What is substitution in psychology: examples and description

All mental functions are involved in protective processes, but each time one of them can dominate and take on the bulk of the work of transforming traumatic information. This can be perception, attention, memory, imagination, thinking, emotions. In this publication we will try to consider the methods of psychological protection of the individual that are most significant for his positive interaction in social groups.

Being a social, conscious and independent being, a person is able to resolve internal and external conflicts, deal with anxiety and tension not only automatically (unconsciously), but also guided by a specially formulated program.

In this publication we will try to consider the methods of psychological protection of the individual that are most significant for his positive interaction in social groups. Here is a classification of the main methods of psychological defense.

Negation

This is the desire to avoid new information that is incompatible with existing ideas about oneself.
Protection manifests itself in ignoring potentially alarming information and avoiding it. It is like a barrier located right at the entrance of the perceiving system. It does not allow unwanted information into it, which is then irreversibly lost for a person and subsequently cannot be restored. Thus, denial leads to the fact that some information, either immediately or subsequently, cannot reach consciousness.

When in denial, a person becomes especially inattentive to those areas of life and facets of events that are fraught with trouble for him. For example, a manager can criticize his employee for a long time and emotionally and suddenly discover with indignation that he has long been “switched off” and does not react “in any way” to moral teachings.

Denial can allow a person to preventively (proactively) isolate himself from traumatic events. This is how, for example, fear of failure works, when a person strives not to find himself in a situation in which he could fail. For many people, this manifests itself in avoiding competition or giving up activities that one is not good at, especially in comparison to others.

The stimulus for triggering denial can be not only external, but also internal, when a person tries not to think about something, to drive away thoughts of unpleasant things. If you can’t admit something to yourself, then the best way out is, if possible, not to look into this terrible and dark corner. Often, having done something at the wrong time or in the wrong way, but nothing can be corrected, “defense” forces a person to ignore a dangerous situation and behave as if nothing special is happening.

A generalized assessment of the danger of information is made with its preliminary holistic perception and a rough emotional assessment as “the maturation of something unwanted.” Such an assessment leads to a weakening of attention when detailed information about this dangerous event is completely excluded from subsequent processing. Outwardly, a person either fences himself off from new information (“It is there, but not for me”), or does not notice, believing that it does not exist. Therefore, many people, before starting to watch a movie or read a new book, ask the question: “What is the ending, good or bad?”

The statement “I believe” denotes some special state of mind in which everything that comes into conflict with the subject of faith tends to be denied. Sincere and sufficiently strong faith organizes such an attitude towards all incoming information when a person, without knowing it, subjects it to careful preliminary sorting, selecting only what serves to preserve faith.

Faith tends to be much more universal and definitive than understanding. When you already have faith in something, there is no room for a new one. A person rejects new ideas, often without even trying to give a rational explanation for this behavior. Any attempt on an object of veneration evokes the same reaction from the individual as if it were an attempt on her life.

Suppression

Protection, manifested in forgetting, blocking unpleasant, unwanted information either when it is transferred from perception to memory, or when withdrawn from memory to consciousness.
Since in this case the information is already the content of the psyche, since it was perceived and experienced, it is, as it were, supplied with special marks, which then allow it to be retained. The peculiarity of suppression is that the content of the experienced information is forgotten, and its emotional, motor, vegetative and psychosomatic manifestations can persist, manifesting themselves in obsessive movements and states, errors, slips of the tongue, and slips of the tongue. These symptoms symbolically reflect the connection between actual behavior and suppressed information. To secure traces in long-term memory, they must be emotionally colored in a special way—labeled.

To remember something, a person needs to return to the state in which he received the information. If then he was angry or upset (for example, by a request to do something), then in order to remember this, he must return to this state again. Since he doesn't want to feel that bad again, he's unlikely to remember. When a person eliminates the thought that he does not want or cannot do something, he says to himself: “It wasn’t really necessary,” “I’m not interested in this, I don’t like it,” thereby revealing a negative emotional labeling.

Suppression (repression)

With this mechanism, a person seems to forget what causes him pain, makes him feel guilty or ashamed.

These could be some memories, desires of the person himself, thoughts, actions or words. The specificity is that the subject really does not remember this, but at the subconscious level it still lives and affects the person’s conscious behavior in the present.

