Decipher the Passwords Deep in the Heart - Deep Psychology

Author: Zhang Ming
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-12-01
Features: When the anxious defense self fails to eliminate anxiety in a reasonable way, it must resort to irrational methods such as denying reality or distorting facts to express this purpose. This irrational method is the self-defense mechanism. Below is an introduction to several self-defense mechanisms:
Repression
Repression involves pushing away thoughts, ideas, and unacceptable desires or impulses into the subconscious to forget them. Repression is most important and most basic defense mechanism. The emergence of any other defense mechanism must first involve repression. It is caused by anxiety resulting from unpleasant or painful experiences. Any inner motivation that contradicts society, if left unchecked, inevitably leads to frustration and thus anxiety and pain. Therefore, whenever such physiological or psychological impulses arise, individuals often consciously or unconsciously repress them to maintain peace of mind.
Displacement
Displacement refers to the process of transferring emotional reactions (mostly negative emotions like anger, hatred) from one object to another in order to vent them. Displacement has two types: one is object displacement, where the individual redirects their feelings toward someone or something else. The second type is drive displacement. Drive displacement occurs when the object remains the same, but the emotion changes.
Reaction Formation
Reaction formation is when an individual adopts behavior opposite to their perceived undesirable motives to prevent them from being revealed. This inconsistency between inner motives and outward behavior is known as reaction formation. For example, if someone harbors hatred for another person but feels constrained by status and moral principles to conceal their desire for revenge, they might instead express extraordinary friendliness toward that person.
Sublimation
Sublimation involves transforming original impulses or desires into socially acceptable thoughts or behaviors, allowing individuals to change the purpose and object of their impulses without suppressing their expression. Typically, the original impulses or desires are redirected toward a more noble direction, acquiring creativity, constructive meaning, and value, enabling individuals to fully demonstrate their capabilities.
Denial
Rationalization, also known as defensiveness, occurs when an individual's actions fail to achieve predetermined goals or when the goals do not align with social value standards. To reduce and avoid anxiety and pain caused by frustration while maintaining self-esteem, they seek various justifications or excuses to defend themselves. Rationalization involves flawed reasoning to make unreasonable behavior appear reasonable. In real life, it manifests in various forms, such as the "sour grapes" mentality. This concept originates from Aesop's fables, meaning that unattainable grapes are sour, and things one cannot have are bad. Unreachable goals are framed as ones they never wanted to achieve in the first place. Another example is the "sweet lemon" mentality, where everything one possesses is considered good. If they cannot have grapes, but only lemons, they convince themselves that the lemons are sweet.
Projection
Projection involves attributing one's own unacceptable desires, attitudes, and behaviors to others or to external causes. The phenomenon of projection is also significant for understanding the mental life of normal individuals, such as