Defense mechanisms of the psyche. Psychological Defenses of the Personality - From Repression to Emotional Isolation

Up to 50 varieties of psychological defenses are described; the most "frequent and recognized":

1. Sublimation. In psychology, the concept of "sublimation" was first systematically used by Z. Freud, who understood it as a process of transforming libido into an elevated aspiration and socially acceptable activity; sublimation (literally translated as "sublimation") - the transfer of the energy of the unconscious into a socially acceptable channel. According to Z. Freud, sublimation is the main effective protective mechanism in the development of personality; the choice of sublimation as the main adaptive strategy testifies to the mental maturity and "power" of the individual.

There are 2 main types of sublimation:

Primary sublimation, in which the original goal, to which the person aspires, is preserved, which manifests itself relatively directly - when, for example, childless parents adopt children.

Secondary sublimation, at which we abandon the original purpose of the blocked activity and choose new target, for the achievement of which a higher level of mental activity is organized and sublimation has a more indirect character. For example, selfish and even "forbidden" goals, incl. and the sexual instinct can be sublimated by active activity in art, literature, religion, science, through caring for the poor (or even having animals), which develop the person and enrich the life of the individual. Aggression can be sublimated through some professions (the profession of a military man, politician, surgeon) or sports. Z. Freud: a dentist can sublimate sadism, an exhibiting artist can sublimate exhibitionism, a lawyer can sublimate the desire to destroy enemies.

A personality that has not been able to adapt with the help of primary sublimation can move on to secondary sublimation, but we are talking about psychological protection when the individual does not realize that his activity is determined by hidden impulses, which sometimes have a biological and egoistic basis.

2. Denial. When the reality is unpleasant for a person, he denies the existence of troubles or tries to reduce the severity of the threat; those. unfulfilled desires, motives and intentions, as well as facts and actions are not recognized, rejected by the unconscious denial of their existence (in case of denial, the real phenomenon is considered non-existent). In some cases, this can bring a positive moment - a person is terminally ill, but, denying this fact, finds the strength to continue to fight for life. However, it happens much more often that denial interferes with life and work, because. without recognizing criticism addressed to him, a person does not seek to get rid of the existing shortcomings that are rightly criticized. In medical and psychological terms, this also often has a negative effect (late treatment and diagnosis, non-compliance with prescriptions). Denial does not include a conscious attempt to refuse, renounce, or back down, as in pretense, feigning, or lying.

Denial is the first reaction of a person who was informed about the death of a loved one - “No!”. It goes into childish egocentrism - "If I don't admit it, it means it didn't happen."

Examples of denial are a wife denying the danger of her husband beating her; an alcoholic who insists that he has no problems with alcohol.

Denial can be considered in terms of perceptual defense mechanisms. In this case, there are 2 types. Type one - when the actual perception (perception) suffers, and not consciousness - a non-verbal form. An unconscious distortion occurs at the level of perception of inconspicuous external stimuli (for example, for a lecturer, noise at a lecture, indicating a lack of interest in the lecture, “not loud, normal”). The resulting "perceptual voids" are filled with false information, but satisfying the need to reduce anxiety and maintain self-esteem. The second type is when the cognitive process is affected, i.e. the process of cognition is verbal (verbal form). In this case, the denied content is recognized, but an opposite sign is added to it, as it were (“they make noise because they are discussing”).

3. Repression (suppression, repression). Repression is understood as the suppression or exclusion from consciousness of unpleasant or unacceptable events and phenomena, i.e. removal from the consciousness of those moments, information that cause anxiety. At the same time, unpleasant confessions to oneself and corresponding experiences (coming from oneself, in contrast to those coming mainly from outside in case of denial) are repressed and do not affect real behavior. Most often, those thoughts and desires that contradict the moral values ​​and norms accepted by the person themselves are suppressed. In neuroses, for example, the underlying event that caused it is often repressed.

From the point of view of psychoanalysis, the experience repressed from consciousness is forgotten by a person, but retains in the unconscious the psychic energy of attraction inherent in it (cataxis). In an effort to return to consciousness, the repressed can be associated with other repressed material, forming mental complexes. On the part of the I (Ego), constant expenditures of energy are required to maintain the process of displacement. Violation of the dynamic balance with the weakening of the defense mechanisms - anticathexes - can lead to the return to consciousness of previously repressed information. Such cases are observed with diseases, intoxications (for example, alcohol), as well as during sleep.

Repression, according to Z. Freud, has the first and second phases. The first phase is that no representation or attraction is allowed into consciousness. The second is repression in the proper sense, which concerns the mental derivatives of the repressed idea associated with attraction or thoughts originating from other sources that have entered into an associative relationship with these ideas. This process acts selectively: it is directed against those memories, thoughts, feelings, desires, drives that are associated with past states that give rise to fear, anxiety, and at the present time their actualization in the sphere of consciousness could again psychologically injure a person.

According to another point of view, repression begins to operate only after other mechanisms fail (projection, isolation, etc.). Everything repressed from consciousness into the unconscious does not disappear and has a significant impact on the state of the psyche and behavior of a person. 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 individual symptoms, dreams, erroneous actions, etc.

Repression most often concerns: drives, reality (when it is unpleasant, painful for the individual and destroys his ideas about himself), the requirements and prescriptions of the Super-I (something unpleasant, but associated with a sense of guilt).

Behavior in which repression reactions are detected may be manifested or appropriately intensified in a state of stress, overwork or relaxation, as well as in a state of alcoholic intoxication and catarctic psychotherapy.

In considering repression, it is important to compare it with ordinary forgetting. The main feature of ordinary (non-defensive) forgetting is that a person, not being able to arbitrarily reproduce the material learned in the past, can immediately recognize it with a new perception. But even if there is no conscious recognition, then another phenomenon is observed: a person can again learn this material much faster than another, equivalent in volume and difficulty. new material. In repression, individuals are unable to either recognize or relearn what has been forgotten when it is brought back to conscious attention.

The repression mechanism is based on the following physiological feature of a person: if a stimulus acts on the sense organs that does not integrate with other mental phenomena, then this stimulus remains outside the consciousness day or in a state of alcoholic intoxication, diverting students' attention at a lecture, as a result of which often minor things remain in memory - unsuccessful expressions, etc.). During "integration" a kind of "sudden enlightenment" may come, and fragments that were not previously integrated into a single whole become a clear complete representation.

Normally, in general, most of the internal processes proceed outside consciousness (walking, the motor mechanism of speech, the functions of internal organs), because they have become automatic. However, the relevant experience is fixed in the memory and to a greater extent determines the behavior. We are talking about the accumulation and integration of experience at the subconscious level, and the conscious material can become unconscious.

The psychological mechanism of displacement is the manipulation of attention by distracting and barricading it.

Repression, like any defense, protects a person from anxiety, which often develops in situations of "unacceptability" (others' shortcomings in behavior are noticed, and their own are forced out); "failures" (those tasks that are performed well are remembered better and are forced out - "forgotten" - poorly completed).

There are individual differences in the manifestation of the repression reaction, and this individuality is formed from childhood. So, if parents demand excessive perfection from the child and “turn off” such areas from the upbringing process Everyday life, as sexuality, conflict, hostility, and others, then the child has constant anxiety, which in turn leads to protection in the form of a repression reaction. In a similar way, repression occurs in those cases when teachers and educators behave in the same way as parents in the future life of the child, and then the behavior in which the mechanisms of repression are realized are fixed.

The considered mechanisms of protection are not pathological in themselves. They can even contribute to human adaptation and a kind of harmonious behavior. But at the same time, behavior is simplified, primitivized, losing the richness of behavioral nuances (like "no problem"). This impoverishment of shades of behavior can lead to the repression of certain types of activity (for example, what is associated with sexual or social contacts is repressed). Behavior in such cases may be distorted, acquiring a non-adaptive character. The reason for this kind of transformation is that the change and peculiarities of behavior are not realized, and what is not realized is not subject to either self-management or self-control. In the absence of self-control, behavior can deviate so much from the norm that it becomes pathological. Therefore, repression is not only a very effective mechanism, but also a very dangerous one.

