Psychology - Ego Defenses

Mature Ego Defenses

Sublimation

Write: My true goal (eg, to overcome grief) isn't immediately achievable…. So I focus on something that I can succeed at.
Via sublimation, we channel our distress into attainable, positive end-outcomes when our desired end-outcome is not possible. The goal can be similar – a loved one dies of cancer and we fight for cancer awareness or less obvious – we go through a difficult break-up, so we channel our distress into self-improvement. In short, we make ourselves feel better through goals that can bring lasting satisfaction.

Altruism

Write: I don't feel good… It feels good to do something for someone else.
We feel good through giving (resources or time), which turns the volume down on our distress. This is an especially useful strategy when we are too depressed to focus on ourself.

Suppression

Write: The distress overwhelms me… I'm relieved that I can put it away for awhile.
In short, if we can forget it about, we show ourselves that the distress can't be too horrible.

Humor

Write: It can't be too bad, if I still can… Laugh it off.

Immature Ego Defenses

Now, let's run through the numerous immature (destabilizing) ego defenses in alphabetical order and compare similar defenses where possible to help chunk the material. These can be especially helpful in understanding why individuals make choices that seem inappropriate, illogical, or self-destructive.

Acting Out

Write: I feel constrained/repressed… I take back my power by being bad.
Whether the action is big (eg, stealing a car) or small (skipping an appointment), we derive power from allowing ourselves to do something bad/wrong. While empowering, this is inherently destructive.

Avoidance vs Denial

Write: It doesn't have to be real if… Through Avoidance – I don't see it. Through Denial – I don't believe it.

Displacement vs. Projection

Write: Use an object (an empathetic figure) to handle your distress.

Displacement – Make them absorb it for you.

When we are abused, we often are unable to protect ourselves against our attacker. The distress of feeling powerless against the abuse becomes its own hurt and we abuse a less threatening figure in our life as a way to release that distress.

Projection – Make them wear/own it for you. Via projection, we assign an internally distressing impulse to a neutral figure in our life, so we can attack that impulse through the neutral individual without having to attack ourself.

Both displacement and projection damages our perception of the less threatening/neutral figure and potentially their self-perception, as well.

Dissociation vs. Identification

Write: I can't escape the distress... So, through Dissociation – I disappear (imagine floating above the situation – in short, we lose ourself - we are separated from reality in some way) or through Identification – I become someone else (imagine adopting traits and characteristics of an entirely different, seemingly powerful individual): it's easier to become someone else than fix what's broken within us. We become a false self, which is inherently fragile.
While both defenses may seem somewhat innocuous, they are both disempowering, we have to leave our own needs and interests behind to escape the distress.

Fixation vs. Regression

Write: Find comfort in an earlier developmental state. Through Fixation, we never grow up (think: Peter Pan). Through Regression, we revert to a less stressful time in our life (think: midlife crisis).

Idealization vs. Splitting

To avoid the distress of ambiguity…
We use the following:

Idealization – I blindly believe in a protector (I delude myself to preserve their purity). Splitting – Think: black-and-white thinking (ie, all good or all bad).

Ambiguity, by nature, is distressing and so through splitting and idealization, we reduce that distress.

Through idealization, we generate a false hero. Eventually, the idealized individual fails to meet our needs and expectations and we can no longer delude ourself about their ability to care for us, so we cast them aside and find another. This is the idealization/devaluation/dismissal cycle that will perpetuate itself until we learn to handle the distress for ourself.

Splitting offers a similar means of distress management – it creates simple divisions between good and bad, helpful and hurtful, but, it is a reality distortion and, thus, when reality comes in conflict with our perceptions, our perspective is shattered and we are forced to shift our thinking.

Intellectualization vs Isolation of affect

Write: To reduce distress… We use the following:*

Intellectualization – I distract myself with facts; we demonstrate an academic fixation on circumstantial details. This is different than a goal-oriented attempt to understand and better manage the source of the distress. We can be intelligent about understanding our distress without intellectualizing it.
Isolation (of affect) – I go numb (think: robotic, devoid of emotion).

Passive aggression

Write: If I am directly hostile, I am vulnerable to criticism… So I attack in non-confrontational ways.
We can be just as disruptive by not doing what we are supposed to do as we can through open hostility. Passive aggression offers the security of making us less vulnerable to criticism, but we end up compromising our standards (eg, we aren't a good team-player) and in this way it is ultimately destructive (as well as dishonest).

Rationalization

Write: The truth is too distressing… So I believe in a lie.
When reality comes in conflict with our needs, we may elect to believe in a lie to maintain our perceptual distortion. Of course, ultimately this false belief is simply a stopgap because we have not addressed the truth in our situation.

Reaction formation

Write: What I feel is bad (makes me feel guilty)… so I do the opposite to compensate.
When an internal impulse is so distressing that we can't even address it, we will sometimes go to the extreme opposite to avoid the distress. Reaction formation prevents us from understanding where the guilt originates from and managing it and leads us to enacting a false self.

Repression

Write: The distress of an event overwhelms me… So I bury it in my subconscious (note that suppression is a mature, conscious ego defense whereas repression is an unconscious, involuntary defense).

Psychology - Ego Defenses

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