Defense Mechanisms

Written by: Jim Arndt, MS
CIGNA Behavioral Health

We are sometimes confronted with situations, feelings, and emotions that can put us on the defensive. Situations such as making a mistake on a work assignment, or setting the family budget may cause stress and conflict. Defense mechanisms are our unconscious way of distancing ourselves from our awareness of unpleasant thoughts and feelings. Using defense mechanisms may seem to make situations more tolerable, however they often result in issues going unresolved.

Some positive defenses may be helpful in certain situations, such as offering a person a helping hand up if they fall. Our defenses can mask, impede, or change our feelings and emotions that can distort our view of reality. In many cases, negative defenses can affect our relationships with family, friends, or co-workers.

To help understand the different types of defense mechanisms, George Vaillant (1986) outlined a model explaining positive and negative defense mechanisms.

Useful defense mechanisms:

• Understanding — sharing problems and/or difficulties with others without trying to make someone else responsible for them
• Acceptance — accepting the difficult situation
• Transference — changing negative emotions or instincts into positive actions, behavior, or emotion
• Anticipation — realistic planning for future discomfort

Less helpful defense mechanisms:

• Passive aggression — aggression towards others expressed indirectly.
• Physical signs — changing negative feelings towards others into negative feelings toward self, (e.g. pain, illness and anxiety).
• Blaming — attributing one's own unacknowledged feelings to others

Unhealthy defense mechanisms:

• Denial — a refusal to accept external reality because it is too threatening.
• Delusions — may assign feeling or take action in response to an external world based on perception rather than actual reality.
• Repression — blocking the unacceptable impulses and feelings from our consciousness

This information may help us improve our understanding and raise our consciousness about our coping styles. This awareness may make it possible to learn effective coping styles that can help us to develop healthier relationships. By trying to use positive defense mechanisms in place of the negative methods we can hope to be more responsive to the people around us. If you have any concerns about your situation, please call your family doctor or mental health professional.

References:

Vaillant, G. E., Bond, M., & Vaillant, C. O. (1986). An empirically validated hierarchy of defense mechanisms. Archives of General Psychiatry, 73, 786-794. George Eman Valillant

This material is provided by CIGNA Behavioral Health, Inc. for informational/educational purposes only. It is not intended as medical/clinical advice. Only a healthcare provider can make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment plan. For more information about your behavioral health benefits, you can call the member services or behavioral health telephone number listed on your healthcare identification card.