From denial to projection: How defense mechanisms relate to implicit versus explicit negative affect

What is it about?

Since they were first conceptualized by Freud (1923), defense mechanisms have been described as strategies that are used more or less consciously to keep unpleasant emotions out of awareness. On an unconscious level, negative feelings are assumed to mobilize the use of defense mechanisms, whereas on a consciously experienced level, negative feelings should be reduced through the usage of defenses. For example, a person might make a joke (defense mechanism: humour) to avoid implicit feelings of shame, or a person may project their anger onto others (defense mechanism: projection) to protect themselves from consciously experiencing their own aggressive impulses. Even though this theorizing has a long tradition in psychodynamic theory, the question how defense mechanisms relate to implicit vs. explicit negative feelings has not been studied so far. Therefore, we aimed to fill this gap in the current study. We asked people about their explicit emotional state: "To what extent do you feel sad?" "Do you feel anxious?“ Additionally, we used an implicit, that is, more indirect measure to tap into unconscious aspects of people's feelings. For this, we asked people to intuitively judge the emotional tone that different non-sense words conveyed to them. For example, people were asked whether the sound of artificial word "PIRWU" would convey „sadness“, „happiness“ or „anger“. By evaluating the emotional tone of such neutral stimuli, persons would indirectly reveal their implicit feelings that are not biased by explicit self-report. If, for example, a person consistently judges neutral words as sounding "sad", this might hint to the person's emotional state - even if she is not fully aware of her negative affect on an explicit level. We related both, explicit and implicit negative feelings, to people's habitual use of different defense mechanisms and hereby explored the following questions: Are people, who regularly use defenses, in a heightened negative emotional state? How does this relationship look like on a conscious (explicit) versus on a more unconscious (implicit) level? Despite some limitations of the study, our findings tentatively support the assumed link between implicit negative feelings and the use of defense mechanisms. That means: The more people report to use defense mechanisms in daily life, the higher is their implicit negative affect. Furthermore, we find that defense strategies that have previously been categorized as maladaptive are strongly associated with explicitly reported negative affect: For example, a person who tends to project negative feelings onto others, experiences more negative feelings on a conscious level than a person who uses less of such maladaptive defenses. This finding supports the notion that some defense mechanisms are less effective than others in reducting consciously experienced negative affect.

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Why is it important?

People use defense mechanisms throughout their lives to protect themselves from distressing thoughts and feelings that are caused by inner conflicts and outer stressors. Humor, Sublimation, Suppression, Rationalization, Wishful Thinking, Somatization, Projection and Denial are all examples of defensive strategies. Defense mechanisms may negatively impact mental health, when their increased use is ineffective or causes negative behavior patterns. As clinicians know very well, the defensive structure often makes the psychotherapeutic processes difficult and emotions inaccessible. Psychological healing can be promoted by improving the adaptivity and flexibility of the defensive structure. By showing how defenses relate to a state of heightened implicit negative affect, this study may set the stage for future clinical research on the relationship between defense mechanisms and psychological disorders which are often charaterized by negative affectivity and difficulties in regulating negative affect. The consideration of a person’s defense mechanisms can be crucial, not only in the psychotherapeutic context, but also in the diagnostic process.

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