While a student at a university, many years ago, I remember learning the psychological concept of ‘defense mechanisms.’ They represent the various, mostly sub-conscience, behaviors we use daily to defend and to protect our self esteem (ego).
Healthy people normally use various defenses throughout life. Defense mechanisms are most often learned behaviors, mostly learned during our youth. We can always find a justifying and rational reason to do what we do that makes even odd behavior appear to be reasonable. Sigmund Freud said that, “No one who, like me, conjures up the most evil of those half-tamed demons that inhabit the human breast, and seeks to wrestle with them, can expect to come through the struggle unscathed.” The purpose of ego defense mechanisms is to protect the self/ego from anxiety, social sanctions and/or to provide a refuge from a situation with which a person cannot cope. In other words defense mechanisms are necessary to reduce the scathing and the struggles of living in a sometimes indifferent world while trying to tame our demons—a world where there are certain individual protocols and expectations that when not lived up to, social sanctions are expected, if not administered. The half-tamed demons referred to by Freud represent the temptations driving the natural man who was described by King Benjamin, “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord.”(Mosiah 3:19) Because Freud was not a religious man, to him, the natural man will inhibit his natural desires only to the extent that it is necessary for his protection (to remain unscathed in the society in which he lives). We can read stories in the paper every day about those who have very few inhibitions. They are the misfits, the uninhibited in a civilized society. Religious or not, we all fight our half-tamed demons from time to time. On the other hand, the majority of the people in our society are concerned about their personal self image to the extent that they use these defense mechanisms to protect that image and even to enhance it. They may use them every day of their lives. Most of these defense mechanisms are activated subconsciously, meaning most of us don’t realize we’re using them at any given moment. One of the most common examples used in a Christian society is a mechanism called ‘repression.’ Repression is the subconscious blocking of unacceptable thoughts, feelings and impulses. Selfish desires or sexual thoughts that are prohibited in our society but yet are considered natural, those are most commonly repressed.
If defensive tools are not used effectively to control our demons, and we are personally found guilty of violating the public protocol, the only way back to social and self acceptance is repentance. Our mechanisms that are mostly subconscious now have to use one that is very much conscious in nature.
While raising five sons, during their teen years, I witnessed their struggle to find an acceptable way to express their independence. They would be frustrated and rather than strike out against the var- ious authority figures in their lives, they would strike out against a safe object, such as punching a hole in their bedroom wall. This behavior is referred to as ‘displacement.’
Many generally honest people feel that it is OK to fudge on their tax returns because they feel that everybody does it. With all the loop holes many feel that it is actually expected. We ‘compartmentalize’ that behavior or separate it from whom we really are—’honest people.’ Others may break the law or do things that are contrary to their religious beliefs but ‘disassociate’ that behavior from who they feel they really are. We protect our self image by, in a sense, subconsciously believing that that behavior is not really me—I am a better person than that.
There are times that we project our inappropriate thoughts or impulses toward someone else because the thought was not a socially acceptable thought. By attributing or ‘projecting’ it to someone else, we can safely express it and protect our own image.
‘Intellectualizing’ is a very common mechanism for verbally expres- sive people. They can find many ways to describe and/or explain away their inappropriate and impulsive behavior. “Compensation’ is another mechanism we commonly use. Compensation is a process of psychologically counterbalancing perceived weaknesses by emphasizing strength in other arenas. For example, I may not be very good at tennis, but I can type 80 words a minute.
I haven’t described half of the defense mechanisms identified in text books but I believe the point is made that we are regularly using one or the other of these mechanisms to protect our self image. Some may reference them as unnecessary and foolish concepts, but because we are human and our self esteem is essential to each of us, it is common for us to use them daily, albeit sub-consciously. Some will use them with more finesse than others. May God bless us to be able to tame what Freud referred to as our demons and that we may put off the natural man described by King Benjamin, so that the need to use defense mechanisms, consciously or subconsciously might be diminished.