The considered option of protection gives the personality a unique look. This is especially true for hysterical personalities, who easily displace anxiety, being satisfied with the attention of others (they do not experience anxiety when performing on stage, etc.).

All other defense mechanisms, by their genesis and in their actual functioning, to one degree or another depend on repression. This dependence arises because if all desires, memory contents and conflicts were available to consciousness, then a normal and realistic mastery of reality would be preferred, and not the help of protective mental mechanisms.

Displacement can be complete, and incomplete, partial. In the latter case, the individual may show a certain attitude towards the part of the behavior that is being realized. Moreover, such behavior, as it were, satisfies the individual instead of causing anxiety ("disregard" in the words of the famous French neuropathologist and psychotherapist J.M. Charcot). The same phenomenon is often described under the name of "hysterical autonomy". From the point of view of the psychodynamic approach, among such reactions, which are protection in the form of repression, can be attributed "writer's spasm", tics containing a symbolic connection with a certain situation, reproduction of elements of frustrated sexual behavior ("passionate postures") and partly hysterical somnambulism ( more complex automatic act of behavior followed by amnesia). In a hysterical arc, a fragment of a previously repressed behavior (tendency to escape) is also realized.

A partial case of displacement is inactivation (exception). They talk about it when inactivation individual elements behavior neutralizes the anxiety that has arisen, which becomes necessary for the individual. Inactivation is characteristic of hysterical personalities. It can be manifested by insensitivity to pain, aphonia, mutism, disappearance of the gag reflex, paralysis, amnesia, etc.

For an outsider's eye, exclusion (inactivation) is a pathological, painful phenomenon, but a person with hysterical disorders himself receives a kind of satisfaction, because. inactivation, like any psychological defense, neutralizes anxiety. That is why rational psychotherapy for hysteria is practically useless. At the same time, with hysteria, one cannot talk about simulation. Moreover, defensive reactions can lead to contractures, anorexia with lethal outcome, such individuals undergo difficult operations, etc.

The repression of drives, the repression of reality and the repression of the requirements of the Superego are spontaneous, "natural" and, as a rule, unconsciously proceeding methods of psychoprotective resolution of difficult situations. Often the "natural" work of repression turns out to be ineffective (either the energy of attraction is extremely high, or reality is too traumatic and painful, or pangs of conscience are very imperative, or it all works together). Then a person often begins to use additional artificial means for more "effective" displacement - alcohol, drugs and other psychoactive drugs begin to be used. In such cases, one speaks of stunning. When stunning, no matter what means is used, only a change in mental states occurs, and the problem is not solved, but new problems arise associated with the use of these means.

4. Substitution ( sometimes used as a synonym for displacement, although most rightly "bred" these concepts). It is expressed by a reorientation from a topic that causes anxiety and discomfort to another or, less often, by partial, indirect satisfaction of an unacceptable motive by some morally acceptable way. typical situations manifestations of substitution are, for example:

After a conflict with the boss at work, the individual brings down anger on family members, pets (there is also rationalization here);

a person crumples a piece of paper during an important, exciting conversation;

· a girl with a friend's phrase "your boyfriend always brings you down" throws a cat sitting on her lap.

Sublimation can be considered an example of successful protection and successful substitution.

5. Rationalization. In psychology, the concept of "rationalization" was introduced by E. Jones in 1908. In this case, we are talking about an attempt to rationally justify the desires and actions caused by such a reason, the recognition of which would threaten the loss of self-respect (for example, not wanting to lend, you can always find many reasons why you cannot give; you can always find a lot of shortcomings in an unpleasant person, although hostility and is not associated with them; the patient can explain the interest in medical literature by the need to expand their horizons).

In the works of foreign and domestic authors, rationalization as a type of psychological defense is defined in two ways: 1) as protection associated with the awareness and use in thinking of only that part of the perceived information, due to which one's own behavior appears as well controlled and not contradicting objective circumstances; 2) as a defensive process, consisting in the fact that a person invents verbal and at first glance logical judgments and conclusions for false justifications (explanations) for their actions. The individual uses rationalization to justify his behavior when in reality his actions are wrong; rationalization is a means of preserving the individual's self-respect in a situation in which this important component of his "I-concept" is in danger of being reduced.

The choice of arguments for rationalization is a predominantly subconscious process. The real motives of the process of self-justification remain unconscious; instead of them, the individual, carrying out psychological protection, invents motivations, acceptable arguments designed to justify his actions, mental states. Defensive argumentation differs from conscious deceit by the involuntary nature of its motivation and the conviction of the individual that he is telling the truth. Various "ideals" and "principles", lofty motives and goals are used as self-justifying arguments.

The causes of behavior perceived in the process of rationalization are a mixture of presented information (prejudices, prejudices), i.e. transformed motives, and a statement of the event itself. The presence of elements of truth at the same time gives a person a false confidence that everything is true. In this totality, the mind tries to establish some decent order, which is realized.

The mechanism of rationalization is one of the simplest and most common, designed to maintain and maintain a high level of self-esteem and prevent feelings of guilt. This defense mechanism is different in that a person first acts in response to unconscious motives, and after the action puts forward various supposed reasons to explain the behavior, moreover, the explanations are usually socially acceptable and approved. Appropriate motivations, however, are aimed at self-persuasion in the causes that determined the behavior; in fact, these reasons, desires and needs often remain hidden. Thus, the individual, from all possible motives, selects the most acceptable ones to explain his behavior.

Rationalization is a mechanism that serves a useful purpose insofar as it provides self-protection and comfort. However, it often leads to self-deception.

6. Projection( transfer, moving). All people have undesirable properties and personality traits that they reluctantly recognize in themselves, and sometimes do not recognize at all. The projection mechanism is manifested in the fact that a person unconsciously ascribes his own negative qualities, inclinations, relationships to another person (projects onto him), and, as a rule, in an exaggerated form (wealthy people place an elderly parent in a nursing home and are indignant at indifferent or bad attitude personnel to him).

Projection is a consequence of the work of repression. In mature forms, projection serves empathy.

In projection, the inside is erroneously perceived as happening outside.

An example of a projection - a husband reproaches his wife, then she is asexual, but he himself does not show sexual activity.

It is important to trace the development of the projection reaction as a defense in the child. Initially, the child is so integrated with his family that he does not differentiate himself and others (even sometimes calls himself "he" or "she"). That. At first, the child does not distinguish between himself and others. Further, in the process of development, the child's own behavior becomes more and more independent. At the same time, the idea appears that those around him are the same as he is, and therefore he projects motives and motives that are understandable to him onto the behavior of those around him (including inanimate objects). If the toy has fallen, the child says "it hurts" or "the door doesn't want to close." Usually the child endows the doll with all the attributes of his behavior. This technique is often used by psychotherapists: they give dolls to a child who views them as copies of their parents and other close people, indirectly transferring their attitude towards their parents to the dolls. An analysis of such a child's behavior can give a lot to identify the characteristics of the child's relationship with his parents and for diagnosis in general.

Projection simplifies behavior to a certain extent, eliminating the need to evaluate one's actions every time in everyday life. People often transfer their behavior to other people, projecting their emotions onto them. If a person is calm, self-confident, benevolent, then in his eyes others share his benevolence, and vice versa - a tense, frustrated person, unsatisfied in his desires, is hostile and attributes, projects this hostility to others. Usually the individual is able to objectively evaluate the hostility of others, but the frustrated, tense, suspicious, morbidly conceited person creates his own perceptual world(the world of perception), not taking into account other objective factors.

Projection is closely related to changes in the perception of others, when individuals with low self-esteem, however, hold a low opinion of others, perceive and evaluate life situations and people distortedly, projecting their own shortcomings, their negative feelings onto them.

The projection can exist independently, without interference with other forms of mental protection. It is like an echo of sometimes unconscious attitudes, freeing a person from anxiety, guilt and bringing relief. It should be noted that normally, if a person manages to make someone feel guilty, to shift responsibility for difficulties to others, he himself feels less guilty. There is an element of projection reaction here.

The reverse side of true psychic protection by the type of projection is sarcasm, irony. Hostility, causing a negative attitude of others, and this in turn increases the need for the development of other defensive reactions.

