Psychological mechanisms to protect the individual from destruction

Often a person gets into a situation that contradicts his ideas about the place in the society that this individual has chosen for himself. Sometimes the desire of the individual does not coincide with his capabilities. Or the attitude of others do not correspond to the idea of the person with the way he thinks about himself. As a result, an internal conflict arises, a dispute between the two "I": one of them, as it were, observes from the outside and criticizes the second "I", and the second "I" seeks excuses for its imperfection.

This feeling of internal discomfort excites psychological mechanisms of personal protection . They allow a person not to break in the most difficult situation, often not even just to survive, and sometimes feel happy. An example of such protection can serve as the WWII years, when in blockade Leningrad people managed to give performances in theaters, celebrating birthdays, treating a handful of dried peas, and presenting a log for a firebox.

Probably, then, the most frequent methods of psychological defense took place-denial, suppression or repression. With all the horror of the environment, people blocked thoughts of despair and the likelihood of a near death and continued to live, reproducing some details from a past happy life (suppression). They not only survived themselves, but also raised the spirit of the weaker, created around them the necessary psychological attitude.

Trying to avoid talking about failures, however difficult it may be, strong-spirited people continued to carry out ordinary tasks, washed floors and curled hair, taught poems and read fairy tales (negation) to children. Those who did not have the mental strength to defend themselves - denial, like a sponge, absorbed bad news, drew the darkest future and - broke down, after all, unable to cope with this pain and fear of inevitability.

In general, during any war it is extremely important for a person to include psychological defense mechanisms. After all, we have to not only survive in difficult situations - here we are often supported by a simple animal instinct - but also be able to kill other people. The very concept of "killing" is unnatural for normal people. But in the name of the good of the homeland it had to be done. And then in the brains of the soldiers included such psychological defense mechanisms as depersonalization and rationalization.

In the case of depersonalization, the soldier tried to forget that before him are individuals who also have families who also experience pain and fear. For his own good, the brain depersonalized the enemy, presenting him with one weighty word - "enemy."

Rationalization let in the brain only that part of the information that allowed a person to live on with the consciousness of his own rightness. This method of protection is also well traced in the justifications of thieves and robbers. They completely "forget" that the property that they acquired illegally is necessary for the owner himself. At the heart of such people put only the fact that these things or money were very necessary to them.

On examples of losers or outcasts, one can observe such psychological defense mechanisms as transfer and projection. Usually weak-willed people differ in such quality, as to bring their misfortunes to other people, to blame for the fact that his fate is far from being the best way, not himself, but bad leaders, evil wife and even disgusting weather (projection). This same method of protection is often expressed in attributing to other people their negative qualities.

And transfer is most often found in cases where desires are satisfied on substitutable objects. For example, instead of a beloved girl, a young man comes into contact with a corrupt "night butterfly" or, worse, rapes a small child. With all the same, this individual does not suffer at all from the fact that his behavior is, to put it mildly, low and disgusting.

By the way, these same psychological defense mechanisms can act both as positive and even progressive ways of overcoming internal discomfort. An example of this is the transfer of parental love to someone else's child, which usually takes place in foster families, where parents can not give birth to their own child.

Today, there is a whole science that teaches those who want auto-training, with the help of which a person can independently extinguish in his heart any internal conflict. It is even said that with the help of such exercises, people can radically change not only themselves, but their entire destiny as a whole.