A researcher tried to go a day without using defence mechanisms. He lasted one hour

“Whenever we feel unease, stress, or anxiety and feel exposed in a situation, our defence mechanisms rush to our aid, for better or for worse,” says Hans Christoffer Aargaard Terjesen, who researches leadership at OsloMet’s Work Research Institute.

Defence mechanisms are unconscious psychological processes that help us keep painful feelings, unpleasant impulses, and anxiety out of our awareness, according to Britannica.

A few years ago, Terjesen was going to write a chapter on defence mechanisms in a book about leadership, but he found the topic so broad that it developed into a whole popular science book.

“We use defence mechanisms just as much in relationships, in family life, and in everyday life. We use them every day,” says Terjesen.

He has therefore written a book about 21 defence mechanisms discussed in academic psychology texts.

Terjesen believes that learning about defence mechanisms can help us become more empathetic people.

“I think we can learn to understand others a little better. I often say that it's a self-insight book about our own and others’ selves," he says.

1. Rationalisation

Terjesen highlights a defence mechanism that everyone probably recognises: rationalisation.

“It fits well, because it's almost Christmas, and a lot of people will start making New Year's resolutions. We’ll start the new year by exercising every day, not eating chocolate, and quitting smoking,” he says.

Then a few days or weeks go by, and the resolutions are broken.

“The weather’s bad, it's very boring to eat so much salad, or the gym is full. So you shuffle over to the sweet cupboard and cancel your aerobics class,” he says.

Then come the rationalisations: I've worked so hard, I deserve the reward, January is a depressing month anyway. You smoke a cigarette and tell yourself it's not really that harmful, says Terjesen.

“We make rational excuses for why we break our New Year's resolutions,” he says. 

But why?

“We like to think that we’re rational, sensible people who don’t make choices based on our emotions, except in our love life,” says Terjesen.

2. Devaluation

You may also recognise yourself in devaluation, which involves putting yourself or others down in order not to be disappointed.

Maybe you’re going to give a speech and you start by saying that you’re not a good speaker.

“Then you’ve started using a defence mechanism that's intended to protect you, to tame your own anxiety,” says Terjesen.

But it might not always work that well.

“For one thing, it’s a boring way to start a speech, because you’re really lowering the bar,” he says.

Putting yourself down can also end up becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy, says Terjesen. Many who use devaluation attribute so little value to themselves that it prevents them from working to achieve what they want, he writes in the book.

Devaluation can also involve talking down to others to avoid feeling your own shortcomings. That might lead to you being perceived as an unpleasant person, Terjesen points out in his book.

3. Passive aggression

Most people have probably also behaved passive-aggressively.

You might have done this when you were dealing with difficult emotions by expressing your anger in a deceptive way. Even so, the people around you can perceive the aggressive undertone.

Passive aggression can arise when you have disappointed others or when you feel that your right to be taken care of has not been met, Terjesen writes. Instead of speaking up, anger leaks out in other ways.

Passive aggression often arises as a defence if you experience an imbalance in a power relationship.

Terjesen gives an example where you might say: "Just relax, I’ll do the dishes." Then you rattle pots and make loud noise in the kitchen and deny that you're annoyed about having to do the dishes.

Another example is sending an email with a sarcastic undertone at work.

“It's foolish both in private life and in working life,” says Terjesen.

But passive aggression is not always a bad trait, according to Terjesen. Sometimes it may be better to slam a few cupboard doors than to start a fight.

“But it's often unpleasant, and a lot of people use this defence mechanism,” he says.

4. Reaction formation

Reaction formation is when you behave in the opposite way of what you actually feel.

“Like when someone is unpleasant towards us, and we respond with the complete opposite behaviour,” says Terjesen.

Many people may have worked in a service job and encountered an unpleasant customer.

“Then we respond with exaggerated politeness,” says Terjesen.

This defence mechanism can also rear its head with highly sarcastic family members whom, instead of confronting, you meet with extra cheerfulness.

Why do we react like this? Terjesen says it's to protect ourselves.

“You realise that you aren’t in a situation where you can act out your emotions," he says. “Reaction formation can sometimes be helpful. In a way, you rise above the situation.”

5. Displacement

Displacement involves redirecting negative energy into a situation where we are able to express it.

“We can call this the close cousin of acting out,” says Terjesen. “Let's say you've had a bad morning and had an argument with your husband.”

You go to the store, get irritated over a small detail, and take out your anger on the employee. That’s displacement, says Terjesen.

“You dump your emotion where it doesn't belong,” he says.

And maybe the young man at the checkout meets you with reaction formation, as described in the previous example, says Terjesen.

Another example could be that you feel badly treated at work and take it out on your spouse or children.

“If you engage in a lot of acting out and displacement, then I think you should talk to your doctor or psychologist if you're unable to do anything about it yourself. Because it often hits blindly and it often hits those who least deserve it,” he says.

Be honest with yourself

It can often be difficult to distinguish the defence mechanisms from one another. They blend into each other and often appear together, Terjesen writes.

When working on the book, Terjesen challenged himself to go a whole day without using defence mechanisms.

“I lasted an hour and then I caught myself red-handed,” he says. “But after I wrote the book and encountered situations that trigger me, I’ve tried to remind myself that instead I should allow myself to be more honest with myself and others. But I still slip up all the time,” Terjesen chuckles.

Telling someone that they are using defence mechanisms almost always backfires.

“If you say, ‘now you’re getting defensive,’ people will always become even more defensive,” he says.

Terjesen believes that by knowing a little about defence mechanisms, you can choose to use more of some and less of others.

Central to psychodynamic therapy

What place do defence mechanisms have in the field of psychology?

The concept comes from the psychoanalytic and psychodynamic tradition within psychology, explains Jon Anders Lied. He is a clinical psychologist and assistant professor at NTNU.

"The concept is key to understanding both normal human functioning and mental disorders within this theoretical tradition," he says.

Along with cognitive behavioural therapy, among others, psychodynamic therapy is one of the major recognised forms of therapy that psychologists and other therapists base their daily work on, says Lied.

Psychodynamic therapy has been extensively researched and is considered an empirically validated form of therapy, says Lied, referring to a review study from 2023.

“On this basis, there is reason to say that defence mechanisms have a central place in modern psychology,” he says.

"More manageable"

As a psychodynamic therapist, Lied uses a method called intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy (ISTDP), which he has also written a textbook about. Here, the concept of defence mechanisms is crucial for understanding mental health problems.

“The idea is that we humans, when faced with complex inner states, try to make them more manageable by using defence mechanisms,” he says.

For example, a young boy who grows up with an authoritarian father who teaches him that big boys don't cry will quickly end up in an emotional bind if he finds himself in a painful situation involving gried, says Lied.

“He will quickly learn to use defence mechanisms such as pulling himself together, hiding his tears, perhaps criticising himself for being weak in order to distance himself from the grief,” he says. “The idea is that these ways of distancing oneself create new problems. Understanding what defence mechanisms are is essential when using psychodynamic therapy."

Lied thinks it's positive that a book has now been written about this, as long as it's a good one. He has not yet read the book himself.

References:

Leichsenring et al. The status of psychodynamic psychotherapy as an empirically supported treatment for common mental disorders – an umbrella review based on updated criteria, World Psychiatry, 2023. DOI: 10.1002/wps.21104

Terjesen, H.C.A. 'Forsvarsmekanismer – hvorfor og hvordan vi lurer oss selv og andre i det daglige' (), Flux, 2025. ISBN: 9788283840759

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Translated by Ingrid P. Nuse

Read the Norwegian version of this article on forskning.no

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