Man is a strong being, and as inphysical, and in the moral and psychological terms. It is resistant to the most severe stress and can survive any tragedy. This degree of stability provides comprehensive psychological protection. It is thanks to her that you do not think about unpleasant and difficult things for your soul. Psychological protection is on guard of your personality and protects it from harmful influences. It looks like a kind of filter that repels or processes negative information. He does this through the mechanisms of psychological defense. About what it is and "with what they eat", we'll tell you in this article.

Mechanisms of psychological defense

The mechanisms of psychological defensewere not accidental - they really protect the person. From what? They protect us from all kinds of negative information, protect them from psychological trauma, reduce anxiety and help us to maintain respect and love for ourselves. Psychological protection of the individual can not be the only true salvation from all world problems. They only give us a brief "respite" so that we will gain strength and with these forces rushed into battle. When negative information becomes too much, the mechanisms of psychological defense cease to be effective, and the person, having lost his illusions, begins to act and seek a real way out. Psychologists describe an infinite number of different psychological defenses, but we offer your attention only the most interesting and often encountered in life.

Crowding out. Very unpleasant protection, damaging your memory. The essence of repression is reduced to the fact that when something bad happens, information about this traumatic experience seems to be "expelled" from your consciousness. And then you ask, as if nothing had happened, "What was it?". The most interesting is that you really forget about the most unpleasant experience, and about the situation that caused it.

Negation. If repression is the "erasure" of information that has already arrived, then negation is less "dusty" work - it simply does not allow such information to become conscious. This mechanism of psychological protection appears first of all, and this is not surprising, because it protects us from the most threatening information. For example, when one of your loved ones dies, in the first minutes (or even days) your brain does not agree with the harsh reality, and in your head it turns: "It can not be!". This is a denial.

Rationalization. Agree, it sounds very beautiful! However, in reality, everything is not so happy, because this is also a distortion of information about reality. Only in this case, the information is distorted in a rather beautiful way - there are false, but valid reasons for justifying anything, whether your own erroneous actions or, conversely, the unpleasant actions of others around you. The brightest example of such rationalization may be a girl who devises endless excuses for her lover and does not want to admit the bitter truth that he simply does not like her.

Reverse reaction ("reactive formations"). In essence, this behavior is diametrically opposed to your desires. This is due to a conflict inside your soul: on the one hand you want something, and on the other - your mind forbids you to want it, and to the heap - even think about this desire. And you behave in a completely opposite way to your desire. It sounds confusing, does not it? However, everything becomes clear if you think about how adolescents express their love and tenderness. On the one hand, the boy likes the girl, and on the other the people around him (and his mind) say to him: "Come on, real guys do not fall in love and do not disband girls' snot," thus forbidding experiencing this tenderness. And then he behaves quite unexpectedly - pulls the girl she liked because of the pigtails. And she, not guessing about how things are in fact, is offended and puzzled.

Projection. Oh, oh, this is a lot of people who sin! The projection is the attribution to other people of their qualities, thoughts, feelings, intentions - in general, everything that happens in your head. It can be both negative and positive. An example of a negative is the following train of thought: "Well, I would not miss a car leaving, and no one will ever let me through," but an example of a positive one is this: "I try not to deceive anyone, and nobody will fool me." On the one hand, this certainly benefits, because without projection we would only do that wandered in uncertainty. And on the other - you, instead of living in reality, something there about it you come up with and miss the real life "here and now."

Regression. Very funny by external manifestations of psychological defense, the mechanism of which is that a person begins to behave like a small child. This can manifest itself in completely different situations. For example, you want a tenth pair of new shoes, and the husband suddenly stands in a pose and does not agree to buy them to you. Then you first start to talk to him, if it does not help - to be capricious, and if that does not help, then you make a scandal. Familiar? No, of course, this is not the only possible reaction, but sometimes it happens. Or, when someone offended you, you can feel like a little girl who wants to be pitied. And sometimes such a child's behavior is very effective.

Sublimation. This is the most healthy and productive mechanism of psychological defense. This is when you meet your desires and needs, but in a positive and creative way. Everyone has probably heard about Freud's idea of ​​two basic instincts - the craving for life, which manifests itself in sexual desires, and the craving for death, which manifests itself in the desire to destroy and cause harm. But you can not always have sex and fight! Therefore, living in society, a person is forced in the majority of such aspirations to replace others - the desire to create, work, learn something, play sports, etc. ... Without such a protective mechanism, we would never have climbed out of the caves and built a civilized society.

Care. When a person gets tired of the problems that have fallen on him, he simply goes away from all this - hiding in a dark corner, forgetting himself in alcohol or simply going to bed. There is a closure on yourself, while the problem that caused anxiety and sadness can not be solved. Care is useful as a temporary respite, but as a lifestyle, it is not just useless, but even harmful, because problems are all piling up and piling up like a snowball, which does not help them solve their problems and improve their own lives.

