A Primer on Psychological Defenses
We all use defenses to alter reality. The question is how severely.
Posted August 27, 2021 | Reviewed by Kaja Perina
We all use psychological defenses to avoid unwanted awareness. The defenses a mentally healthy person uses distort reality only slightly. But a mentally compromised person relies on defenses to dramatically reshape their experience of reality. When someone presents obviously distorted reality and insists it is not distorted, we wonder whether they are trying to deceive us or they are mentally unbalanced. Perhaps it is in our best interest to examine the pandemic of deception and mental disorder mixed into the world we live in today.
Defenses Are Necessarily Unconscious
For our psychological defenses to work, they must operate without our knowing it. If a person were to become aware of their defenses and recognize why they were altering reality, they would no longer believe the altered reality.
In some forms of psychotherapy , the therapist goes about methodically dismantling the client's defenses so the client is less able to keep reality out. Therapists use caution when doing this kind of therapy. Before slamming a client with more reality than they can deal with, the therapist strengthens the client's ability to accommodate reality.
This needs to be kept in mind when having a political discussion. The person we want to influence may be unable to tolerate a more accurate reality. Or, we may be intolerant to reality. After all, since psychological defenses are invisible to the person using them, we may not know how tolerant we are to reality.
The way we are psychologically organized is based on our experiences. The experiences that shape us most are the relationships we had when we depended on others for our physical needs and for physical and emotional safety. Trauma , distrust , betrayal, and punishment when at the tender mercies of others can scar us in ways that force us to employ reality-altering defenses without which we would be unable to function.
In general, the less safe we feel, the more we need to be in control, and the greater we need defenses that make us feel in control. The more trauma we experienced, the more we must ignore our feelings, control what we think, and depend on psychological defenses to get through every moment. It has long been known that we humans defend ourselves against reality. Plato addressed this over two thousand years ago in his "Allegory of the Cave." It is not a question of whether we distort reality. We all do. It is a question of how much. As a therapist, I have yet to meet anyone who is totally "sane." So, what I propose here is we be open to how defended from reality we - and others - might be.
There are different levels of psychological defense. Psychiatrist George Valliant , professor at the Harvard Medical School, classifies defenses into pathological, immature, neurotic , and mature in his paper titled " Ego Mechanisms of Defense and Personality Disorder ."
Pathological Defenses
A person who uses pathological defenses is unaware their reality is distorted in any way and may engage in:
These anxiety -reducing defenses are typical of a child whose caregiver is both intolerable and essential, hated and loved, or aggressor and protector. These are also used by personality -disordered adults.
These defenses are less entrenched and may be recognized by a person using them if clearly pointed out.
Unlike other defenses, mature defenses may be conscious and intentional ways to reduce anxiety; they may provide social benefits.
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Captain Tom Bunn, LCSW , is an airline pilot and author who has dedicated 30 years to the development of effective methods for treating flight phobia.
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This article is part of the Bringwise Psychology Journal — daily insights on human behavior, mental health, and personal growth.