Freud's 8 Defence Mechanisms Explained with Examples

Defense mechanism

A defense mechanism is an unconscious means of coping with anxiety.

Repression: To repress painful memories; whenever the ego is threatened by undesirable id impulses, it protects itself by repressing those impulses
e.g. A child who is abused by a parent later has no recollection of the events, but has trouble forming relationships
Reaction Formation: A ways in which a repressed impulse may become conscious is
through adopting a disguise that is directly opposite its original form. Reactive behavior can be identified by its exaggerated character and by its obsessive and compulsive form.
e.g. a young woman who deeply resents and hates her mother. Because she knows that society demands affection toward parents, such conscious hatred for her mother would produce too much anxiety. To avoid painful anxiety, the young woman concentrates on the opposite
impulse—love. Her “love” for her mother,
Displacement: people can redirect their unacceptable urges onto a variety of people or objects so that the original impulse is disguised or concealed.
e.g. boss gets angry and shouts at man. He goes to home and shout at his wife.
Fixation: The process of psychologically growing up, is not without stressful and
anxious moments. When the prospect of taking the next step becomes too anxiety provoking, the ego may resort to the strategy of remaining at the present, more comfortable psychological stage.
Such a defense is called fixation.
e.g. People who continually derive pleasure from eating, smoking, or talking may have an oral fixation, whereas those who are obsessed with neatness and orderliness may possess an anal fixation.
Regression: Once the libido has passed a developmental stage, it may, during times of stress and anxiety, revert back to that earlier stage. Such a reversion is known as regression
e.g. if kid is afraid to go to school for the first time, so he began to exhibit very childish behaviors like throwing a tantrum, crying, and even wetting her pants.
Projection: Convert your feelings to others/ putting blame on others. An extreme type of projection is paranoia, a mental disorder characterized by powerful delusions of jealousy and persecution.
e.g. a husband who has a hostile nature might attribute this hostility to his wife and say she has an anger management problem
Introjection is a defense mechanism whereby people incorporate positive qualities of another person into their own ego. For example, an adolescent may introject or adopt the mannerisms, values, or lifestyle of a movie star.
Sublimation: Opposite reaction
e.g. An angry pianist will not hurt the person he is angry with, but will instead release his anger into playing the piano