Substitution. Simply put, the search for a "scapegoat". When we feel negative feelings for someone or something, but we can not express them to him, we are looking for an object that can be broken. For example, at work the boss cursed you with the last words, and you can not answer him directly and sit, swallowing the insult. But when you come home, you splash out your aggression and anger at the first households that came to hand, which in fact are not to blame for anything. The reaction as a whole is useful: it is possible to "lower steam" and not to explode. However, in this case, as elsewhere and always, excesses can be dangerous.

Identification. In general, thanks to identification, we, growing up, adopt the manner of behavior of our parents and other important adults for us. This is a necessary mechanism for proper growth and development. But it can work at other times. For example, when you are told a heart-rending story about the girl that your husband left, you are angry. And you get angry because you identify with the girl and get in her place, after which you instantly have a desire to crack her husband's head.

Desacralization. A very interesting mechanism that manifests itself in the fact that you are trying to be serious about the things that really matter to you. You seem to depreciate them so that if something does not work out, you do not feel the sense of disappointment and loss. It sounds a bit flamboyant, so let's try to understand the examples. You probably know when many modern girls laugh at the desire of others to marry and loudly declare: "Marriage? Wedding? Yes this is all philistine nonsense, invented by vicious monsters to enslave women! ". Although, if you look at them, it turns out that each of these girls really really wants to get married, but since no one calls them, they make this subject an object of ridicule, so that it will not be sad and offensive.

Complex of Iona. This mechanism received its name due to the biblical hero Ion, who for a long time tried to avoid the role of a prophet, fearing the responsibility assigned to him. Sounds very familiar, does not it? For sure, each of us at least once in my life did something, fearing that it will not work out, that it will be too difficult and difficult, or that it is not for her at all. Those who have this protection become a lifestyle, do not achieve special success in any way and are content with quite an average position and standard of living.