Example. Psychologists often encounter this phenomenon when working with fears and phobias. For example, a client comes with the following request: “I’m afraid to perform on stage.” And then it turns out that in kindergarten he had a bad experience of performing (he was bullied by his classmates or severely punished by his parents). The person did not remember this incident, but on an unconscious level it continued to influence.

crowding out

Unlike suppression, repression is not associated with turning off information about what happened as a whole from consciousness, but only with forgetting the true, but unacceptable for a person, motive for an action.
(Motive is an incentive to perform a specific activity). Thus, it is not the event itself (action, experience, situation) that is forgotten, but only its cause, the fundamental principle. Having forgotten the true motive, a person replaces it with a false one, hiding the real one from himself and from others. Recall errors, as a consequence of repression, arise due to internal protest that changes the course of thoughts. Repression is considered the most effective defense mechanism because it can cope with such powerful instinctual impulses that other forms of defense cannot cope with. However, repression requires constant expenditure of energy, and these expenditures cause inhibition of other types of vital activity.

Repression is a universal means of avoiding internal conflict by eliminating socially undesirable aspirations and drives from consciousness. However, repressed and suppressed drives make themselves felt in neurotic and psychosomatic symptoms (for example, phobias and fears).

Repression is considered a primitive and ineffective psychological defense mechanism for the following reasons:

the repressed still breaks through into consciousness;
unresolved conflict manifests itself in a high level of anxiety and a feeling of discomfort.

Repression is activated when a desire arises that conflicts with other desires of the individual and is incompatible with the ethical views of the individual.
As a result of conflict and internal struggle, thought and idea (the carrier of incompatible desire) are repressed, eliminated from consciousness and forgotten. Increased anxiety resulting from incomplete repression, therefore, has a functional meaning, since it can force a person either to try to perceive and evaluate the traumatic situation in a new way, or to activate other defense mechanisms. However, usually the consequence of repression is neurosis - a disease of a person who is unable to resolve his internal conflict.

Concept and functions of psychological defense

The concept of “psychological defense” was introduced into science in 1894 by the Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud within the framework of the psychoanalytic theory he developed and founded.

In psychoanalysis, a person’s personality was considered as consisting of three substructures: Id (It), Ego (I) and Super-Ego (Super-I):

The id is a biological substructure, a set of innate instincts and drives, guided by the principle of pleasure.
Ego is consciousness, a substructure of personality, based on the principle of reality and focused on “reasonable contact with the outside world” [3, p.86].
Super-Ego is a social substructure that is formed in the process of educating an individual in society (mainly during early childhood) and includes social norms accepted in a given society and internalized by a given subject.

According to psychoanalytic theory, from the point of view of the Superego, many instincts and drives included in the structure of the Id (especially aggressive and sexual) are irrational, unacceptable for manifestation in living conditions in society, and therefore the Superego often does not allow the Id to express its impulses. The id, in turn, seeks to satisfy its tendencies. Thus, a conflict arises between the Id and the Super-Ego, which is almost impossible to eliminate without infringing on the interests of one or the other.

Such a conflict between personality substructures causes internal discomfort in a person, from which the person strives to get rid of it, but this conflict cannot be completely resolved, because it is inherently undecidable. It is then that psychological defense mechanisms begin to operate, designed to eliminate the psychological discomfort caused by such an insoluble internal conflict: “from the tension under which the I finds myself due to the pressure on it, on the one hand, blind desires, on the other - moral prohibitions, a person is saved protective mechanisms" [5, pp. 158-159].

Psychological defense is structured in such a way that it has the ability to influence the contents of the id in two ways:

Blocking the expression of impulses in conscious behavior;
By distorting them to such an extent that their original intensity is noticeably reduced or deviated to the side.

Defense mechanisms, thus, “are means of self-deception” and “distort, deny or falsify the perception of reality in order to make anxiety less threatening for the individual” [10, p. 129].

In modern psychology, the understanding of the main function of psychological defense remains unchanged: psychological defense is designed to relieve the individual from psychological discomfort, which cannot be avoided by other means. However, the essence of psychological defense is now understood more widely.

