciously escapes from the danger of external influence, i.e. from the impact of information from the outside world on the inner world of the individual. Moreover, a number of people in this case really have a conflict, because the incoming information has a negative impact, replacing the personality of the individual, and forcing him to commit actions that were not characteristic of him earlier. A person is saved from such an impact just by switching on the mechanisms of mental protection, which we briefly considered above. In some cases, anxiety is replaced by guilt. The feeling of guilt in this case acts as one of the defenses of the psyche. Guilt itself serves sure sign neurosis, is characterized by a long state of stable anxiety, and actually replaces the true "I" - a false image with which the personality of this person is forced to reckon. Such a neurotic simply has no choice but to actually adjust his life to the feeling of guilt that exists in his psyche. And the situation in most cases has quite serious consequences, because. forces the neurotic individual to perform actions, if controlled by consciousness, then at best partially; because unconscious desires rise up, contributing to the “silencing” of guilt, causing the strongest 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 broken contacts with the outside world, because his inner world is forced all the time to come into conflict between what needs to be done in order 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 sense of guilt for the personality of a neurotic can manifest itself in internal destructive urges of a sadistic-masochistic nature, consisting in intentional (unconscious, for the most part) infliction of implicit harm to one's health (smoking, drinking alcohol, dangerous driving, parachuting and other extreme sports). Experiencing internal suffering from feelings of guilt, neurotics sometimes use some specific options for protecting themselves from feelings of guilt, which manifest themselves in the following: guilt can be repressed, projected (when someone else is accused of committing an undesirable act), or, for example, there is a censure , reproach to others for what they themselves could do; quite typical example with excessive obsession, sociability, sudden talkativeness. In this case, one should speak of a certain neurotic reaction, manifested in the neurotic's desire to drown out his own guilt by obtaining approval for what is internally experienced as forbidden. Isolation of feelings of guilt occurs when, for example, a neurotic commits some misdeed with a fairly noticeable emotional indifference, while for a completely harmless act he is quite sincerely remorseful.

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 later 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 is anyone able to honestly and sincerely express their own feelings, thoughts, emotions, fantasies, desires, etc. Modern man, who is a child of society, has learned to hide feelings in the process of education necessary for adaptation in the world around him. Therefore, the task of influencing a person, on his psyche, is to reveal such mechanisms of concealment, and treat people as patients. And this is true, you just have to pay attention and observe the specifics of people's behavior. The nature of man already in itself forces him to be secretive. Moreover, this happens at an unconscious level and does not depend on the person himself. True, those individuals who, due to the geography of their residence (villages that are far 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 put pressure on them. , and over time, in order to survive, they must make a choice: either to be like everyone else, i.e. lie, deceive, dodge, and in this case survive, become a full member of society, or remain honest and open to the end, which means becoming an outcast of society, and a follower of marginal positions, and as a result of this - to be deprived of the benefits of civilization. The choice is truly difficult, despite the fact that the majority is simply unconscious, since from the very birth their psyche is programmed by the media of mass communication and information, which means that such people immediately begin to "play by the rules", i.e. live in accordance with the laws of society.

Resistance - as a factor of personal growth.

Having overcome such a protective mechanism of the psyche as resistance, the individual is able to move to a new level of his own perception of life, and therefore climb to the next step in the social ladder. This becomes possible in the following way. It is known that the psyche of an individual is divided into three important components: consciousness, subconsciousness (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 lets some of this information into the consciousness (which means that a person has the ability to realize this information), and some of it, encountering obstacles 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 noted, is one of the defenses of the psyche. Without getting into too much detailed analysis resistance, consider resistance - in the concept of the life growth of an individual, increasing his social status, his intellectual abilities, life adaptation, and so on. 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 consider not 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 even 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 exists earlier in the individual's unconscious, information that, being in the individual's memory, begins to clearly oppose the inflow of new information. Moreover, this kind of resistance is especially strong if either the general information-target orientation of the new and old 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, an individual - unconsciously - will not refer only to that general idea of a particular problem (question), which, as you know, is 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 to the fact that the information received from the outside world (through any type of contacts: interpersonal, with the help of the mass media, etc.) does not fully and completely resonate in the soul of the individual. First of all, the influence is exerted by the information that seems to have fallen on a special wave, to which the psyche of the individual is tuned at the time of receiving such information. At the same time, we must also talk about the fact that at the next moment the same information may no longer be perceived. Even and in general, invisible barriers of criticality can stand in its way, which are the result of the activity of the censorship of the psyche. But if we say that the information that affects the psyche of the individual turned out to be involved in the "here and now" mode, if this information was not forced out into the subconscious like the other, but almost unhindered, or without losing its main essence, after which it is possible to restore in the future its components, having assembled a single whole, and so, if we say that such information has now penetrated into consciousness, then we should recognize that this is quite possible. And this happens as a result of the fact that a part of such information (its avant-garde) not only entered into its codes (any information, as is known, can be presented in a system of codes) correlates with the information already available in the psyche of the individual, but also as a result of such censorship the psyche weakened for a while and opened slightly (metaphorically speaking, the psyche opened a barrier on the way of new information). This means that other information supplied with information that has penetrated through the coincidence of codes can also penetrate into consciousness in the same way. Unless in this case, such information (information that has entered the consciousness by fraudulent means) does not linger for a long time, and soon turns out to be forced out 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 turns out to be in the subconscious.

If we return to the issue of the receipt of information, which, 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 mechanism of the psyche, which is able to skip some information, almost bypassing censorship, is well known to specialists in manipulating the psyche. Moreover, the word “manipulation”, which has received a somewhat negative aspect, as we have already noted earlier, can be replaced by a more neutral word “management”. Management, or, for example, programming the psyche. Permutations of words - the semantic impact does not change. And, probably, the word "management" does not cause too obvious provocation of the psyche, an explosion of emotions, and so on. 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 there are such deposits of sometimes invaluable material that the one who knows how to extract from the subconscious even if it is negligible a small part information hidden there, is able to significantly outstrip other individuals in informational 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 getting such information into consciousness. Despite the rather limited volume of consciousness (in comparison with the subconscious), it is impossible to live without consciousness. Because if a person were to be unconscious all the time, this would mean that primary instincts, the desires of a savage - to kill, eat, rape - would take precedence. And they would be implemented everywhere. Which would lead to the actual destruction of civilization.

