This time I write about defense mechanisms they are plenty and could be called quite milder names for example: artistic and creative problem-solving. Usually, it's about people (all people), who just happen to not want to appear in the same situations that have caused them lots of distress and emotional discomfort. People say it gave me "bad feelings", "I felt bad" because of it so on, not that it had to be bad in general but...that's a different topic. So defense mechanisms are ways to somehow avoid and go around these problematic situations so as not to appear in a similar mental/emotional state again. People often have multiple defense mechanisms and they use them in some combinations. One example of a classification of such mechanisms can be this witchy-looking enneagram (not a pentagram :D You're safe, promise) So let's extrapolate a little about each and every one of these: 1. REACTION FORMATION – feeling one thing and expressing the opposite. 2. REPRESSION - suppressing “unacceptable” feelings and converting them into a more acceptable form of emotional energy 3. IDENTIFICATION - taking on a role so completely that we lose contact with who we are inside. 4. INTROJECTION - unconsciously incorporating the characteristics of a person or object into one’s own psyche. 5. ISOLATION - can be physical withdrawal from others, but also means staying in the head and withdrawing from one’s emotions. 6. PROJECTION - attributing inner concerns and fears to others and external situations. 7. RATIONALIZATION - staying in the head, explaining away or justifying feelings and behaviours to avoid pain or accepting responsibility. 8. DENIAL - the forceful re-directing of attention and feeling based on willfulness and control. 9. NARCOTIZATION - using food, drink, entertainment or repetitive patterns of thinking and doing to “put oneself to sleep”. P.S.: This exact classification is based on Nine Enneagram Personality Types and each type tends to use one most default, primary defence mechanism (source - here). Let's leave this personality type classification for future blog entries. More about nine enneagram personality types - here with a free test, if anyone fancy. This theory was developed out of Big Five personality traits (more in this blog entry) And a few words about classical, academic input of defence mechanisms: Several people developed different theories and classifications, the first of them was Anna Freud, daughter of Sigmund Freud, they both studied these mechanisms. Other people to mention: Otto F. Kernberg, George Eman Vaillant, and Robert Plutchik. Defence mechanisms were also grouped into some categories by several authors, I personally like George Eman Vaillant's four-level classification:
Let's get all artistic, shall we, and in a mature way preferably :) 🎨
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This is my blog about self-knowledge, self-work, emotional healing, growth, psychology, philosophy in general and other related themes. Archives
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