We all have thoughts, feelings, impulses, and memories that can be difficult to deal with. In some cases, people deal with difficult feelings by utilizing what are known as defense mechanisms. These defense mechanisms are unconscious psychological responses that protect people from feelings of anxiety, threats to self-esteem, and things that they don't want to think about or deal with.﻿﻿

The term got its start in psychoanalytic therapy, but it has slowly worked its way into the parlance of everyday language. Think of the last time you referred to someone as being "in denial" or accused someone of "rationalizing." Both of these examples refer to a type of defense mechanism.

Verywell / JR Bee

What Exactly Is a Defense Mechanism?

Most notably used by Sigmund Freud in his psychoanalytic theory, a defense mechanism is a tactic developed by the ego to protect against anxiety.﻿﻿

Defense mechanisms are thought to safeguard the mind against feelings and thoughts that are too difficult for the conscious mind to cope with.

In some instances, defense mechanisms are thought to keep inappropriate or unwanted thoughts and impulses from entering the conscious mind.

How Do Defense Mechanisms Work?

In Sigmund Freud's model of personality, the ego is the aspect of personality that deals with reality. While doing this, the ego also has to cope with the conflicting demands of the id and the superego.

The id : The part of the personality that seeks to fulfill all wants, needs, and impulses. The id is the most basic, primal part of our personalities and does not consider things such as social appropriateness, morality, or even the reality of fulfilling our wants and needs.

: The part of the personality that seeks to fulfill all wants, needs, and impulses. The id is the most basic, primal part of our personalities and does not consider things such as social appropriateness, morality, or even the reality of fulfilling our wants and needs. The superego: The part of the personality that tries to get the ego to act in an idealistic and moral manner. The superego is made up of all of the internalized morals and values we acquire from our parents, other family members, religious influences, and society.

In order to deal with anxiety, Freud believed that defense mechanisms helped shield the ego from the conflicts created by the id, superego, and reality.﻿﻿ So what happens when the ego cannot deal with the demands of our desires, the constraints of reality, and our own moral standards?

According to Freud, anxiety is an unpleasant inner state that people seek to avoid. Anxiety acts as a signal to the ego that things are not going the way they should. As a result, the ego then employs some sort of defense mechanism to help reduce these feelings of anxiety.﻿﻿

Types of Anxiety

Not all types of anxiety are created equal. Nor do these anxieties stem from the same sources. Freud identified three types of anxiety:

Moral anxiety : A fear of violating our own moral principles. ﻿ ﻿

: A fear of violating our own moral principles. ﻿ Neurotic anxiety : The unconscious worry that we will lose control of the id's urges, resulting in punishment for inappropriate behavior.

: The unconscious worry that we will lose control of the id's urges, resulting in punishment for inappropriate behavior. Reality anxiety: Fear of real-world events. The cause of this anxiety is usually easily identified. For example, a person might fear a dog bite when they are near a menacing dog. The most common way of reducing this anxiety is to avoid the threatening object.

Although we may knowingly use these mechanisms, in many cases these defenses work unconsciously to distort reality.

For example, if you are faced with a particularly unpleasant task, your mind may choose to forget your responsibility in order to avoid the dreaded assignment. In addition to forgetting, other defense mechanisms include rationalization, denial, repression, projection, rejection, and reaction formation.

While all defense mechanisms can be unhealthy, they can also be adaptive and allow us to function normally.

The greatest problems arise when defense mechanisms are overused in order to avoid dealing with problems. In psychoanalytic therapy, the goal may be to help the client uncover these unconscious defense mechanisms and find better, healthier ways of coping with anxiety and distress.

10 Key Defense Mechanisms

Sigmund Freud's daughter, Anna Freud, described 10 different defense mechanisms used by the ego. Other researchers have also described a wide variety of additional defense mechanisms.