Another option for transforming protection in the form of a projection is when the aggressive intentions and impulses of a person are completely attributed to other people, while the role of a victim remains for oneself. As a further defense against anxiety, the person may react with hostile and aggressive behavior to an external object that is the object of the projection. The attitude of the projecting person towards those on whom the projection focuses often becomes an attitude of suspicion or even hostility, alienation, which, in turn, causes a reciprocal feeling of hostility. That. a vicious circle is formed.

In contrast to the projection mechanism, they distinguish introjection or interiorization(transition from outside to inside).

7. Somatization. This form of protection is expressed in the way out of an intractable situation by fixing on the state of their health (schoolchildren "get sick" before the control - the simplest example). In these cases, the main value is the benefit of the disease - increased attention and reduced demands from loved ones. In more severe cases, this form of protection takes on a kind of chronic character; in this case, as a rule, there is an exaggerated attention to one's health, an exaggeration of the severity of the disease up to the creation of one's own concepts of the disease, and a hypochondriacal syndrome can form.

8. Jet formation (reaction formation). We are talking about replacing unacceptable tendencies with directly opposite ones (the so-called inversion of desires), when people can hide from themselves the motive of their own behavior by suppressing it with a consciously supported motive of the opposite type:

Unconscious hostility to the child can be expressed in deliberate, controlling attention to him;

• rejected love is often expressed as hatred for the former object of love;

boys try to offend the girls they like;

· secret envious people often quite sincerely consider themselves to be devoted admirers of the one whom they envy.

This mechanism has side effects in the form of deformation social relations with those around him, since his differences are the rigidity, extravagance of the demonstrated behavior, its exaggerated forms (in principle, about a person who constantly demonstrates his integrity, you should think "Does he have a strong desire to commit some kind of sin?"). In addition, the denied need must be masked again and again, for which a significant amount of psychic energy is expended.

Although reactive formations mask parts of the personality and limit a person's ability to respond flexibly to events, this mechanism is considered an example of a successful defense, because. it sets up psychic barriers - disgust, shame, morality. Introducing the concept of "Super-I", Z. Freud noted that the mechanism of reactive formations plays an important role in its emergence.

9. Regression. Return to primitive, early childhood-related responses and behaviors; transition to previous levels mental development and updating past successful responses. It can be carried out in relation to various levels of implementation of activities and areas of personality - motivational, semantic, target, etc.

It is especially often observed in children when they are deprived of their parents, to whom they were very strongly attached (for example, during hospitalization in a hospital), when a child who could walk stops walking; begins to suck his thumb in difficult situations (which sometimes manifests itself not only in children, but also in adults); enuresis resumes (for those who did not want to go to kindergarten or school); who knew how to dress well - as if "unlearning" how to do it; begins to speak and read worse, etc.

According to psychoanalysis, regression is ineffective because the individual, instead of coping with the situation, is forced to withdraw from reality.

Elements of psychological defense in the form of regression can also be observed in some mental illnesses (in particular, separation disorders in children, reactive psychoses).

10. Intellectualization. This is a kind of attempt to get away from an emotionally threatening situation by discussing it, as it were, in abstract, intellectualized terms.

Individuals who systematically use intellectualization leave the impression of being emotionally cold and aloof in interpersonal relationships. In adolescents, often the lack of social contacts serves as the basis for excessive fantasizing and intellectualization.

11. Insulation(or split). The essence of isolation is the separation of one part of the personality (unacceptable and traumatic individual) from another part of his own personality, which suits him perfectly. With such a separation, the event almost does not cause an emotional reaction. As a result, the individual discusses problems separated from the rest of the personality in such a way that events are not associated with any feelings, as if they happened to someone else. This dry approach may be the predominant style. The individual can go more and more into ideas, less and less in touch with his own feelings.

Speaking of isolation, Z. Freud points out that its normal prototype is logical thinking, which also seeks to separate the content from the emotional situation in which it is found. Isolation becomes a defense mechanism only when it is used to protect the ego from accepting the anxiety-producing aspects of a situation or relationship.

Isolation begins with the manifestation of obsession (respectively, it is common in obsessional neurosis).

12 . Mechanism commits means a strong unconscious connection with certain persons or images, which reproduces the same mode of satisfaction and is structurally organized along the lines of one of the stages of satisfaction. Fixation may be actual, explicit, or it may remain the prevailing trend, allowing for the possibility of regression for the individual. The concept of fixation is firmly present in psychoanalysis, although its nature and meaning are not clearly defined.

13. Compensation. The ability of a person to get rid of feelings about his own shortcomings (abilities, knowledge, skills) through the development of other qualities.

14 . Rarely described in the literature, but well known in real life mechanism response. This is an unconscious emotional discharge and release from the affect associated with the memory of a traumatic event, as a result of which this memory does not become pathogenic or ceases to be so. The response can be primary, arising on its own, incl. later and more or less long after the initial trauma, and secondary, which arose in the process of cathartic psychotherapy. This reaction can range from tears to revenge. If this reaction is strong enough, most of the affect associated with the event disappears. If the reaction is suppressed, the affect associated with the memory persists.

That. reacting is the normal way in which the individual is freed from too much affect.

The most typical adolescent forms of psychological defense : passive protest, opposition, emancipation, repression, rationalization, projection, identification, denial, annulment, intellectualization, self-restraint, isolation, sublimation (singling out "typical teenage forms" is very conditional).

Passive protest. This protection is manifested in the removal from communication with loved ones, the refusal to fulfill various requests from adults. Of decisive importance for the formation of this protective mechanism is the emotional rejection on the part of adults. Emotional rejection is based on the conscious or unconscious identification by parents of a teenager with any negative moments in their own lives. A teenager in this situation may feel like a hindrance in the life of parents who establish a great distance in relations with him.

Opposition. The most important feature This psychological defense consists in the fact that it manifests itself in the form of an active protest against the demands of adults, harsh statements addressed to him, and systematic deceit. The reasons for the opposition are unwillingness to deal with a teenager, poor tolerance of his society, superficial interest in his affairs. Adolescents try to suppress the feeling of insecurity that arises in this case by demonstrating excessive decisiveness. Then their behavior from the standpoint of adults becomes inexplicable, although in fact it is a reaction to a lack of love from loved ones and a call to return it.

Emancipation. During emancipation, protection is expressed in the struggle of adolescents for self-affirmation, independence, release from the control of adults. Many adolescents, breaking off relationships with their parents, transfer their interests to the leader among their peers, who takes the place of the ideal. Often this person is in the middle position on the age scale between a teenager and his parents, who are rejected. As a result, the adolescent receives an imaginary freedom, a new sense of independence from the dictates of parents or other adults, and becomes indifferent to the boundaries of responsibility for his actions.

Identification. In the case when a teenager tries to reduce anxiety by identifying himself with another person, transferring the desired feelings and qualities onto himself is identification. Identification is associated with the process in which a teenager, as it were, turning on his "I", borrows his thoughts, feelings, actions. It should be said that the objects of identification can be parents, other close people, and not only real, but also imaginary (for example, heroes of feature films).

Identification is objectively necessary for a child to acquire positive values, attitudes, forms of behavior and mental qualities, to neutralize antisocial influences. But it is also necessary "subjectively", from the point of view of the "mechanics" of the child's development (it is a means of relieving anxiety in one case and a means of reducing negative emotions associated with the loss of loved ones, in another case).

In classical psychoanalysis, an important idea was expressed, according to which identification is possible not only with a person to whom an individual has a positive feeling, but also with one to whom he has a negative attitude. Accordingly, there are positive and negative identification. Positive identification with the ideal helps to take his point of view, accept his ways of perceiving the environment, mastering his social skills and, thus, contributes to mental growth. Negative identification contributes to the imitation of negative personality traits, the adoption of its negative role on oneself.

Z. Freud and A. Freud described numerous cases of defensive identification, which is a psychological mechanism for overcoming anxiety. Typical are " identification with the aggressor"- the process of assimilation and identification with a person to whom a teenager has a negative attitude and identification with a "lost object", which allows you to overcome the Oedipus complex.