How does the information that enters the psyche from the outside world “resonates in the soul” of the individual? As we have already noted, in this case we should say that we have 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 recedes, recognizing “its own” after receiving certain “password-reviews”) immediately enters consciousness, and therefore has a direct effect on thoughts and human actions. At the same time, even if for some reason such information (or part of it) turns out to be displaced into the subconscious, most likely it will either not penetrate further than the preconscious (there is also such a structure of the psyche, which, according to 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 be in the unconscious, but with some positive mark. , 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 displaced by the censorship of the psyche, going to the subconscious, we assume that such information did not receive the proper “response” in the soul of the individual who evaluates such information. After all, it is known that almost any information from the outside world is evaluated by the psyche of the "receiving party". And it already depends on what information of what direction the psyche of the individual will let into consciousness and immediately begin to work with such information, and displace some information. As pointed out by prof. Freud (2003), any situations that are painful for the psyche of the individual, circumstances of life, 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, the resistance of the psyche is turned on, as a result of which unwanted moments of life are forgotten, that is, they are deliberately forced out. Or, for example, the censorship of the psyche stands in the way of information seeking to penetrate consciousness, which has various methods of protection, one of which is resistance, and as a result 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 undesirable flows of information for the psyche can, after some time, lead to the appearance of symptoms of neurosis, and as a result - a disease of the psyche, disorders psyche. “... a prerequisite for the existence of a symptom,” wrote Z. Freud, “is that some mental process did not completely occur in a normal way, so that it could not become conscious. The symptom is a substitute for what has not been realized ... A strong resistance had to be directed against ... the mental process to penetrate into consciousness; so he remained unconscious. As unconscious, he has the capacity 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 opposes that information that is undesirable, painful for the psyche, passes into consciousness, and therefore subjugates the thoughts, desires, and actions of the individual. While the fact that after a very short time, these same pathogenic microbes that 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 defenses and be conscious, about This psyche, which initiated through the barrier of criticality obstacles in the way of information flows from the outside world, does not seem to think. Just as all those who erroneously believe that nothing exists but consciousness do not think, 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 the individual, we note that prof. R. Greenson distinguished psychoanalysis from all other psychotherapeutic methods just by the fact that it considers 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, and so on. Also, one form 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 disinclined to communicate his thoughts or feelings to the analyst. …our task is to analyze the reasons for the silence. ...Sometimes, despite the 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 a person and the masses; at the same time, our use of such a technique is supported (enriched) with some other approaches in influencing the psyche, which, in our opinion, are also effective. We should also talk about a number of differences between classical psychoanalysis in 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 with the aim of controlling a person, modeling his thoughts, desires, actions, etc., and 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 controlling the masses. On the preliminary modeling of the behavior of the masses by programming their psyche to fulfill the necessary installations. Those who give such installations are called manipulators. But they, as we have already noted, can also be called managers, managers, anyone, if we approach this issue 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 methods of manipulating the mental consciousness and discovering new methods of influencing the subconscious in order to manipulate the personality. Therefore, the one who will not only be able to identify enemy encroachments, but also be able to defeat the enemy by his own methods, at best, forcing him to follow his lead, and at least avoiding his psychological attacks, will win.

Returning to the issue of resistance, one should pay attention to the fact that the psyche almost always protests everything new, unknown. And this happens because, as it were, initially (when new information arrives), the individual components of such information are looking for some kind of family ties (similar encoding in the process of afferent connections between brain neurons), that is, something similar, for which one could “cling to ". That is, when new information begins to be evaluated by the brain, it looks for something familiar in this information, through which it would be possible to gain a foothold. When the codes of new information and information already existing in the unconscious of the psyche coincide, in this case a certain associative connection between the new and existing information becomes possible, which means that a certain contact is established, as a result of which the new information, as it were, falls on fertile ground, and having under it some basis - it serves as the possibility of adapting new information, enriching its existing information, and through a certain transformation, new information is born, which already passes into consciousness, which means that through the thoughts that have arisen in the unconscious psyche - it is projected onto actions that, although they are in the majority cases as a consequence of the activity of consciousness, nevertheless, they take their basis in the unconscious of the psyche, 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 the individual, his unconscious desires, attitudes that were previously embedded in the psyche of such an individual, and already in one way or another influence his current or future life. It can even be said that just the programming of the individual takes place partly by introducing into his subconsciousness various settings that 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 representational or signaling system of a person is either immediately deposited in the unconscious of the psyche, or finds confirmation from the existing early information, thereby enriching and strengthening due to this, turns out to be able to influence 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 preliminarily forming semi-dominants and semi-attitudes, and then, upon receipt of new information of a similar encoding, forming full-fledged attitudes and patterns of behavior).

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 precisely where resistance can be seen, because the absence of affect is observed just when actions are considered that “should be extremely loaded with emotions.” But at the same time, the remarks of a person are “dry, boring, monotonous and inexpressive.” Thus, we have an erroneous idea that the person himself is not interested, and the information received does not touch him. Just not, he is actively experiencing, for example, but he strives not to show his attitude to this or that situation just by unconsciously turning on resistance. “In general, the 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 do not change at times during the session and from session to session are always a sign of resistance. If the patient is relatively free of resistance, his posture will somehow change during the session. Excessive mobility also shows that something is discharged in movement and not in words. The contradiction between posture and verbal content is also a sign of resistance. The patient who talks calmly about some event while writhing and writhing himself is telling only part of the story. His movements retell another part of it. Clenched fists, arms tightly folded across 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 having a small conversation that does not continue on the couch, or the way he leaves without looking at the analyst, are all indications of resistance. R. Greenson also pointed to 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 certain time period is an 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 really important for him. “When there is a repetition of content without its development or affect, or without deepening of understanding, we are forced to assume that some kind of resistance is at work. If the story about the 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 can be exuberant but does not lead to new memories or new insights or greater emotional awareness is an indicator of defensive behavior.

Avoidance of any - painful for the psyche of this person - topics should also be attributed to resistance. 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, any unconscious unwillingness to change any established order in conducting conversations, meetings, forms of communication, and so on should be guessed in resistance. At the same time, we can also say that the performance of the same type and well-established actions is, among other things, one of the forms of protection against neurotic addiction. At one time, O. Fenichel (2004) drew attention to the fact that in all psychoneuroses the control of the Ego is weakened, but during 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 any phobia into an obsession. “First, a certain situation is avoided, then, in order to ensure the necessary avoidance, attention is constantly strained. Later, this attention becomes obsessive, or another "positive" obsessive attitude develops, so incompatible with the initially frightening situation that its avoidance is guaranteed. The taboos of touch are replaced by rituals of touch, fears of contamination by washing compulsions; social fears - social rituals, fears of falling asleep - ceremonies of preparing for sleep, inhibition of walking - mannered walking, animal phobias - compulsions when dealing with animals. According to R. Greenson, “the use of cliches, technical terms or sterile language” is also an indicator of resistance, which indicates that such a person, in order to avoid personal self-disclosure, avoids figurativeness of his speech. For example, he says "I felt dislike", when in fact he was furious, thereby "avoids the image and feeling of fury, preferring to it the sterility of" dislike ". “From my clinical experience with patients in such situations, I concluded,” writes R. Greenson, “that “actually” and “to be honest” usually mean that the patient feels his ambivalence, is aware of the inconsistency 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 truly sorry" means that he would like to be truly sorry, but he is also aware of the opposite feeling. "I think I was angry" means: I'm sure I was angry, but I'm reluctant to admit it. "I don't know where to start" means: I know where to start, but I'm hesitant to start like this. 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, dummy, if you really remember her, so I remind you of that. All this is very subtle, but usually the repetitions show the presence of resistances and must be seen as such. The most frequently recurring clichés are manifestations of character resistances and are difficult to deal with before the analysis is under way. Isolated clichés can be easily accessed and early stage analysis".

Lateness, omissions, forgetting, boredom, acting out should also be attributed to various manifestations of resistance (it can manifest itself in the fact that a person tells different people about the same facts; 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 high spirits indicate that there is something that is disgusted - usually something of the opposite nature, some form of depression."

Speaking of resistance, we must also say that if we manage to break down such a protective reaction of the psyche on the way to receiving 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 links and the emergence of empathic attachment, passed through the barrier of the psyche and would remain in consciousness. And the greater effect is achieved just due to the fact that the psyche, as if wanting to "justify" for the former impregnability, is almost maximally revealed 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 initially in the unconscious - create those stable formations there, on which she can subsequently rely if she wants to take power into her own hands for the time of introjecting information stored in the unconscious into consciousness. Such a period can be, depending on the time, or short and intense; or noticeably distributed over time, and how to prepare for a performance, i.e. to the transfer 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 take it out when the time is right. Moreover, such a time (such a suspicion may arise) may not come.

