Why it can be difficult for us to understand the true cause of our problems without the

help of a psychologist? Because when trying to understand them, unconscious defenses often work, which do not allow us to meet with ourselves. Consider eight such mechanisms.

Psychological defense is an unconscious mental process, the purpose of which is to minimize negative experiences.

These mechanisms are needed so that a person in unpleasant or painful situations can protect himself from pain, stress, shame or, for example, to maintain respect for himself. With their help, our unconscious does not allow us to recognize those facts that may “not like” our consciousness, and protects us from depressive and other spawning states.

Simply put, when we unconsciously deceive ourselves, it becomes easier for us. This is a good, environmentally friendly function of psychological defense. But on the other hand, they harm us because they distort reality and make us turn a blind eye to our problems.

Thus, a person accumulates difficulties, dissatisfaction with life, anxiety, signs of depression and psychosomatic diseases-migraine, insomnia, vegetative-vascular dystonia and other unpleasant manifestations may appear.

8 psychological defense

The protective mechanisms of the psyche opened and described Sigmund Freud. We list the most famous of them.

1. crowding out

We often forget what we are ashamed of, what is unpleasant or unprofitable to remember. Once, at my consultation, a woman clearly realized that a civil husband does not love her. However, at that moment she was not ready to get away from him, so the crowding out – and at the end of our session, she could no longer remember this awareness of her awareness.

2. Rationalization

A person logically argues the reasons for his inaction and invents convincing (albeit biased) explanations to his failures. For example, if romantic relationships do not develop, people often carefully convince themselves that they simply do not have time on them. Or that they do not need it at all, because in life there are so many interesting things.

3. Projection

Sometimes we attribute to others our own negative qualities, feelings, desires or problems. When a person knows about his drawback or problem, but does not want to accept this part of his part, he begins to see the same shortcomings or problems with others (even where they are not). So easier for us, because it turns out that we are not the only one, which means that everything is fine.

4. Sublimation

This is an unconscious switching of negative mental energy to classes of socio-useful labor. Sublimation is the most useful type of protection, because it is often very creative. Many works of science and art were created thanks to unrequited love or unsatisfied sexual desire. But in this case there is a risk of an imbalance in life, and in this case one area completely replaces the other. For example, personal life is completely replaced by work.

Psychologists can gently open these “locks” and give applied tools to solve problems of various complexity