Identification with the aggressor - immigrants who live in the US for a short time show much stronger hostility towards new entrants than those who live there longer; some prisoners of fascist concentration camps behaved "aggressively" towards newcomers, sewed the emblem of the Gestapo on their clothes and denied the critical statements of foreign correspondents against the Nazis (the defense is put forward not against fear, but against an unpleasant feeling of disagreement with a significant person for the individual, disagreement with the opinion of the person with whom the relationship is assessed as positive, there are different ways to restore balance - identification and denial of reality).

Individual hostages of Nord-Ost in Moscow also showed signs of identification with the aggressor (October 2002: some hostages, on their own initiative, wrote appeals demanding an end to the war in Chechnya, some women not only talked to the terrorists, but also tried on their hats) and much has been said about Stockholm Syndrome.

This type of psychological defense annulment(or cancellation) is based on the fact that the repeated action deprives the value of the previous one that caused the alarm. The first characteristic feature of this type of psychological defense is that it is associated with magical thinking, belief in the supernatural, repetitive ritual actions and has its roots in the psyche of childhood.

The genesis of this type of psychological defense is presented as follows: when a teenager does something bad, then he is taught that he must ask for forgiveness. Thus, his bad deed is, as it were, canceled, and he can act with a clear conscience. All this leads to the fact that a teenager develops ideas that certain actions contribute to making amends and atonement for bad behavior or prevent the onset of any unpleasant events. For example, when before going to bed a teenager arranges toys - animals around his pillow, then in some cases he has a conviction that he prevents the onset of night fears by his actions.

In adolescence, youth and adulthood, there are ritual actions that are also associated with superstition. For example, when going to an exam, individuals wear clothes that bring happiness, and so on. Such ritual actions are associated with past successes, and when their performance is interrupted, a person experiences anxiety, anxiety, and foresees failure.

This psychological defense mechanism has a very strong "religious underpinning" ("repent or do something else and you will be forgiven").

self-restraint. The essence of this defense mechanism is as follows: in the event of a threatening, psycho-traumatic situation that contributes to the emergence and development of anxiety, the teenager is removed from communication with loved ones, from food, from games, or unmotivatedly refuses to perform the required actions, contemplating the activities of another, or seeks to escape. Extreme forms of this type of psychological defense are accompanied by self-doubt, an inferiority complex, and apathy.

The use of self-restraint in many situations is justified, as it provides situational adaptation, but it brings great harm because the first attempts of a person in any field of activity cannot be perfect at first. Many, not knowing their potential, after the very first failures, give up further attempts and choose a less difficult task. Often this is facilitated by tactless or obviously mocking remarks of others, first of all, significant people (parents, teachers, etc.).

According to the psychoanalytic concept of Z. Freud in children:

at the oral stage(up to the 1st year) the following defenses may occur: introjection, projection, denial, drowsiness, identification, displacement, turning against oneself;

at the anal stage of development (1-2 years): isolation, reactive formation, cancellation, intellectualization, regression;

at the phallic stage(2-6 years): identification, denial, somatization;

in the latent stage(6-12 years): appearance of suppression, regression, fixation;

Modern views about a "normal", developed system of psychological protection involves an assessment of the following characteristics:

adequate protection(a person can recover from one or another unconscious defensive reaction and then discuss it);

protection flexibility(a person can use different types of defensive reactions and some specific, typical threat situation for him, i.e. the "repertoire" of his defensive behavior is not set too rigidly);

protection maturity(Mechanisms of intellectualization, sublimation, suppression, rationalization, displacement without frequent recourse to more primitive forms of projection, denial, introjection are considered relatively more mature).

In modern psychology, the tendency to separate the concepts of " defensive strategies" and " co-ownership strategies".

Protective strategies involve unconscious, irrational behavior (forgetting the time of the exam, losing notes or transcripts, the emergence of psychological dependence on someone, etc.); the result of the defense mechanism is that they unconsciously distort, substitute or falsify the reality with which the subject is dealing.

Coping strategies may be different, but they are always conscious, rational and directed at the source of anxiety.

· Factors of occurrence, consolidation and subsequent reproduction of any protective mechanism lie in the nature of social interaction, especially in contacts with parents.

· Psychological defense is found in any person (a person deprived of any defense mechanisms at all is a myth).

· In everyday life, most real situations are more often associated with the use of several forms of psychological protection.

· Excessive use of defenses by an individual is an indirect evidence of the presence of a high level of both intrapersonal and external conflict.

The heirs of Oedipus Rex: the world of ideas of a child aged 3 to 6 years.

Have you ever heard embarrassed, excited, and even proud stories of parents about the son's desire to marry his mother, and his daughter's desire to marry her father? And what about “bed battles”, when a child at all costs strives to take a place in the parental bed, displacing one of the parents, or at least lie down between them? Let's make an attempt to understand: what lies behind these, sometimes unbalancing and baffling, desires of our children.

So, the child entered the so-called "oedipal age". What images and ideas fill his inner world? How can this knowledge help in raising a child?

The fact is that real images of oneself, parents and any other objects of the surrounding world are perceived by a child, and by an adult too, through the prism of precisely these, often unconscious, ideas, fantasies, desires. Internal objects are superimposed on real ones, distorting them. This is how the notorious "problems of interpersonal relations" arise. It is on the basis of their ideas that the child will build relationships with the outside world.

Having comprehended the spiritual world of a child, it is easier to find the way to it, it is easier to help him in the complex process of psychological growth. In the end, it becomes easier for us ourselves from understanding: what the child says and does is not a disease or depravity. Everything is going the way it should!

Moreover, in order to get to know the world of internal, hidden from consciousness, images, no special devices and super-complicated test methods are needed. Observing a child is the golden key that will slightly open the door to the world of his unconscious. After all, the child's ideas about himself and about others are manifested precisely in his activity.

Follow his games by noticing which heroes he prefers to play. Listen to his fantasies, delving into their smallest details. Note which fairy tales arouse his greatest interest, give rise to a request to re-read them many times. All this will give us the necessary information.

So what do we see? What is the world of internal objects of the "oedipal" child?

The entire path of development of the personality of each of us can be divided into several stages, depending on the characteristics of the world of internal objects. Each of the stages is distinguished by a unique typical set of these images. As the set grows older, the perception of the world and the system of relations with the world change after it.

The main contents of the unconscious for a child at this stage of psychological development are the desire to possess a parent of the opposite sex and the simultaneous desire to eliminate the same-sex parent. The presence of such feelings determines the central conflict that the child experiences during these years, and the main task is to resolve this conflict. The teacher can either help the child cope with the problem, or, on the contrary, interfere.

Let's focus on the child's relationship with a same-sex parent. "Identification versus competition" is the essence of this relationship.

Parents are perceived by the "oedipal" child in an idealized way: they are the most beautiful, they are the smartest, they are the strongest, in short - the very best. In the inner world of a child, their images are like kings who can do anything. Not without reason favorite fairy tales are inhabited by kings and queens.

At first, the child seeks exceptional intimate relationships with both parents. He strives to become the center of attention of both parents. The child wants everyone to adore his qualities, including sexual ones. And normal, "good enough" parents give such adoration to the child. If during these years the child feels a lack of adoration, then later we may encounter manifestations of his hysterical demonstrativeness.

Gradually, fantasies change from a simple desire for a special relationship with parents to the desire to play the role of one of the parents. The child singles out and idealizes the parent of the same sex and seeks intimate affection with him for gender identification, which includes both gender and gender identification. A same-sex parent acts as a standard and a role model: “I want to become the same as my father (mother)”. A little girl tries on her mother's outfits, uses her makeup, flirts in front of the mirror. I remember a picture: my daughter on an ottoman in front of her grandmother's dressing table - from head to toe is covered with a thick layer of then expensive cream "Pani Valevska". The entire jar to the very bottom is smeared on the face, arms, neck, in order to certainly become “like mom”.

The child enters into competition with the parent of the same sex. Even the fact that mom has two pillows on the bed, and her daughter has one, can be a reason for hysteria. The child seeks to surpass, to win in everything. "Higher, further, more precisely" - Olympic Games on a family scale. Becoming like same-sex parent, by defeating him, you can take a place next to the parent of the opposite sex.

As the phase progresses, all conflicts intensify. Competitiveness with a parent of the same sex comes to the desire to kill him and take his place.