Hidden Danger

And what happens when the mechanisms of psychologicalprotection do not work as you would like? Unfortunately, this happens, and quite often. The cause of failure in the well-functioning work of psychological protection of the individual is a simple and explainable human craving for peace. After all, none of us wants to be scared, anxious and bad! Therefore, when the desire to be in a state of psychological comfort overcomes the desire to explore the world and take risks, the well-established mechanisms of psychological defense cease to work as it should, and self-deception begins. Psychological protection is a whole security complex, consisting of separate mechanisms. At the same time, each of us has his own favorite psychological defense, which he uses most often. For example, for any, even the strangest human behavior, you are trying to find a rational reason and explain it with the help of logic. This is how your love for rationalization manifests itself. But there is a fine line between just the most preferred protection and the violation of an equivalent ratio in their work. Troubles begin when the psychological defense you are using does not suit the situation at all. For example, when it was best to disconnect from the harmful information coming from outside, suddenly you start to swear with everyone in a row. In the end, it goes to everyone - to you and to the people around you. What are the possible variants of the unfavorable outcome of the events? For example, a person can too often resort to protecting his personality with the help of jet formations. If such a person is you, the most important thing for you is self-control and management of your behavior. At the same time, you love to enjoy life, but you have to constantly suppress your inadequate or wrong desires. Constantly doing so, you run the risk of losing contact with your body. You do not listen to it, and sometimes even scold it, and at one point it will not solve: "Why am I always sticking out? My opinion and desires are still uninteresting to anybody, so I will remain silent! ". And he will shut up. And he will only remind of himself with all sorts of ailments and sores. Therefore, it is important to remember: self-control is very important, because without it you can not be educated and cultured person, but you do not need to overdo it. Allow yourself sometimes to be a girl with not very right desires. Another possible option is the kink in the direction of negation. Well, everything is very simple here. When there is too much denial in your life, you live not a full life, but only half of it. And let it be a positive or even better half of your life, but it's only half. Which will always be small. In addition, without receiving a negative feedback from life, you can not improve it. It will be difficult for you to work on mistakes and change your behavior in the right direction, because you simply will not know where and what goes wrong. It's like living without pain, which signals to us about problems in the body - you just can not understand that you are cold or that you have crunched the skull, which can even lead to death. It's the same with the soul, which is important anxiety and other unpleasant experiences. A person who too often uses substitution, usually a bad reputation. Among his friends and acquaintances he or she knows as an aggressive person. If this is about you, then you probably already are tired of your anger. Without a substitution, of course, it would be worse, and you would not get out of serious conflicts at all, but in especially neglected cases - from places not so remote. However, with the replacement of you and your loved ones, life is hard, because they often act as "scapegoats." If they began to notice so frequent outbreaks of aggression, then it's worth thinking about - where do you get so much anger from? This can be a reason for serious work on yourself, otherwise you risk growing old alone and with a whole bunch of cardiovascular diseases (namely, they mostly suffer from evil people). Excessive regression can mean that you, in fact, do not want to become an adult and a responsible person. Such reluctance can hide behind the mask of a confident and independent lady, but deep down you are a girl who wants to feel safe. You want to be like in childhood - you can almost everything, and the maximum that you will be for it - a reprimand from the parents. You aspire to experience the same children's variety of emotions and sensations, which in adult life is not enough. In this situation it is necessary to understand what prevents you from growing up and turning from a small girl into an adult woman, and then try to eliminate it. Projection in general is very important for the normal life of any person. It helps us to know the world, dispelling the fog of uncertainty. However, at a time when it becomes too much, you stop communicating with these people and begin to communicate with the images you invented. What is not good, because you are not a telepath and are not capable of 100% guessing what others think and feel. These others may even take offense at the fact that you all decide for them. The key to resolving such a problem is talking to people. Ask them: "What did you think? And what do you feel? "And you will find out that everything is completely different from what is happening in your head. For example, when you stumble, many do not laugh at you, but feel compassion and a desire to help. Or when you are sitting on a date with a guy, thinking: "He thinks I'm talking nonsense that I'm a fat pathetic ugly," try to take a chance and ask directly what he is thinking now, communicating with you. For sure you will be surprised by the result. And after such practice the world will become better and kinder to you! Use your mind is a good thing, but when it comes to excessive rationalization, the positive somehow dims. And that's why. You spend a very long time trying to find a reason or justification for not having them. In fact, it's such a beautiful and veiled denial. It also does not let you know about objective reality, only does it with your own mind. The way out is the same as with any other denial: when you catch yourself using such protection for the hundredth time, just say to yourself: "Hey, what are you doing? Enough to deny what is happening. Accept it and put up with it! Let it be hard, but it must be experienced and forgotten. " This may be a reason to think: do you have a psychological attitude that sounds something like this: "We should always smile, be happy, live positive, everything should always be good." If now you have recognized yourself, then these thoughts must be abandoned. This setting puts you in a very strict framework and prevents you from experiencing other emotions, and also makes you feel sad and angry when life is not so joyful. Desacralization is such a special variant of rationalization. You lose something or are disappointed in something, but do not want to experience sadness. This is generally not a useful mechanism. After all, without recognizing the importance of what you lose, you can not return it or find it again. It's like loudly saying aloud: "Yes, I do not need your candy!" - then no one will offer it to you exactly. But come and say: "You know, I still want candy" is difficult, but this is the only possible option to get it in an adult way. In Jonah's complex, too, there is nothing good - you are trying to use your mind, which gives you obsequious reasons for refusing to realize yourself: "you can not", "it's complicated," "it's difficult," "you do not need it," etc. ... The most important thing that you lose is your creativity and opportunities for personal growth. A perceptible loss, is not it? So maybe it's worth stopping to refuse and finally taking responsibility into your own hands? And only then you can achieve something more, because, as they say, "who does not risk - he does not drink champagne"! Excessive isolation also does not lead up to good. This denial in the square - you cut yourself off from any information about the outside world. Well, what can I say, if you abuse this way of protection, you simply miss your life. And in old age you will have nothing to remember - your life will appear before you with a white sheet, if you continue to run from it. But you will not do this? Come back to life, and she will smile to you! However, it happens that more than one mechanism is strengthened, and all psychological defense in general. What does it mean? And the fact that a person puts his defense of his personality to the maximum, and his anxiety is completely turned off. Than it threatens? In general, this is not very good. As they say, "you will live happily, but not for long." The thing is that you cease to adequately assess the reality and what is happening to you, because you receive only a positive response, and the negative one is filtered out. Accordingly, you make a lot of mistakes, do not understand that you are doing wrong, and you have very few chances to fix it. There is nothing good in this psychological vacuum, because it shields you from real life. But there is nothing good in the total reduction in the intensity of all mechanisms. It is necessary to know in everything a measure, and psychological protection is no exception. When its severity decreases, a person becomes incredibly vulnerable to all externalities that come from outside. Constant bombardment of your "I" with all sorts of unpleasant information is fraught with the fact that you do not have time to regain strength and exhausted. And this is much more unpleasant than simple fatigue, as it leads to various psychosomatic disorders. Let's sum up. Psychological protection is two-faced Janus, who can serve you both good and evil. The main thing is not to bend the stick and use the services of your "guards" wisely. Remember that it's impossible to get rid of anxiety, and it's not necessary. Let psychological protection protect you from excessive troubles and negative feelings, but with inevitable problems you will have to meet yourself. After all, only in this way you will be able to acquire a life experience that is useful and necessary for your development, which makes your path unique and unrepeatable.

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