Actually it is not. And it is in the second case, more often than in the first, that we are witnessing that such information, information that has previously entered the subconscious, is activated in such a strong way that it will literally pull other information stored in the unconscious with it, if only it finds it in such a any similarity information. Moreover, the newly formed stream of such information, information to some extent not having a personal historical unconscious experience associated with the psyche of a particular individual, will not only fill the resulting void, but will also obviously lead to the fact that it will pull this entire stream along with it, and as a result for a long time he will be able to subordinate to his perception almost any other information that will then enter the psyche, and thus it will really turn out that in terms of its effectiveness it is much higher. Moreover, in our opinion, this is closely related to the specifics of upbringing and education. For if in this way we manage to break the resistance of another individual on the way of receiving new information, then it is quite likely that such information will not only be deposited in the subconscious, but the individual will also be able to perceive it in a cognitive (conscious) way. Moreover, we repeat once again that by the strength of its own impact on the psyche of an individual, such information can have an incomparably greater impact in comparison with the modality of the information that existed earlier in the psyche. Yes, if the modality coincides, then in this case the state of rapport comes easier, 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 in manipulative influence, i.e. when managing one person - the psyche of another. At the same time, it is necessary for such an impact, for its effectiveness, to find something in the supplied information that will be confirmed with the information that already exists in the psyche. A.M. Svyadoshch (1982) noted that the processes of probabilistic forecasting proceed in the brain, accompanied by the processes of verification of all incoming information, i.e. there is an unconscious determination of its reliability and significance. In this connection, if it is necessary to inspire something to another person, then it is necessary to ensure the introduction of information that is accepted by a person without critical evaluation and that has an impact on neuropsychic processes. At the same time, not all information has an irresistible inspiring effect. Depending on the forms of submission, the source of income 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 to sleep for this. More precisely, he falls into a dream, but it 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 extremely effective in realizing the possibilities of information-psychological influence on an individual, on an object, in order to inspire the latter to perform certain actions that we need.

Returning to the topic of resistance, let us highlight once again the important function of such a defensive reaction of the psyche. And then we will notice that overcoming the resistance we ourselves miraculously We open our psyche to the perception of new information. Moreover, there is a high probability of obtaining radically new information. After all, if earlier, as we said, some information was already present in the memory, then when new information is received, the censorship of the psyche unconsciously seeks confirmation of the newly received information in the storehouses of memory. Probably the psyche in this case should react in a certain way, and it reacts. Visually, this is noticeable by external changes that occur with a person in the “here and now” parallel (reddening or blanching of the skin of the face, dilated pupils, variants of catalepsy (stiffness of the body), etc.). At the same time, such changes can occur and not necessarily so noticeable, 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 is up to one hundred percent. Another question is that individuals are possible who cannot be brought into a state of rapport in the transcription “here and now”, but this, for example, can be done later. Anyway, everyone has states when he is maximally susceptible to informational and psychological influence, to manipulation of his psyche, intrusion into his psyche and control of the psyche of this person. Moreover, it is also possible to trace the choice of the right moment to the end, but for this it is necessary to have experience, knowledge, and a predisposition to this kind of realization of opportunities. Those. though relative, but abilities, and even better - talent. In this case, the probability of achieving the programming result is significantly increased.

Let's get back 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 waged, as it were, on several fronts at once. As a result, an 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 a similar one, the initiation of the emergence of more and more new mechanisms of a similar direction in the unconscious psyche is observed. However, now they find constant reinforcement both in the consciousness and in the preconscious. This means that not only the process of fixing the information once received in the subconscious is possible (not any information, but precisely the one that caused such a process, the information that, as a result of the receipt of which patterns began to form in the unconscious), but already such information begins to be activated , soon subordinating the thoughts and desires of the individual in the key 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 psyche of an individual. It is known that the same information may have no effect on one individual, and force another to almost radically change life.

Considering the impact of information on the psyche, let's pay attention to the role of resistance in assessing information coming from outside, both from the directly surrounding world (buildings, architectural monuments, landscape, infrastructure, etc.), and from other individuals (as a result of interpersonal contacts) , as well as the transportation of information over long distances using the means of mass communication and information (QMS and the media). As we have already noted, the same information can either have or not have an impact on the individual. In the first case, we should talk about the establishment of rapport (contact), as a result of which the barrier of criticality of the psyche weakens (censorship of the psyche according to Freud), which means that such information is able to penetrate into consciousness, or from the subconscious (where all information is deposited) 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 (Z. Freud, K. Jung, V. M. Bekhterev, I. P. Pavlov, V. Reich, G. Le Bon, Moscovici, C. 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 the individual , unconscious. But we must pay attention to the fact that if attempts are made to break the barrier of criticality, then it becomes possible to achieve as a result of this step (we note that it is 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 that passes over time (lasts from several seconds to several minutes, for someone a little more or less); moreover, it is not an eternal state, i.e. not a state in the “once and for all” paradigm, therefore, after some time, it is necessary to plunge again into the depths of consciousness or overcome resistance - in order to achieve a similar effect. Unless in this case we can notice that most likely for the majority after the first achievement of such a state, the subsequent invocation of the state of "enlightenment" will be easier. Although in this case it is also necessary to take into account the greater predictability of achieving this for “artists” (in the context of the division of the psyche proposed at the time by Academician I. P. Pavlov, who divided the psyche of individuals into "thinkers" and "artists"). Pavlov referred to the first ones those who memorize logical information well, and to the second ("artists") visual information. According to academician I.P. Pavlov (1958), in the introduction of the left hemisphere are speech, reading, writing, counting, solving problems requiring logic (rational, analytical, verbal thinking). In the introduction of the right - intuition and spatial-figurative thinking (i.e. visual and auditory figurative memory). We add that consciousness (10% of the brain) belongs to the introduction of the left hemisphere, and the subconscious, or the unconscious (90% of the brain) belongs to the right hemisphere. Moreover, the mechanisms of the brain are the result of the functioning of the psyche of the individual, and hence the methods of subsequent influence on the psyche of the object of manipulation, so let's dwell a little more on the activity of the cerebral hemispheres.

The developed left hemisphere of the brain predisposes a person to speech, logical thinking, abstract reasoning, has external and internal verbal speech, as well as the ability to perceive, verify, memorize and reproduce information and individual life experience of a particular individual. In addition, there is a relationship 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, however, through their analytical and verification psycho-physiological mechanisms (life experience, knowledge, goals, attitudes). The right hemisphere of the brain, as we have already noticed, extends in the spectrum of activity of the unconscious psyche. Whereas the left one forms a conscious personality. The right hemisphere thinks in images, feelings, grasping the 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 the activity of the right hemisphere. As a result, we can say that the activity of the brain is provided by two hemispheres, the right (sensory) and the left (sign, that is, it integrates the objects of the external world with the help of signs: words, speech, etc.). The complementarity of the activity of the two hemispheres is often manifested by the simultaneous presence in the psyche of the individual of rational and intuitive, rational 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 the activity of the psyche, when, speaking or hearing a speech, a person also turns on his imagination, which in this case significantly enhances this kind of impact. In more detail, we consider 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, illumination, 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 on which the manipulative influence is directed.

Any kind of manipulation is a suggestion, i.e. conscious change of the object's existing attitudes through the activation (activation) of the archetypes of the unconscious psyche; archetypes, in turn, involve early formed patterns of behavior. If we consider this from the standpoint of neurophysiology, then the corresponding dominant is activated in the brain of the object (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 that 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 (subconsciousness) is also formed in the process of information displacement by the censorship of the psyche. But not all information coming from the outside world is forced out unconsciously into the unconscious. A part, nevertheless, seems to pass into the subconscious intentionally (for example, to feed the information already available in the unconscious and complete the formation of archetypes, or specifically and exclusively for the purpose of forming new archetypes, patterns of the individual's future behavior). And this, in our opinion, must be properly understood and distinguished. At the same time, attention should once again be paid to the need to overcome resistance. It is known that resistance turns on 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 the memory. Such information does not pass the barrier of criticality and is forced out into the subconscious. However, if by an effort of will (that is, by 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 we need), then we will be able to overcome the resistance, which means that after some more at that time it will be possible to experience that state which we have called early satori or illumination. Moreover, the effect of this will be incomparably higher than the information methodically and in a long way penetrated into the subconscious, later influencing the consciousness. In our case, in the event of a breakdown of the barrier of criticality, and hence resistance, we will achieve incomparably more, because in this case, for some time, the state of the so-called. "green corridor", when the incoming information passes almost completely and completely, bypassing the barrier of criticality. And just as quickly in this case there is a transition into consciousness both of their preconsciousness and from the unconscious. This means that we will no longer have to wait a long time, 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 the mind (temporary information, because any information in the mind does not last long, and after a while, from the operative memory enters the long-term memory), it enters there. In the case of overcoming resistance, such information comes immediately, while changing the worldview of a person, because in this case consciousness is actively involved, and if something is realized by a person, then it is accepted as a guide to action.