I always remember the story of one of my colleagues, the mother of a four-year-old son. One day, returning home from kindergarten with her son, she noticed that he was very upset about something and was about to burst into tears. When she asked about the reasons for such a sad mood, she heard what was said through barely restrained tears: “I thought, mommy, that we go to the store with you, buy a pack of margarine, and at home we take out the largest frying pan and fry daddy on it . And so I felt sorry for him-oh-oh-oh!!!”.

Think about it, what else can a child feel when he wants to “fry” his own and beloved parent? Fear for such feelings and guilt for them. And where there is guilt, guilt, there is both punishment and fear of it. So we have identified another psychological feature of the inner, unconscious world of the child himself.

Let's talk a little about the typical representation of the "oedipal" child, expressed in the fear of castration. In Freud's time, this fear was understood literally, that is, bodily. Today, speaking of the fear of castration, we mean the fear of losing not only a part of our body, but also a part of our psychological self: the taking away of feelings, desires, etc.

It is during this period that the child wakes up interest in his genitals. He examines them, touches, masturbates. Sometimes this - completely normal - interest of the child frightens the parents, makes them forbid the child to manipulate his genitals. Sometimes such a ban is accompanied by real threats, and even punishment. I remember a client who came to me about a severe stutter.

One of his most vivid childhood memories was: Kindergarten. We are sitting in a circle. The teacher is reading a book, but I am not listening to her. She is sitting in front of me, on the same low chair, her legs are spread apart... The darkness between her legs attracts me like a magnet. I lean lower and lower to look under her skirt ... And suddenly she throws a book, jumps up, grabs me, squeezes my head between her smelly legs and starts yelling and calling for the nanny: “Manya! Well, grab your scissors! We will cut off the entire economy for him now.” Well, why not a scene from "Basic Instinct" ?!

Let's sum up some results. The "oedipal" child has very contradictory feelings towards the same-sex parent: on the one hand, he loves him and wants to be the same, on the other hand, he hates him and wants his death. The need for competition is in conflict with the need for identification. Thus arises the second conflict of ambivalence in the child's life. Oedipal passions sometimes reach truly tragic proportions. Only this does not happen in Ancient Greece and not with mythical heroes. The child and his parents become full participants in this tragedy.

A few words about the tactics of the educator. Its purpose at this stage (and at any other stage, by the way) is to help the child survive difficult, and sometimes unbearable feelings of attraction and dissatisfaction, fear and guilt for him - to survive, but not to drive into the unconscious, not to prohibit, but to accept and live them along with your child. The ability of parents to withstand the affective tension of the child is important. It is important to continue to love the child and sympathize with him, understanding that the desire to destroy his parent is just another step in the formation of an independent personality that your child has risen to.

Play with your child the games he plays. The child, repeatedly playing the same situation, learns to cope with his feelings and symbolically satisfy his desires. Here is the most natural psychotraining! This is real psychotherapy for you!

A.A. Sklizkov, psychotherapist-analyst

The meaning of dreams according to Freud

We are making an attempt to summarize the main conclusions of the theory of dreams by Sigmund Freud. It is the main ones, following the thought of the author. This is necessary in order to destroy the simplified and distorted perception of Freud's concept. It can be summed up in three points: in a dream all the elements are symbols; all dreams have a sexual content; neither is true. Freud himself could confidently subscribe only to the third point. In his lecture "Revisiting the Theory of Dreams," he writes that he never claimed that all dreams have a sexual content. In the same way, Freud does not subject most of the elements of a dream to a symbolic interpretation. You can be convinced of this by carefully reading the analysis of the "Dream of Irma" ... However, Freud complains, the most essential provisions of the theory of dreams completely escape the attention of readers. In order to better understand the meaning of these provisions, we should consider them in connection with the scientific and ordinary views on the nature of dreams that prevailed in Freud's time.

First of all, science in Freud's time tended to regard dreaming as a painful process, a disturbance of normal sleep. Healthy sleep is dreamless sleep. It was believed that dreams are a response to some external or internal irritation. The content of dreams is entirely determined by these stimuli. Since stimuli are perceived distorted during sleep, the images of dreams are distorted. In a dream, this or that painful condition may manifest itself. Therefore, it can be considered as a symptom of the disease.

The last view came from ancient times and has survived to this day.

It was believed that the dream is more of a "nervous" than a "mental" process, it occurs reflexively. The expression "chaotic disinhibition of trace signals against the background of diffuse inhibition of the cerebral cortex" most fully expresses this point of view. In Russian psychophysiology, it (not without the help of vigilant ideological control) dominated until the last decade. It was believed that if mental activity does take place in a dream, then it is deeply defective, regressive in comparison with the waking psyche.

Dreams were also devoid of a physiological function, and psychological meaning. However, in the scientific literature of the XIX century. interest in the problem of dreams was significant. The consciousness of the layman either did not take into account dreams at all, or, as in ancient times, looked for omens in them, perceived them as "message from another world." Many religious philosophers adhered to a similar view. As an example, let us briefly dwell on the concept of the Russian religious philosopher priest Pavel Florensky, who subjected dreams to analysis in his work “Iconostasis”. It is characteristic that Pavel Florensky refers to the same specific examples of dreams as Sigmund Freud!

Florensky draws attention to the fact that in some dreams time seems to flow in the opposite direction. What for the waking spirit was the beginning, the starting point of the dream (for example, the ringing of an alarm clock), in the dream becomes the final, the final goal towards which the dream moves. The time of the dream, as it were, flows in the opposite direction, flows at an accelerated rate (“I slept a little, but I saw a lot”).

The dream is subordinated to the ultimate goal, it is teleological, it develops “for the sake of the denouement”, so that this denouement is not accidental. “Time in a dream is turned inside out through itself, and, therefore, all its concrete images are turned out with it. And this means that we have passed into the realm of imaginary space... Dreams are the images that separate visible world from the invisible world, separate and at the same time unite these worlds.

Dreaming... through... symbolically. It is saturated with the meaning of another world, it is almost the pure meaning of another world, invisible, immaterial, imperishable, although it appears visibly and, as it were, materially ... A dream is a sign of the transition from one sphere to another and a symbol. What? From the mountain - a symbol of the valley, from the valley - a symbol of the mountain. A dream can arise when both sides of life are visible at the same time, although with varying degrees of clarity ... What is said about sleep can also be attributed to artistic creativity ... "

It would seem difficult to come up with something that would be so opposite in meaning to the theory of 3. Freud. But the opposites are remarkably close. After all, Florensky is convinced that the dream has meaning and purpose, he understands that the dream is symbolic, that it connects two spheres (upper and lower, in Freud - consciousness and the unconscious), that there are similar mechanisms in dreams and in artistic creativity. . It is no coincidence that Freud said that the view of philosophers and "profanes" on the nature of dreams is much closer to the truth than the "scientific ideas" of his time. Pavel Florensky spoke quite clearly about the fact that the symbolism and time of a dream “dimly reach consciousness”, i.e. unconscious.

What are the views of Sigmund Freud on the nature of dreams?

Dreams are not a painful manifestation, they are not a consequence of a pathological process, but the result of the activity of a healthy brain. To a certain extent, dreams are a full-fledged mental act inherent in the normal human psyche.

External irritations or irritations from internal organs are more likely to be "included" in the semantic fabric of a dream than they are the true cause of dreams. Hence the denial of the "reflex" nature of dreams, which are a natural product of the mental activity of the sleeper.

It is not enough to determine by what impressions of the waking mind the dream is evoked. Sleep is an unprecedented combination of experienced impressions (I.M. Sechenov), but the main thing is to determine the patterns of this combination. The notion that dream images are meaningless and chaotic is wrong. Although the dream content rarely gives the impression of meaningfulness and expediency when it is reproduced, it is impossible to draw final conclusions on this basis. The "fabric" of the dream is not the "meaning" of the dream, which can only be understood through analysis.

The technique of dream analysis is identical to the usual technique of psychoanalysis. These are free associations, the starting points of which are elements of the dream. In the analysis, it becomes clear how the elements of the dream are related to the experience in the waking state; only when these connections are established is it possible to restore the connection of the elements of the dream with each other. One of the most important principles is one cannot analyze a dream if the associations of the dreamer are unknown. We will see further that even the closest followers of Freud ignored this principle.

