Freudian psychoanalytic theory was among the first to recognize and name defense mechanisms, the forms of suppression having the goal of avoiding what is unpleasant or threatening to the self. Although some lists of defenses can have 30 different categories, for our purposes the main types are denial, repression, intellectualization, and projection

Defense mechanisms operate in the here-and-now, with no thought for tomorrow. They’re unthinking and reflexive; they aim only to ward off pain this very moment and don’t take into account the long-term costs of doing so.

Their main defenses are denial, projection, withdrawal, and fantasy. Let’s look at each one in turn.

Our defense mechanisms are invisible methods by which we exclude unacceptable thoughts and feelings from awareness. In the process, they subtly distort our perceptions of reality – in both our personal relationships and the emotional terrain within

Freud believed the ego had defence mechanisms that were designed to deal with internal conflict. These devices were an outlet for the neuroses born from the constant tussle between the public face – the super-ego – and the id or inner rage. He argued that when id impulses (the desire to have sex or take revenge) come into conflict with the super-eg

The main defenses of people caught in the enduring pattern are hiding, enduring, resisting, passive-aggression, self-negation, and self-sabotage.

A major reason for our reactive defenses is that many of us still unconsciously identify ourselves as children and those around us as grown-ups—parent figures—who could devastate us with their rejection and whose protection is necessary for survival.