It is also necessary to say that any kind of information that passes by the consciousness and subconscious of the individual, i.e. falling under the spectrum of action of his representational system (auditory, visual, and kinesthetic) and two signaling systems (feelings and speech) is invariably deposited in the subconscious. So, in the end, it begins to influence the consciousness of the individual, because everything that is in the subconscious affects the consciousness, the emergence of the 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 avoid many problems, incl. and in the education of 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 impact may begin to exert its influence, incl. and for enough short term. The presence of the object among other people especially strengthens the schemes originally laid down in the subconscious, i. when we talk about mass behavior. In the case of the latter, the mechanisms of the mass, the crowd are activated (in this case, we do not separate these concepts), which means that the effect is much more effective than in the case of a preliminary impact 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 inner 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 shades. As if you become this other, but without losing the feeling of “as if”. So, you feel the joy or pain of another, as he feels them, and you perceive their causes, as he perceives them. But the shade “as if” must necessarily remain: as if I am happy or upset. If this shade disappears, then a state of identification arises ... The empathic way of communicating with another person has several facets. It implies entering into the personal world of another and staying in it "at home". It includes constant sensitivity to the changing experiences of the other - to fear, or anger, or emotion, or embarrassment, in a word, to everything that he or she experiences. This means a temporary life in another life, a delicate stay in it without evaluation and condemnation. This means capturing what the other is barely aware of. But at the same time, there are no attempts to open completely unconscious feelings, since they can be traumatic. This includes reporting your impressions of inner world another, when you look with a fresh and calm look at those elements of it that excite or frighten your interlocutor. This includes referring often to others to check their impressions and listening carefully to the responses they receive. You are a confidant for another. By pointing out the possible meanings of another's experiences, you help them experience more fully and constructively. Being with another in this way means putting aside your 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 "I". This can only be done 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 own world when they want.

Psychoanalysis understands resistance as everything that prevents the secret (deep, unconscious) thoughts of an individual from penetrating into consciousness. E. Glover singled out 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 the statements of the psychotherapist, the game of 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 conditions of work, but at the same time his indifference is clearly noticeable. Classification of types of resistance (according to Freud) includes: repression resistance, transference resistance, id and superego resistances, and resistance based on the secondary benefit of illness. Resistance arises when the individual's psyche resists the penetration into consciousness of any information that is painful for it from the subconscious. At the same time, according to J. Sandler, Dare and others, this type of resistance can be considered a reflection of the so-called. "primary benefit" from the disease of neurosis. As a result of the action 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 ousted from consciousness (and passed into the subconscious) approaches consciousness, the more resistance increases. Transference resistance characterizes the infantile impulses and the fight against them. Infantile impulses are understood as impulses caused by the personality of the analyst and arising in a 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, being in the unconscious, caused a neurotic symptom). Transference resistance differs depending on what kind of transference relations (positive or negative) underlie it. Patients with erotic transference (for example, those with hysterical personality organization) may seek sexual relations with the therapist or show resistance in order to avoid strong sexual attraction. Patients with negative transference (for example, those with a narcissistic type of personality organization) are filled with aggressive feelings towards the therapist and may seek through resistance to humiliate him, make him suffer, or similarly avoid transference awareness of these feelings. Resistance to "It" is characteristic of cases where negative and eroticized forms of transference become an insoluble obstacle to continuing therapy. At the same time, Freud considered the resistance of the Super-Ego (“Super-I”) to be the strongest, since it is difficult to identify and overcome it. It comes from an unconscious sense of guilt and masks impulses that seem unacceptable to the patient (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 both to the therapist and to the manipulations performed on him. At the same time, from the realization of such nonsense, their mental health deteriorates, because it is known that for our psyche it is actually indifferent whether an event actually happens, in reality, or it scrolls only in a person’s thoughts. Impulses from such an impact the brain will receive the same and almost equivalent in terms of involvement and activation of neurons. As a result of psychotherapy, there may be resistance based on the so-called. "secondary" benefit, i.e. when the patient benefits from his “disease”. In this case, we have a clear trace of the masochistic accents of the psyche of the neurotic individual, because the patient likes to be pitied, and he does not want to get rid of the support provided to him “as a patient”.

The conditional scheme of working with resistance is as follows:

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

2) demonstration (any kind of resistance seen in the patient is verbally demonstrated in order to draw the attention of the patient to this);

3) clarification of resistance (which involves a confrontation with what the patient avoids, why he does it and how).

After clarifying the cause of resistance, its form is analyzed. The result of this stage is the discovery of an instinctive impulse, an attempt to satisfy which led to a conflict. After that, the history of the experience is clarified by the method of interpretation. At this stage, it becomes clear how the conflict arose, how it manifested itself and manifests itself during the life of the patient, what patterns of behavior and emotional response it generated, etc. The history of experience allows you to include the identified conflict in the broader context of obstacles to this stage psychodynamic therapy. At the same time, the therapist must remember that criticism or disagreement with something of the patient does not always mean a manifestation of resistance. At the end of the therapy of working with resistance, a study of resistance is carried out, which is tracing the influence of an already conscious conflict on various life events in order to repeat, deepen, expand the analysis of resistance. Elaboration allows you to enhance the understanding of the client by increasing the amount of material involved. This is also where the interpretation of emerging new resistances takes place, which further clarifies the basic problems and leads to more stable 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 turns out to be quite logical that if we want to unravel the nature of a person, the nature of his psyche, unravel the mechanisms of controlling the psyche, we will certainly in the first place turn should pay attention to his unconscious reactions, by analyzing and comparing various facts to reveal what a person is hiding, and therefore, in the future, such methods can bring us even closer to understanding the human psyche, help to reveal the mechanisms of the structure of the psyche, how to trace certain or other reactions of a person, and to reveal the mechanisms of the emergence of impulses, the consequences of which are these reactions. That is, we are talking about the fact that analysis is certainly important, conducting analytical work, paying attention to every little thing, because in the end they will allow you to collect the most complete picture about the psyche of this or that individual, and therefore later - and learn (develop, identify, etc.) the mechanisms of influence both on such an individual and on society as a whole, because society just consists of various individuals who, uniting in masses, collectives, meetings, congresses, trials, symposiums, crowds, etc. forms of association of people are part of the environment. For the environment is just presented incl. and the constant unification-separation of people, this process is fluid like mercury, the mass is changeable and inconstant 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 mysteries 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 arise in our lives, problems, we ask ourselves the questions “how to be?” and “what to 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 are external (lack of money, no work ...), but there are also internal problems, it is more difficult to deal with them (often you don’t want to admit them even to yourself, it hurts, it’s unpleasant).

People react differently to their inner difficulties: they suppress their inclinations, denying their existence, “forget” about the traumatic event, seek a way out in self-justification and condescension to 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 stresses, defense mechanisms help them in this.

What are defense mechanisms?

For the first time this term appeared in 1894 in the work of Z. Freud "Protective neuropsychoses". The psychological defense mechanism is aimed at depriving and thereby neutralizing psychologically traumatic moments (for example, the Fox from the famous fable “The Fox and the Grapes”).