The general range of problems that the patient reports during the analysis is quite wide. Part of the information is brought in by the patient directly in the process of psychoanalysis. However, according to Freud, most of the thoughts and impressions revealed in the analysis are intimately involved in the formation of dream images. The associative series, as it were, diverge from the starting points - the elements of the dream, but then, at a certain level, converge again, converging to several "points". Thoughts that unite associative series are extremely important for the individual, have emotional significance, these thoughts are reluctantly communicated by the patient and are rarely recognized by him in the normal state.

These unconscious thoughts constitute the "hidden meaning of the dream." The explicit content and the hidden meaning of the dream do not coincide. This idea 3. Freud also considers one of the main ones in his theory, but poorly understood by his contemporaries. The fact that dreams have meaning predetermines and the presence of a certain psychological functions dreams.

The formation of dreams is an active processing of information. This revision 3. Freud calls work sleep (dream activity). It is assumed that psychoanalysis reproduces these processes "in reverse" order.

The work of sleep is the opposite of that of analysis. This point requires special discussion, since it contains a postulate that has no evidence, at least within the framework of psychoanalysis itself.

The method of free association leads us to the same conclusions, no matter what is psychoanalyzed: errors, slips of the tongue, forgetting words, and even witticisms. But only the method of "reducing witticisms" - turning them into phrases that are identical in meaning, but do not produce the effect of ridiculousness, is flawless and verifiable from all points of view. In the process of this analysis, Freud reveals the mechanisms that allow us to construct jokes. In contrast to the formation of dreams, erroneous actions and slips of the tongue, writing funny is a conscious process, and therefore reconstructable and verifiable. The easiest way to give an example of such a mechanism of the comic as "multiple repetition of material." Let us recall miniatures that repeatedly report the sale of “large crayfish for five rubles, and small ones for three”, or a long letter is read, the author of which endlessly varies two phrases: “I thought that the letter was not from you, but then I saw that it was from you" and "I'm very glad you got married." No one doubts that the mechanism of "repetition" is the real mechanism for the formation of "comic". Another thing is dreams.

What if Freud discovered only the law of the flow of free associations, their "sliding" to the most significant and affectively saturated problems, regardless of what exactly is the starting point of the associative series? What if this discovery has nothing to do with the mechanism of dream formation and the work of analysis does not destroy the work of sleep? Perhaps the insufficiently coherent and emphatically neutral dream images are just a very convenient "test material" for a kind of experimental psychological research?

The processing of information in a dream comes down mainly to three processes.

First process - thickening(concentration) of images up to their "contamination" (overlapping). The literary term "collective image" shows the commonality of this mechanism with some features of artistic creativity. A process similar to "thickening" was described by Sigmund Freud in the formation of the "funny effect". Freud wrote that “condensation occurs due to the fact that: 1) certain hidden elements are omitted altogether; 2) only a part of certain latent dream complexes pass into an explicit dream; 3) hidden elements that have something in common, in an explicit dream are combined, merged into one whole. (Freud 3. Introduction to Psychoanalysis. Lectures. - M, Science, 1989. - p. 107.) With a strict approach, only the third mechanism deserves the name "condensation". In fact, we are talking about the identification of different, often very far from each other, images and ideas. A curious parallel to this mechanism of "dreamwork" can be found in the peculiarities of primitive "magical" thinking. L. Levy-Bruhl calls this mechanism "magic generalization" and says that "magic generalization is identification." (Levy-Bruhl L. Primitive thinking. - M. 1930. - p. 141.) The most instructive example: the Guacholo Indians identify wheat, deer and gukuli grass. Other examples of magical identifications: cotton - a cloud (outward resemblance matters here); antlers and deer (the part retains the property of the whole), the falcon feather in the headdress is identical to falcon vision.

The second process of distorting dream activity is bias(movement). The hidden element is manifested not by any part of itself, but by a distant association, a “hint”. What is far on the periphery of a really significant experience, in a dream is the culmination, the center. We can say that "displacement" is a one-way road, from the center to the periphery. And this mechanism can be observed in the psychogenesis of wit, but in witticism the "hint" retains its connection with the main context, in the dream this connection is lost. Perhaps that is why dreams are often scary, but almost never funny.

And finally - symbolization. This mechanism deserves special consideration.

A dream is the fulfillment of a wish. This is the main meaning of the dream, which also determines its psychological function: liberation from the psychological conflicts of wakefulness. It is wrong to think that only desires of a sexual nature are realized in a dream; the range of experiences passing through the "dream circle" is much more diverse: there are family conflicts, and professional, and personal problems. This is easy to verify by carefully studying the examples of dream analysis given in the monograph. Even if the dream accompanied by fear its psychological meaning is changing. In a dream, unconscious desires and tendencies appear more openly than in the waking state. Therefore, the dream is the "royal road" to the unconscious. However, the system of moral prohibitions continues to operate in the dream - "censorship", which does not allow the most unacceptable desires for the individual to manifest themselves directly. It is "censorship" that is the main force that determines the distorting activity of the dream.

POSTULATE OF SYMBOLS

Why, out of all the provisions of the theory of dreams, did the majority of readers, both accepting and denying psychoanalysis, pay attention to the process of symbolization, or rather, to a kind of "Sigmund Freud's Dream Book" - a list of typical dream symbols?

The answer, in our opinion, is extremely simple: it is this section that is the easiest to understand, it brings Freud's book closer to traditional ideas about the nature of sleep and dreams that go back centuries. The sexual content of the symbols causes an understandable protest and doubts, is such an interpretation a manifestation of the researcher's morbid imagination or, to use psychoanalytic terms, an extra projection of his own psychological unconscious attitudes?

Whoever subjected the symbolism of Freud's dreams to devastating criticism! And psychiatrists - Freud's contemporaries, in particular Oswald Bumke, and cultural figures, and writers. Let us give the floor to Freud's most implacable opponent, Vladimir Nabokov. “In search of clues and clues, I rummaged through my earliest dreams and, if I have already started talking about dreams, please note that I unconditionally brush aside Freudianism and all its dark medieval background, with its manic pursuit of sexual symbolism, with its gloomy embryos, peeping from natural ambushes, sullen parental intercourse. (Nabokov V. Other Shores // Invitation to the Execution. - Chisinau, 1989. p. 360.) Nabokov considered the psychoanalytic method itself "a medicine for the vulgar", a daily application of ancient Greek myths to the reproductive organs (Nabokov V. Selected .- M .: Book, 1989.- p. 411.)

The problem of symbolism is much broader than the theory of dreams. On the one hand, this is a general cultural problem, on the other, a general psychological one. Ultimately, any culture is a complex of generally accepted meanings, symbols, according to the supporters of symbolic interactionism (T. Shibutani, 1969). But it is the problem of symbolism that is the "bridge" between various psychoanalytic theories - from Freud to Lacan. Another set of problems is associated with common elements in the symbolism of dreams, myths, and also the symbolism of some pathological forms of thinking in psychoses. Sigmund Freud himself writes about the "archaic elements" in a dream. Otto Rank dedicates a short article to this problem, Dream and Myth. The connection between the symbolism of dreams and myths was developed in most detail by Carl Jung.

But even before the appearance of Jung's works on the collective unconscious, and without any connection with psychoanalytic research, D. Fraser and E. Tylor in their studies drew attention to the similarity of symbols and rituals among different peoples, culturally isolated from each other. (Frazer D. Folklore in the Old Testament. - M., 1985. - p. 13-28.) Suffice it to mention at least the symbolism of "dust" (earth, clay) during the creation of man. These works come close to the idea that "constant symbolism" is not a figment of the imagination of psychoanalysts. She should

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. Real life examples are worth reading 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 the 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 does not restrain himself in the manifestation of his impulses, but only changes the form of their presentation.

Freud, given the specifics of his theory, it was common to pay special attention to sublimation sexual attraction. 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. The most striking example is the reaction of a child to the death of a beloved 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 provisions that have had a decisive influence on the further development of 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 often become the cause of psychological disorders.
• "I and It" is a kind of collection of works by a psychologist, which can be considered the culmination of his work. 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 stressful situation or in the face of a threat. No matter what kind of barrier is triggered, in any case, in question 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.

