EDUCATION (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Anna Freud defined defense mechanisms as “unconscious resources used by the ego” to decrease internal stress ultimately. Patients often devise these unconscious mechanisms to decrease conflict within themselves, specifically between the superego and id.

Detailed explanation-2: -Most commonly employed ego defenses by medical students were rationalization, anticipation, pseudo-altruism, undoing, and humor, whereas the least commonly employed defense mechanisms were devaluation, denial, and dissociation (Table 1).

Detailed explanation-3: -We use defense mechanisms to protect ourselves from feelings of anxiety or guilt, which arise because we feel threatened, or because our id or superego becomes too demanding.

Detailed explanation-4: -In psychoanalytic theory, a defence mechanism (American English: defense mechanism), is an unconscious psychological operation that functions to protect a person from anxiety-producing thoughts and feelings related to internal conflicts and outer stressors.