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

– elimination of sources of conflict experiences from consciousness,

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

Many psychologists, psychotherapists and psychoanalysts have studied the protective mechanisms of the psyche, their work shows that a person uses these mechanisms in cases where he has instinctive drives, the expression of which is under a social prohibition (for example, unrestrained sexuality), protective mechanisms also act as buffers in relation to our consciousness of those disappointments and threats that life brings us. Some consider psychological protection to be a mechanism for the functioning of a normal psyche, which prevents the occurrence of various kinds of disorders. This is special form psychological activity, implemented in the form of separate methods of information processing in order to preserve the 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.

To date, more than 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 isolation- 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 isolate themselves 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 change the state of consciousness can also be seen as a form of isolation. Constitutionally sensitive people often develop a rich inner fantasy life and experience the outside world as problematic or emotionally poor.

The obvious disadvantage of isolation protection is that it excludes a person from active participation in solving interpersonal problems, individuals constantly hiding in their own world experience the patience of those who love them, resisting communication on an emotional level.

The main advantage of isolation as a defensive strategy is that, while allowing psychological escape from reality, it requires almost no distortion of it. A person who relies on isolation finds comfort 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. Remarkable is the ability in such cases to "skip" in their memories of unpleasant experienced events, replacing them with fiction. As a defense mechanism negation consists in 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 go to the doctor. And so the disease progresses. The same protective mechanism is triggered when one of the couple "does not see", denies the existing problems in married life. And such behavior often leads to a break in relations.

A person who has resorted to denial simply ignores painful realities and acts as if they do not exist. Being confident in his own 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 existence of difficulties / difficulties in his life. Has high self-esteem.

3. omnipotent control- the feeling that you are able to influence the world, have power, is undoubtedly a necessary condition for self-respect, originating 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 a 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 of the world is normal. As the child matures, it naturally transforms at a subsequent stage into the idea of a secondary "dependent" or "derivative" omnipotence, where one of those who initially cares for the child is perceived as omnipotent.

As they grow older, the child comes to terms with the unpleasant fact that no one person has unlimited possibilities. Some healthy remnant of this infantile feeling of omnipotence remains in all of us and maintains a sense of competence and vitality.

For some people, the need to feel a sense of omnipotent control and to interpret what is happening to us in terms of their own absolute power is completely irresistible. If a person organizes around the search for and experience of pleasure from the feeling that he can effectively manifest and use his own omnipotence, in connection with which, all ethical and practical considerations fade into the background, there are reasons to consider this person as psychopathic ("sociopathic" and "antisocial"). "- synonyms of a later origin).

“Stepping over others” is the main occupation and source of pleasure for individuals in personality who are dominated by omnipotent control. They can often be found where cunning, 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 by primitive fantasies about the omnipotence of a caring person is still important. We all tend to idealize. We carry the remnants of the need to ascribe special dignity 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 affection seems to be a normal and important part of the process of separation - individualization. In some people, however, the need to idealize remains more or less unchanged from infancy. Their behavior shows signs of an archaic desperate effort to counter the inner 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 belief in perfection associated with it is that one's own imperfections are especially painfully endured; merging with the idealized object is a natural remedy in this situation.

Primitive devaluation is the inevitable downside 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 radically the devaluation awaits it; the more illusions, the more difficult the experience of their collapse.

In everyday life, this process is analogous to the measure of hatred and anger that can fall on someone who seemed so promising and did not live up to expectations. Some people spend their whole lives in the fact that in repeated cycles of idealization and devaluation they replace one intimate relationship others. (Modifying the defense of primitive idealization is the legitimate goal of any long-term psychoanalytic therapy.)

The second group of defense mechanisms are secondary (higher order) defenses:

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

One of the clearest examples of displacement can be considered anorexia - refusal to eat. This is a constantly and successfully carried out repression 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 neurosis, sometimes there is a syndrome of anorexia nervosa, which girls aged 14-18 are more likely to suffer from. In puberty, changes in appearance and body are clearly expressed. The emerging breasts and the appearance of roundness in the hips of a girl are often perceived as a symptom of beginning fullness. And, as a rule, they begin to fight hard against this “fullness”. Some teenagers cannot openly refuse food offered to them by their parents. And according to this, as soon as the meal is over, they immediately go to the toilet room, where they manually cause a gag reflex. On the one hand, this frees you from food that threatens to replenish, on the other hand, it brings psychological relief. Over time, there comes a moment when the gag reflex is automatically triggered by eating. And the disease is formed. The original cause of the disease has been successfully repressed. 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; in the process of personality growth, fluctuations are observed, which become less dramatic with age, but never completely disappear. The sub-phase of reunification in the process of separation - individuation, becomes one of the tendencies inherent in every person. It is a return to a familiar way of doing things 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 than others. For example, some of us react to the stress of growth and aging by getting sick. This variant of regression, known as somatization, is usually resistant to change and difficult to therapeutically intervene. It is widely known that somatization and hypochondria, as well as other types of regression, which are helplessness and childish behavior patterns, can serve as a cornerstone in the character of the individual. 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 intelligence. The person using isolation usually says that he does not have feelings, while the person using intellectualization talks about feelings, but in such a way that the listener is left with the impression of lack of emotions.

Intellectualization holds back the usual overflow of emotion in the same way that isolation holds back traumatic overstimulation. When a person can act rationally in a situation saturated with emotional meanings, this indicates a significant strength of the ego, and in this case the defense is effective.

However, if a person proves unable to leave a defensive cognitive unemotional stance, then others tend to intuit emotionally insincere. Sex, good-natured teasing, acts of artistry, and other adult-appropriate forms of play can be unnecessarily limited 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 "justificatory" explanations of thoughts and actions are more ethical and noble than true motives. Thus, rationalization is aimed at preserving status quo life situation and works to hide the true motivation. Protective motives are manifested in people with a very strong super ego, which, on the one hand, does not seem to allow real motives to reach consciousness, but, on the other hand, allows these motives to be realized, but under a beautiful, socially approved facade. .

by the most simple example rationalization can be justified explanations of a student who received a deuce. After all, it’s so insulting 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 self-esteem. And criticism from other people who are significant to you is painful. So the schoolboy justifies himself, comes up with “sincere” explanations: “It was the teacher who was in a bad mood, so he gave everyone a deuce for nothing,” or “I’m not a favorite, like Ivanov, so he gives me deuces and puts me for the slightest flaws in answer." He explains so beautifully, convinces everyone that he himself believes in all this.

People who use rational protection 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 increased attempts to rationally interpret events.

5. moralization is a close relative of rationalization. When someone rationalizes, he unconsciously looks for acceptable, from a reasonable point of view, justifications for the chosen solution. When he moralizes, this means: he is obliged to follow in this direction. Rationalization shifts what a person wants into the language of reason, moralization directs these desires into the realm of justifications or moral circumstances.

Sometimes moralization can 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 good and bad. While the splitting in the child naturally occurs before the capacity of his integrated self to endure ambivalence, the solution in the form of moralizing through appeal to principles confuses the feelings that the developing self is capable of enduring. Moralization can be seen as the operation of the super-ego, 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 direction is anxiously hidden for whatever 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 connected area - legs or even shoes.

The anxiety itself is often displaced. When a person uses the displacement of anxiety 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 tendencies—like racism, sexism, heterosexism, the loud denunciation of societal problems by disenfranchised groups with too little power to stand up for their rights—have a significant element of bias in them. Transference, both in clinical and non-clinical manifestations, contains displacement (of feelings directed at objects important in early childhood) along with projection (internal characteristics of the features of one's own "I"). Positive types of displacement include the transfer of aggressive energy into creative activity (a huge amount of homework is done if people are in an aroused 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 was a way of looking at various human inclinations. Now sublimation has become less considered in the psychoanalytic literature, and it is becoming less and less popular as a concept. Initially, sublimation was considered to be a good defense, thanks to which one can find creative, healthy, socially acceptable or constructive solutions to internal conflicts between primitive aspirations and forbidding forces.