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 that arise 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 his 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 transformation of libido into a sublime aspiration and socially desired 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 primary form mechanism of protection, can step over to a 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 exaggerated use 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, offensive attacks, is 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. It is necessary to look at the opponent pouring out a sea of ​​negativity and endlessly pouring offensive words 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.

Psychological protection refers to a special regulative system of personality stabilization aimed at minimizing the consequences of negative experiences. Its function is to protect consciousness from traumatic negative experiences. psyches are aimed at the complete or partial elimination of the conflict that has arisen due to the conflict, which jeopardizes

Types of psychological protection

The reactions of the psyche usually do not free a person from the problem, but only temporarily protect him, helping to "survive" in Psychological protection only "guards", and the problem remains and is transferred to all close people and family members. A person in ordinary life becomes strange, notorious and inadequate.

Reaction formation is a state in which one emotional aspect of a situation is exaggerated in order to suppress the opposite emotion. For example, extreme punctuality to eliminate the desire to be independent and free.

Repression - painful memories and feelings, impulses are pushed out of consciousness. A person simply “didn’t have time”, “forgot”, “didn’t do it”.

Asceticism is the refusal of pleasures with a proud and self-confident look.

Sewerage of aggression on others is manifested with a hidden feeling of guilt.

The reverse feeling is the redirection of the impulse to oneself or another person, the transformation of his behavior from active to passive (sadism turns into masochism or vice versa).

Sublimation - the transformation of aggression - into political activity, and sex - into creativity.

Denial - deliberate ignoring of the realities that cause pain as if they do not exist: "did not hear", "did not see" and more; ignoring obvious signals, incentives.

Transfer (movement, transfer) - change of the object that caused feelings. It is manifested by the transfer of a reaction from a real and dangerous object to a relatively safe one (on children or other people).

Splitting - separation of the negative and positive in the images of objects and "I", i.e. change in assessments of oneself and others, inaccurate assessment.

Phobias - restriction of actions and thoughts in order to avoid those that can cause anxiety, fear.

Identification with the aggressor - imitation of the behavior or aggressive manner of an external authority.

Intellectualization, justification - a way of experiencing the conflict that has arisen, a long discussion, a "rational" explanation of what happened (in reality - a false explanation).

Isolation of affect - is manifested by the suppression of feelings associated with a certain negative thought.

Regression - return to an early age (helplessness, alcohol, smoking and other reactions).

Devaluation is the minimization of something important and the negation of it.

Primitive idealization manifests itself as an exaggeration of the prestige and power of another person.

Repression is manifested by the suppression of desires.

Escapism - avoiding the ultimate goal of the situation. You can physically or indirectly protect yourself from certain topics of communication.

Autism is manifested by deep withdrawal into oneself.

Fanaticism is a psychological defense in which the imaginary merges with the desired and the real.

Psychological protection without behavior correction and the help of a psychologist

If a person cannot cope with the problem on his own, but does not turn to the help of a specialist, psychological protection can lead to the fact that his circle of communication narrows. He is forced to limit his lifestyle or make it very specific. Later, disadaptation gradually increases. Sometimes there is growing internal tension and anxiety. A protective lifestyle becomes a habitual form of life, which can lead to various degrees of mental disorders in the future.

Psychological protection works on an unconscious or subconscious level, and often a person cannot control his defense mechanisms of the psyche if he knows nothing about them. (Lifestyle index - test)

Psychological protection and the destructive action of the protective mechanisms of the human psyche

The human psyche has the ability to protect itself from adverse influences, whether external or internal factors. Psychological defense mechanisms work in one way or another for everyone. They perform the function of a guardian of our mental health, our "I" from the effects of stress, failure, increased anxiety; from unpleasant, destructive thoughts, from external and internal conflicts that cause negative well-being.
(overcoming psychological defense)

In addition to the protective function psychological protection of a person can also have a destructive effect on a person, it can prevent a person from growing and developing, achieving success in life.

This occurs when the repetition of a certain defense mechanism of the psyche in similar life situations, but some situations, although similar to the one that initially called for protection, still do not need it, because. a person is able to consciously solve this problem.

Also, psychological defense becomes destructive for the individual in cases where a person uses several defenses at once.

A person who often uses defense mechanisms (let me remind you: this happens unconsciously) is doomed to the status of a “loser” in his life.

Psychological defenses of the individual not congenital, they are acquired during the socialization of the child, and the main source of development of certain defenses, as well as their use in life (for their intended purpose or destructive) are parents or persons replacing them. In short, the use of psychological defense by children depends on how and what kind of protection the parents use.

Psychological defenses have the closest connection with character accentuations, and the more pronounced the accentuation is, the more pronounced the protective mechanisms of the human psyche are.

Knowing the accentuation of character, their individual-personal psycho-physiological characteristics (personality theory), a person will be able to learn how to manage their psychological defenses and accentuations of character, (Program of psycho-correction of character) to achieve success in life, i.e. go from losers to winners. (Personality Theory 2)

Mechanisms of psychological defense of a person

The first to introduce the concept of "psychological defense" was Sigmund Freud, this is "repression" and "sublimation".

These are such protective mechanisms of the psyche as: Repression, suppression, sublimation, intellectualization, rationalization, denial, projection, substitution, identification with the aggressor, regression, compensation and hypercompensation, reactive formation, reverse feeling and their components.

MECHANISMS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL PROTECTION AND INDIVIDUAL-PERSONAL FEATURES:

PSYCHOLOGICAL PROTECTION - NEGATION - the earliest ontogenetically and the most primitive defense mechanism. Denial develops in order to contain the emotion of acceptance of others if they demonstrate emotional indifference or rejection.

This, in turn, can lead to self-loathing. Denial implies an infantile substitution of acceptance by others for attention on their part, and any negative aspects of this attention are blocked at the stage of perception, and positive ones are allowed into the system. As a result, the individual gets the opportunity to painlessly express feelings of acceptance of the world and himself, but for this he must constantly attract the attention of others in ways available to him.

Features of protective behavior in the norm: egocentrism, suggestibility and self-hypnosis, sociability, desire to be in the center of attention, optimism, ease, friendliness, ability to inspire confidence, confident demeanor, thirst for recognition, arrogance, boasting, self-pity, courtesy, willingness to serve, affective demeanor, pathos, easy tolerance of criticism and lack of self-criticism.

Other features include pronounced artistic and artistic abilities, a rich imagination, a penchant for practical jokes.

Preferred jobs in the arts and service industries.

Possible deviations (deviations) of behavior: deceit, a tendency to simulate, thoughtlessness of actions, underdevelopment of the ethical complex, a tendency to fraud, exhibitionism, demonstrative attempts at suicide and self-harm.

Diagnostic concept: hysteria.

Possible psychosomatic diseases (according to F. Alexander): conversion-hysterical reactions, paralysis, hyperkinesia, dysfunction of analyzers, endocrine disorders.

Type of group role (according to G. Kellerman): "the role of a romantic."

THE MECHANISM OF PSYCHOLOGICAL PROTECTION _ SUPPRESSION - develops to contain the emotion of fear, the manifestations of which are unacceptable for positive self-perception and threaten to fall into direct dependence on the aggressor. Fear is blocked by forgetting the real stimulus, as well as all objects, facts and circumstances associated with it.

The suppression cluster includes mechanisms close to it: ISOLATION AND INTROJECTION. Isolation is subdivided by some authors into DISTANCE, DEREALIZATION and DEPERSANOLIZATION, which can be expressed by the formulas: “it was somewhere far and long ago, as if not in reality, as if not with me”.

In other sources, the same terms are used to refer to pathological disorders of perception.

Features of protective behavior are normal: careful avoidance of situations that can become problematic and cause fear (for example, flying on an airplane, public speaking, etc.), inability to defend one's position in a dispute, conciliation, humility, timidity, forgetfulness, fear of new acquaintances, pronounced tendencies to avoid and submit are rationalized, and anxiety is overcompensated in the form of unnaturally calm, slow behavior, deliberate equanimity, etc.