Sublimation was Freud's original designation for the socially acceptable expression of biologically based impulses (which include desires to suck, bite, eat, fight, copulate, look at others and show off oneself, punish, hurt, protect offspring, etc.) . According to Freud, instinctive desires acquire the power of influence due to the circumstances of the individual's childhood; some drives or conflicts take on a special meaning and can be channeled into useful constructive activity.

This defense is regarded as a healthy means of resolving psychological difficulties for two reasons: firstly, it favors constructive behavior that is beneficial to the group, and secondly, it discharges the impulse instead of wasting huge emotional energy on transforming it into something else (for example, , 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 the psychoanalytic literature if the author points to someone who has found a creative and useful way of expressing problematic impulses and conflicts. Contrary to the common misunderstanding that the object of psychotherapy is to get rid of infantile impulses, the psychoanalytic position on health and growth implies 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 analytic therapy include understanding all aspects of one's self (even the most primitive and disturbing ones), developing compassion for oneself (and for others, since one needs to project and displace previously unrecognized desires to humiliate), and to expand the boundaries of freedom for resolving old conflicts in new ways. These goals do not mean "cleansing" one's self of disgusting aspects or blocking primitive desires. This is what makes sublimation the pinnacle of ego development, explains a lot about the relationship of psychoanalysis to the human being and its inherent possibilities and limitations, and also implies the significance of the information of psychoanalytic diagnosis.

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

Protection also has a negative meaning at the level of a particular situation and because a person emotionally experiences a certain relief, and this relief, removal of negativity, discomfort occurs when using a specific protective technique. The fact that this success is imaginary, short-lived and the relief is illusory is not realized, otherwise, it is understandable, and the experience of relief would not have come. But, undoubtedly, one thing: when experiencing the onset of relief when using a specific psychological defensive technique, this technique is fixed as a habit of behavior, as a habit to solve similar situations in exactly this, psycho-protective way. In addition, energy consumption is minimized every time.

Like every reinforcement, a psychological neoplasm (in our particular case, a defensive technique), having once completed its “noble” task of removing the sharpness of psychological experience, does not disappear, but acquires a tendency to self-reproduce and transfer to similar situations and states, it begins to acquire a status 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, there is an expression of distrust in it, in oneself, in others, there is an expectation to “get a catch” not only from the environment, but also from one’s own person, there is an expression of the fact that a person perceives himself as an object of unknown and formidable forces. Psychoprotective living of life removes his creativity from a person, he ceases to be the creator of his own biography, following the lead of history, society, the reference group, his unconscious inclinations and prohibitions. The more protection, the less instance of "I".

With the development of society, individual methods of psychoprotective regulation also develop. The development of mental neoplasms 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 by means of protective mechanisms, as a rule, proceeds at an unconscious level. Therefore, bypassing consciousness, they penetrate into the personality, undermine its position, weaken its creative potential as a subject of life. The psychoprotective resolution of the situation is given to the deceived consciousness as a real solution to the problem, as the only possible way out of a difficult situation.

Personal development implies readiness for change, constant improvement of one's psychological reliability in various situations. Even a negative emotional state (fear, anxiety, guilt, shame, etc.) can have a function that is useful for personality development. For example, the same anxiety can be with 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, psycho-protection can cope quite effectively, it saves from the acuteness of the experienced shock, sometimes providing time, a delay for preparing 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 the momentary, the fascination with the current situation - all this leads to curtailment of consciousness on itself, to satisfy and diminish the psychological discomfort of any price; secondly, by replacing the actual solution to constantly arising problems, a solution that can even be accompanied by negative emotional and even existential experiences, comfortable, but palliative, a person deprives himself of the possibility of development and self-actualization. Finally, a 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 the personality begins.

"Protection". The meaning of this word speaks for itself. Protection involves the presence of at least two factors. First, if you are defending yourself, then there is a danger of attack; secondly, protection means that measures have been taken to repel an attack. On the one hand, it is good when a person is ready for all kinds of surprises, and has in his arsenal tools 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 one should get acquainted with the economics of the issue. If everyone goes to maintain a sense of security mental strength man, isn't the price too high? If you do not live, but defend 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, defense mechanisms, designed in other conditions to help conceal experiences, often perform positive functions as well.

In connection with the foregoing, an understanding of the acute topical topic of research on coping mechanisms and their connection with defense mechanisms comes. Overcoming and protection are complementary processes: if the potential of coping mechanisms is insufficient for the psychological processing of an affect, then the affect reaches an unacceptable level, and defense mechanisms begin to operate instead of overcoming mechanisms. If the potential of protection is also exhausted, then there is a fragmentation of experiences through splitting. The choice of protective mechanisms is also carried out taking into account the degree and type of overloads. (S.Menuos "Key concepts of psychoanalysis", 2001).

Among the normal coping mechanisms should include a humorous comprehension of a difficult situation by detached contemplation of certain circumstances, allowing you to see something funny in them, and the so-called sublimation, which implies the rejection of the desire for direct satisfaction of the desire and the choice of not just acceptable, but a way of satisfaction that has a beneficial effect on the personality. . It should be noted that only sublimation, and not any suppression of instincts for the sake of compliance with conventions, can be called a mechanism for overcoming.

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

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

Concept definition

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 come 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 protective mechanism is designed to protect a person from possible experiences and anxieties that are caused by a discrepancy between social views and personal views of a person. This term was first voiced in 1894 by the famous psychologist Sigmund Freud.

Types of protective 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;
jet formation;
regression;
sublimation;
negation.

Basic properties of defense mechanisms

A number of features have protective mechanisms according to Freud. With examples from real life worth a look in order to understand the nature of this phenomenon. So, defense mechanisms have the following properties:

are a kind of self-deception, as they appear 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;
can arise on the basis of the fear that negative impulses will pass into the category of conscious ones.

crowding out

Considering the defense mechanisms according to Freud, 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 "removal" 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 should be noted, however, that displacement is not absolute. There is always a risk that memories of unpleasant events will break out, and therefore you have to spend a huge amount of energy on suppressing them. This can negatively affect a person's personal development. In this case, even if the displacement mechanism has worked, the stimulus may reappear in a dream or slip through reservations.

Freud's defense mechanisms are reflected in real life. So, for example, a decent spouse, by virtue of his moral principles, does not allow the possibility of betrayal of his wife. He strongly suppresses such thoughts and fantasies. Nevertheless, it is possible that in a dream he takes part in pleasures with an outside woman.

Projection

In stressful situations, defense mechanisms almost always work. According to Freud, projection is 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 guilt and responsibility for his own failures and troubles.

An example would be a pupil or student who did not prepare for an exam. My bad grade he tries 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

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

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

It should be noted that some individuals implement the substitution mechanism in a very peculiar way. Being weak by nature, they cannot take out their aggression on an outsider, and therefore they begin to suppress themselves. As a result, a person suppresses himself emotionally, engaging in self-criticism and self-flagellation.

Rationalization

As a way to overcome 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. Takes place a complex system reasoning that is designed 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 can't reach a branch with grapes in any way. To justify her failure, she states that the fruits are not yet ripe.

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

Jet formation

Freud's depth psychology also highlights such a mechanism as it is realized on two levels:

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

Most often, such mechanisms take place in public life. So, a pronounced 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 morality. The same applies to men who are strongly opposed to homosexual relationships, and they themselves secretly have such inclinations.

Regression

Regression is another defense mechanism. Psychology describes it as a return to children's behavior patterns in order to protect oneself from shocks and stress. This is due to the fact that this particular age is the most comfortable and safe in terms of worldview. So, 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 most healthy and correct defense mechanism. This is due to the fact that a person is not restrained 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 took place in Western Europe. If we design this mechanism for modern reality, we can cite as an example adolescents who can sublimate their unfulfilled sexual needs into sports achievements.

Despite the fact that many hide it, it is quite common to meet people with sadistic inclinations. So, individuals with such a deviation may well become successful surgeons. Also, such fantasies can be sublimated into writing detective novels.

Negation

The protective mechanisms of personality according to Freud include such an element as denial. It lies in the fact that a person categorically refuses to recognize the fact of the occurrence of a negative event. Most a prime 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 a relative now lives in heaven or that his spirit is still present in the house.

Often the mechanism of denial works when it comes to health. So, feeling the symptoms of a particular disease, a person can simply ignore them, suggesting to 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 consciousness and subconsciousness. The best way get acquainted with the works of such a psychologist as Sigmund Freud. Books in which human psychology is best represented are:

Introduction to Psychoanalysis is one of Freud's best-known books, indeed, it is considered the most significant work in all of Freud's work. Here are the main points that have 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. Here the symbolism of dreams is considered, which helps to understand the problems, desires and fears of the individual.
- This is the second monumental study of Freud. The book is relevant to this day, and therefore is a key in the study of psychology. The main attention is paid to unconscious motives, which not only can act as incentives, but also often cause psychological disorders.
"I and It" is a kind of collection of works by a psychologist, which can be considered the culmination of his work. It not only describes but also presents their sources and justifications.
"Totem and Taboo" is a work in which Freud, relying on his own research and theories, tries to uncover the problem of genesis. Thus, the author addresses the problem of culture, religion, morality, law and other aspects of society.
"The psychology of the masses and the analysis of the human "I" - is a work in which Freud carried out fundamental work on the study of the behavior of the crowd. 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 to 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.

findings

According to Freud, defense mechanisms are a kind of unconscious reaction that works in a stressful situation or in the face of a threat. No matter what kind of barrier is triggered, in any case, we are talking about a significant expenditure of energy, which overwhelmingly affects the ego. In addition, the more effective this or that mechanism is, the more energy it requires, and the more it distorts the objective reality.

Given the unconscious nature of defensive reactions, not everyone can manage them. Nevertheless, having noticed the effectiveness of one or another barrier, the individual may already consciously resort to it in a stressful situation. You should not rely too much on such a technique, because it can become a very fertile ground for the emergence of psychological problems.

Ecology of life: Psychological protection 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 for himself, 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, upbringing style, child-parent and intra-family relationships (with grandparents, aunts, uncles and other parental figures).

Proved 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 treated like games. Their main goal is to prevent awareness of information about themselves and their partner, which could threaten the existing relationship. In fact, this is playing strategies for building relationships in the parental family, types of response to stressful situations that made it possible to avoid true intimacy (open confidential communication about feelings, thoughts, behavior and motives of actions between partners).

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

Today, more than twenty types of protective 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 inherent in you personally. I suggest not to overreact to them. Remember that, as a rule, defense mechanisms are not recognized by a person, and only a well-trained specialist who has studied them or encountered them himself in personal psychotherapy can recognize them.

Types of protective mechanisms

Crowding out. With the help of this mechanism, impulses 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 forced out of consciousness into the unconscious does not disappear and has a certain influence on human behavior. From time to time there is a spontaneous "return of the repressed" to the level of consciousness, which is carried out in the form of dreams, erroneous actions, reservations.

Deflection (deviation) is an unconscious mechanism of withdrawal aimed at ending contact and increasing isolation of a person, both from others and from his own experience. A person abstracts from the situation, releases remarks that are not to the point.

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

Substitution - the satisfaction or suppression of unsatisfied (often sexual) desires with the help of another object. For example, a sexual attraction to an "inaccessible" person can be satisfied by a more accessible person.

Identification - increasing the sense of self-worth by identifying oneself with outstanding personalities.

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

Internalization. This discharge mechanism is easiest to describe 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 with the help of logical manipulations. Adherence to certain values and attitudes even when there is clear evidence in favor of the opposite attitudes.

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

Catharsis - protection associated with such a change in values, which leads to a weakening of the influence of the traumatic factor. To do this, some external, global system of values is sometimes involved as an intermediary, in comparison with which the situation that traumatizes a person loses its significance.

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

Catharsis brings with it 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 to create a new direction in striving for the future.

Mechanism of withdrawal into disease or formation of symptoms. Departure into symptoms, into illness is a kind of solution to unsolvable problems in the life of an individual. As psychoanalysts would say. for his inability and his impotence to change anything in his life, a person finds a somatic expression. When forming care in the disease, the patient refuses responsibility and independent solution problems, justifies his incompetence by illness, seeks guardianship and recognition, playing the role of a patient.

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

Displacement is the discharge of repressed feelings, usually feelings of hostility, directed at an object less dangerous than the one that caused negative emotions. For example, the boss quarreled with his wife, and all day he takes out his anger on his subordinates.

A dream is a kind of substitution in which a reorientation takes place, i.e. the transfer of 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 protection by the type of rationalization, but with the help of the language of images. An image appears that reconciles antagonistic attitudes and thereby reduces tension. Thus, the scene of crossing the bridge can serve as a metaphor for the need to accept important decision or major life change. The drop in tension simultaneously eliminates the need for repression.

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

Suppression is the refusal to be aware of the 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 “objectionable” friend.

Projection - shifting responsibility for difficulties to other persons or attributing one's moral qualities and motives to others.

So, it seems to a deceiver that everyone around is trying to cheat 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 - and how else can you understand others, except to find similar feelings in yourself?

Discharge - reducing anxiety caused by forbidden desires, through its external expression. Such behavior is often manifested in crime or delinquency (anti-social illegal behavior of a person, embodied in his misconduct (action or inaction), harming both individual citizens and society as a whole).

Rationalization. This defense mechanism involves the search for convincing arguments for insufficiently approved actions and desires, attempts to prove that the behavior is rational and justified, and therefore socially approved. Which is more convenient: to admit that you are not hired for the job you always dreamed of because of insufficient experience - or to believe in something that prevents this, for example, 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 backdrop of a dull reality.

Reactive formations - Reactive formations are a rather transparent way of psychological protection - when a person makes a substitution of his own feelings for the opposite ones. Classic examples of reactive formations can be found in the behavior of adolescents seeking to turn inside out feelings that they consider shameful. Therefore, you have to laugh in the movie at an episode that causes tears, or pull the hair of a girl you like, but you're scared "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. Keeping memories of the feeling of security that most of us had in childhood, a person unconsciously uses, at first glance, a paradoxical way of protecting himself from trouble - he begins to show childish, maladaptive character traits and behavior patterns.

Often this really leads to the fact that others begin to protect the "defenseless child", but not always: regression can work even when there is simply no one around.

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

Repression is the prevention of the penetration of unpleasant and dangerous thoughts into the mind.

Retroflection is a projection in reverse. The subject takes back what was addressed environment: hitting his own arm or kicking a chair instead of hitting someone. The highest form of retroflection is suicide.

Merging. With this type of protection, a person completely "dissolves" in the environment, group or person, renounces his life, his own individuality, needs, carefully avoiding conflicts. In speech - the stable use of the pronoun "we".

Empathy - 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 another activity. It usually refers to changing the mode of satisfaction, not its object. For example, a person who has a strong sexual attraction to another person and is unable to satisfy this desire may find partial discharge in acceptable activities, such as dancing, chopping wood, playing bells.

Fantasy is the satisfaction of unfulfilled desires in your imagination.

Fantasies can take many forms: lucid fantasies, daydreams, and unconscious fantasies.

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

Response shaping is the prevention of dangerous aspirations by strengthening opposing attitudes and behaviors in order to use them as "barriers". For example, a person may become an alcoholic because their father or another family member was an alcoholic.

Emotional isolation - withdrawal and passivity to protect against pain and resentment.

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

Based on materials from the media and online publications

Prepared by Ksenia Panyukova

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

Psychological protection- these are unconscious processes occurring in the psyche, aimed at minimizing the impact of negative experiences. Protective tools are the basis of resistance processes. Psychological defense, as a concept, was first voiced by Freud, who initially meant by it, 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 personality, relieve tension due to the confrontation of the 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 surroundings around or internal influences.