Character accentuation: anxiety (according to K. Leonhard), conformity (according to P.B. Gannushkin).

Possible behavioral deviations: hypochondria, irrational conformism, sometimes extreme conservatism.

Possible psychosomatic diseases (according to E. Bern): fainting, heartburn, loss of appetite, duodenal ulcer.

Diagnostic concept: passive diagnosis (according to R. Plutchik).

Type of group role: "the role of the innocent."

a defense mechanism - REGRESSION - develops in early childhood to contain feelings of self-doubt and fear of failure associated with taking the initiative. Regression implies a return in an exclusive situation to more ontogenetically immature patterns of behavior and satisfaction.

Regressive behavior, as a rule, is encouraged by adults who have an attitude towards emotional symbiosis and infantilization of the child.

The regression cluster also includes the MOTOR ACTIVITY mechanism, which involves involuntary irrelevant actions to relieve stress.

Features of protective behavior are normal: weakness of character, lack of deep interests, susceptibility to the influence of others, suggestibility, inability to complete the work begun, slight mood swings, tearfulness, in an exclusive situation, increased drowsiness and immoderate appetite, manipulation small items, involuntary actions (rubbing hands, twisting buttons, etc.), specific "childish" facial expressions and speech, a tendency to mysticism and superstition, heightened nostalgia, intolerance to loneliness, the need for stimulation, control, encouragement, consolation, the search for new experiences, the ability to easily establish superficial contacts, impulsiveness.

Accentuation of character (according to P.B. Gannushkin): instability.

Possible behavioral deviations: infantilism, parasitism, conformism in antisocial groups, alcohol and drug use.

Diagnostic concept: unstable psychopathy.

Possible psychosomatic illnesses: No data available.

Group role type:"the role of the child".

The defense mechanism of the psyche - COMPENSATION- ontogenetically the latest and cognitively complex protective mechanism, which is developed and used, as a rule, consciously. Designed to contain feelings of sadness, grief over a real or imaginary loss, loss, lack, lack, inferiority.

Compensation involves an attempt to correct or find a substitute for this inferiority.

The compensation cluster includes the following mechanisms: OVERCOMPENSATION, IDENTIFICATION, and FANTASY, which can be understood as compensation at the ideal level.

Features of protective behavior in the norm: behavior due to installation on a serious and methodical work over oneself, finding and correcting one's shortcomings, overcoming difficulties, achieving high results in activities, serious sports, collecting, striving for originality, a penchant for memories, literary creativity.

Accentuation of character: distimism.

Possible deviations: aggressiveness, drug addiction, alcoholism, sexual deviations, promiscuity, kleptomania, vagrancy, insolence, arrogance, ambition.

Diagnostic concept: depression.

Possible psychosomatic diseases: anorexia nervosa, sleep disturbance, headaches, atherosclerosis.

Type of group role: "role of unifying".

Psychological protection - PROJECTION- develops relatively early in ontogenesis to contain the feeling of rejection of oneself and others as a result of emotional rejection on their part. The projection involves attributing various negative qualities to others as a rational basis for their rejection and self-acceptance against this background.

Features of protective behavior are normal: pride, pride, selfishness, vindictiveness, vindictiveness, resentment, vulnerability, a heightened sense of injustice, arrogance, ambition, suspicion, jealousy, hostility, stubbornness, intractability, intolerance to objections, a tendency to incriminate others, the search for shortcomings, isolation, pessimism, increased sensitivity to criticism and remarks, exactingness to oneself and others, the desire to achieve high performance in any kind of activity.

Possible deviations of behavior: behavior determined by overvalued or delusional ideas of jealousy, injustice, persecution, invention, own inferiority or grandiosity. On this basis, manifestations of hostility are possible, reaching the point of violent acts and murders. Less common are the sadistic-masochistic complex and the hypochondriacal symptom complex, the latter on the basis of distrust of medicine and doctors.

Diagnostic concept: paranoia.

Possible psychosomatic diseases: hypertension, arthritis, migraine, diabetes, hyperthyroidism.

Group role type: reviewer role.

mental protection - SUBSTITUTION- develops to contain the emotion of anger at a stronger, older or more significant subject acting as a frustrator, in order to avoid retaliatory aggression or rejection. The individual relieves tension by turning anger and aggression on a weaker animate or inanimate object or on himself.

Therefore, substitution has both active and passive forms and can be used by individuals regardless of their type of conflict response and social adaptation.

Features of protective behavior are normal: impulsiveness, irritability, exactingness towards others, rudeness, irascibility, protest reactions in response to criticism, uncharacteristic feelings of guilt, passion for “combat” sports (boxing, wrestling, hockey, etc.), preference for movies with scenes of violence (action movies, horror films, etc.), commitment to any activity associated with risk, a pronounced tendency to dominance is sometimes combined with sentimentality, a tendency to engage in physical labor.

Possible behavioral deviations: aggressiveness, uncontrollability, a tendency to destructive and violent actions, cruelty, immorality, vagrancy, promiscuity, prostitution, often chronic alcoholism, self-harm and suicide.

Diagnostic concept: epileptoidness (according to P.B. Gannushkin), excitable psychopathy (according to N.M. Zharikov), aggressive diagnosis (according to R. Plutchik).

Possible psychosomatic diseases: hypertension, arthritis, migraine, diabetes, hyperthyroidism, gastric ulcer (according to E. Bern).

Type of group role: "the role of the looking for a scapegoat."

Psychological defense mechanism - INTELLECTUALIZATION- develops in early adolescence to contain the emotion of expectation or anticipation for fear of experiencing disappointment. The formation of this mechanism is usually correlated with frustrations associated with failures in competition with peers.

It involves arbitrary schematization and interpretation of events to develop a sense of subjective control over any situation. This cluster includes the following mechanisms: CANCELLATION, SUBLIMATION and RATIONALIZATION.

The latter is subdivided into actual rationalization, anticipating, for oneself and for others, post-hypnotic and projective, and has the following methods: discrediting the goal, discrediting the victim, exaggerating the role of circumstances, asserting harm for good, overestimating what is available and self-discrediting.

Features of protective behavior are normal: diligence, responsibility, conscientiousness, self-control, a tendency to analysis and introspection, thoroughness, awareness of obligations, love of order, uncharacteristic bad habits, foresight, discipline, individualism.

Character accentuation: psychasthenia (according to P.B. Gannushkin), pedantic character.

Possible deviations of behavior: inability to make a decision, substitution of activity for "reasoning", self-deception and self-justification, pronounced detachment, cynicism, behavior caused by various phobias, ritual and other obsessive actions.

Diagnostic concept: obsession.

Possible psychosomatic diseases: pain in the heart, vegetative disorders, spasms of the esophagus, polyuria, sexual disorders.

Type of group role: "the role of the philosophizer".

REACTIVE EDUCATION - a protective mechanism of the psyche, the development of which is associated with the final assimilation of "higher social values" by the individual.

Reaction formation develops to contain the joy of owning a certain object (for example, one's own body) and being able to use it in a certain way (for example, for sex and aggression).

The mechanism involves the development and emphasizing in the behavior of the opposite attitude.

Features of protective behavior are normal: rejection of everything related to the functioning of the body and gender relations is expressed in various forms and with varying intensity, avoidance of public baths, latrines, changing rooms, etc., a sharp negative attitude towards "indecent" conversations, jokes, films of an erotic nature (also with scenes of violence), erotic literature, strong feelings about violations of "personal space", accidental contact with other people (for example, in public transport), an emphasized desire to comply with generally accepted standards of behavior, relevance, concern for "decent" appearance, politeness, courtesy, respectability, disinterestedness, sociability, as a rule, high spirits.

Of the other features: the condemnation of flirting and exhibitionism, abstinence, sometimes vegetarianism, moralizing, the desire to be an example for others.

Character accentuations: sensitivity, exaltation.

Possible behavioral deviations: pronounced inflated self-esteem, hypocrisy, hypocrisy, extreme puritanism.

Diagnostic concept: manic.

Possible psychosomatic diseases (according to F. Alexander): bronchial asthma, peptic ulcer, ulcerative colitis.

This completes the description of the defense mechanisms of the human psyche.

I wish you all mental health!

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