The psychological defense of the individual is present in every human subject, but varies in intensity.

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

Psychological defense as a concept appeared in 1894 thanks to the famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who came to the conclusion that the subject can show two different response impulses to unpleasant situations. He can either keep 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 that connect them. First of all, they are unconscious. activates protection spontaneously, not understanding what he is doing. Secondly, the main task of protective tools is the maximum possible distortion of reality or its absolute denial, so that the subject ceases to perceive it as disturbing or unsafe. It should be emphasized that often human individuals use several protection mechanisms simultaneously to protect their own person from unpleasant, threatening events. However, such a distortion cannot be considered deliberate or exaggerated.

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

Psychological protection, in addition, can interfere with the development of a person. It can become an obstacle on the path of success.

The negative consequences of the phenomenon under consideration occur with a steady repetition of a certain defense mechanism in similar situations of being, however, individual events, although similar to those that initially provoked the activation of the defense, do not need to be covered, 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 often resorts to defense mechanisms is doomed to be a loser.

Psychological defense of the individual is not an innate skill. It is acquired during the passage of the baby. The main source of the formation of internal protection mechanisms and examples of their application are parents who “infect” their own children with their example of using protection.

Personal psychological defense mechanisms

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, reduce tension, and relieve anxiety. 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, the unconscious and the concept of the subconscious, where he emphasized that internal defense mechanisms are an integral part of the unconscious. He argued that the human subject often encounters unpleasant stimuli that are threatening and can cause stress or lead to a breakdown. Without internal "safeties", the ego of the personality will undergo disintegration, which will make it impossible to make decisions in everyday life. Psychological protection acts as a shock absorber. It helps individuals cope with negativity and pain.

Modern psychological science distinguishes 10 mechanisms of internal protection, 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 reactions that the individual resorts to using unconsciously in order to protect their own internal mental components, the "Ego" from anxiety, confrontation, feelings, guilt, feelings.

The underlying mechanisms of psychological defense are differentiated according to such parameters as the level of conflict processing inside, the reception of reality distortion, the level of the amount of energy expended to maintain a certain mechanism, the level of the individual and the type of 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 even at the childhood age stage.

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

It often happens that the safety mechanisms start to work incorrectly. The reason for this failure is 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 usual, well-established defense mechanisms cease to function adequately, which leads to.

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

Psychological defense is an example of this desire to find a reasonable explanation for even the most ridiculous behavior. This is how rationalization tends to be.

However, there is a fine line that lies between the adequate use of the preferred mechanism and the violation of the equivalent balance in their functioning. Trouble arises in individuals when the chosen "fuse" is absolutely not suitable for the situation.

Types of psychological protection

Among the scientifically recognized and frequently encountered internal "shields" there are about 50 types of psychological protection. Below are the main methods of protection used.

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

There are 2 key variations of sublimation: primary and secondary. In the first case, the original task to which the personality is directed is preserved, which is expressed relatively directly, for example, barren parents decide to adopt. In the second case, 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 of an indirect nature.

An individual who has not been able to adapt with the help of the primary form of the defense mechanism may step over 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 methods of protection are involved that contribute to the repressed information to appear in a distorted light.

Regression is an unconscious "descent" to an early stage of adaptation, allowing you to satisfy desires. It can be symbolic, partial or complete. Many problems emotional orientation have regressive features. In its normal manifestation, regression can be found in gaming processes, in case of illness (for example, a sick individual requires more attention and increased care).

Projection is a mechanism for assigning desires, feelings, thoughts to another individual or object, which the subject consciously rejects in himself. Separate variations of the projection are easily found in everyday life. Most human subjects are completely uncritical about personal shortcomings, but they easily notice them in the environment. People tend to blame the surrounding society for their sorrows. In this case, the projection can be harmful, since it often causes an erroneous interpretation of reality. This mechanism mainly works in vulnerable individuals and immature personalities.

The opposite of the above technique is introjection or inclusion of oneself. In early personal maturation, it plays an important role, since parental values are comprehended on its basis. The mechanism is updated due to the loss of the next of kin. 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 depreciation 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 conscious lying or deliberate deception. Rationalization contributes to the preservation of self-esteem, avoidance of responsibility and guilt. In every rationalization there is some 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 thoughts about them.

Compensation is an unconscious attempt to overcome real or imagined defects. The mechanism under consideration is considered universal, because the acquisition of 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, disability compensation is transformed into conflict and aggression). They also distinguish between direct compensation (in an obviously unprofitable area, the individual is striving for success) and indirect (the tendency to establish his own person in another area).

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

The mechanism of denial is the rejection of thoughts, feelings, urges, 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 are more likely to use the described method in situations of serious crisis.

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

Methods and techniques of psychological protection

Many eminent psychologists argue that the ability to protect oneself 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, insulting attacks, is a characteristic feature mature personality, emotionally developed and intellectually formed individual. This is a guarantee of health and the main difference between a successful individual. This is the positive side of the function of psychological defenses. Therefore, subjects experiencing pressure from society and taking on negative psychological attacks of spiteful critics need to learn adequate methods of protection from negative influences.

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

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

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

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

The described exercise is recommended to be done several times in a quiet room. It will help you later be much calmer about aggressive attacks. Faced in reality with a situation where someone is trying to offend, humiliate, you should imagine yourself being in the wind. Then the words of the spiteful critic will sink into oblivion without reaching the goal.

The next method of psychological defense is called the "absurd situation." Here, a person is advised not to wait for aggression, a splash of offensive words, ridicule. It is necessary to adopt the well-known phraseological unit "to make an elephant out of a fly." In other words, it is necessary to bring any problem to the point of absurdity with the help of exaggeration. Feeling ridicule or insult from the opponent, one should exaggerate this situation in such a way that the words that follow this give rise to only laughter and frivolity. With this method of psychological defense, you can easily disarm the interlocutor and for a long time discourage him from offending other people.

You can also imagine opponents as three-year-old crumbs. This will help you learn to treat their attacks less painfully. You need to imagine yourself as a teacher, and opponents as a kindergarten kid who runs, jumps, screams. Gets angry and fussy. Is it really possible to be seriously angry at a three-year-old unintelligent baby?!

The next method is called "ocean". The water spaces, which occupy a huge part of the land, constantly take in the seething streams of the rivers, but this cannot disturb their majestic steadfastness and tranquility. Also, a person can take an example from the ocean, remaining confident and calm, even when the streams of abuse pour out.

The technique of psychological defense called "aquarium" consists in imagining oneself behind the thick edges of the aquarium while feeling the attempts of the environment to unbalance. On an opponent pouring out a sea of negativity and endlessly pouring hurtful words, it is necessary to look from behind the thick walls of the aquarium, imagining his physiognomy distorted by anger, but not feeling the words, because the water absorbs them. Consequently, negative attacks will not reach the goal, the person will remain balanced, which will further disperse the opponent and make him lose his balance.

What else to read

France in the second half of the 20th century Slide 1 Slide 2 Slide 3 Slide 4 Slide 5 Slide 6 Slide 7 Slide 8 Slide 9 Slide 10

France in the second half of the 20th century He was against the revival of the pre-war parliamentary republic. Was against the revival of the pre-war parliamentary...

World around winter help birds Municipal state educational institution secondary school No. 3 p. Gribanovsky LESSON ON ...

Mechanisms of psychological defenses. Psychological protection

Concept definition

Types of protective mechanisms

Basic properties of defense mechanisms

crowding out

Projection

substitution

Rationalization

Jet formation

Regression

Sublimation

Negation

worth reading

findings

Types of protective mechanisms

What is psychological protection?

Personal psychological defense mechanisms

Types of psychological protection

Methods and techniques of psychological protection

What else to read

THE LAST NOTES

Categories