Psychological protection in the modern understanding is a way for a person to unconsciously protect his inner world from traumatic experiences, “a system of regulatory mechanisms that are aimed at eliminating or minimizing negative, traumatic experiences associated with internal or external conflicts, states of anxiety and discomfort. ... a subjective threat can be generated by a conflict of contradictory tendencies within a person or by a discrepancy between incoming information and the person’s existing image of the world and self-image” [6, p. 409].

The concept of “psychological protection” is mainly associated with the concept of “motivation”. Human behavior begins with a motive, a motive with a need, and a need with a lack of something that a person needs at the moment. The emergence (actualization) of a need is accompanied simultaneously by a feeling of lack of something and a feeling of tension, which reflects the fact that the human body has prepared energy for the person to carry out certain actions to satisfy this need. The behavioral act is aimed at obtaining what is missing and satisfying the need [1].

If a behavioral act does not achieve its goal, then the need remains unsatisfied, the person continues to experience a feeling of deficiency, tension aimed at satisfying the need remains, and negative emotions or emotional states arise, leading to general psychological discomfort [1].

Psychological defense mechanisms make it possible to create the illusion of the absence or satisfaction of a need, thereby relieving a person of the feeling of deficiency that causes psychological discomfort, and relieving need tension. Therefore, in certain situations (for example, when there are objective insurmountable obstacles to satisfying a need), psychological defense plays a positive, constructive role in regulating a person’s psychological state and behavior.

However, in other cases, psychological defense has an extremely adverse effect on the functioning of the human psyche: continuously operating psychological defense gives rise to the formation and strengthening of a person’s distorted, inadequate ideas about himself and the world around him and thereby disrupts the process of psychological adaptation of a person, for the effectiveness of which it is most appropriate , as a rule, is objectivity.

Psychological defense can play a negative role not only for the psyche, but even for the human body. The founder of psychosomatic medicine, Franz Alexander, while studying the causes of psychosomatic diseases, assigned a special role to continuously operating super-intense defenses, such as repression and denial [4]. Another famous scientist, a representative of the psychoanalytic movement, Eric Berne, shared the same point of view: “Sometimes we experience anger or fear without being able to do anything about it, and then we are not able to use excess energy. This energy has to go somewhere, and since its normal pathway is blocked, it affects the heart muscles or other internal organs, causing palpitations and other unpleasant sensations. In any case, excess energy cannot simply disappear. In addition, it is stored until the moment when it can manifest itself in direct or indirect form. If a person has a certain tension, conscious or unconscious, that is not satisfied for a long time, it can be partially relieved by sending impulses along the gastric nerves until he gets a stomach ulcer” [E. Bern; cit. from: 4, p.12].

Thus, psychological defense is, on the one hand, a positive potential of the human psyche, contributing to the resolution of internal conflicts and the removal of psychological discomfort, and on the other hand, a negative force that gives rise to false ideas about oneself and about elements of the environment, disrupting the process of psychological adaptation and leading to the development of psychosomatic diseases.

Rationalization

This is a defense mechanism associated with the awareness and use in thinking of only that part of the perceived information, thanks to which one’s own behavior appears as well controlled and does not contradict objective circumstances.
The essence of rationalization is to find a “worthy” place for an incomprehensible or unworthy impulse or action in a person’s existing system of internal guidelines and values without destroying this system. For this purpose, the unacceptable part of the situation is removed from consciousness, transformed in a special way, and only after this is realized in a changed form. With the help of rationalization, a person easily “closes his eyes” to the discrepancy between cause and effect, which is so noticeable to an external observer.

Rationalization is a pseudo-rational explanation by a person of his own aspirations, motives for actions, actions that are actually caused by reasons, the recognition of which would threaten the loss of self-esteem. Self-affirmation, protection of one’s own “I” is the main motive for updating this mechanism of psychological protection of the individual.

The most striking phenomena of rationalization were called “green (sour) grapes” and “sweet lemon”. The phenomenon of “green (sour) grapes” (known from Krylov’s fable “The Fox and the Grapes”) is a kind of depreciation of an unattainable object. If it is impossible to achieve a desired goal or take possession of a desired item, a person devalues them.

Rationalization is actualized when a person is afraid to realize the situation and seeks to hide from himself the fact that in his actions he was guided by socially undesirable motives. The motive that underlies rationalization is to explain behavior and, at the same time, to protect the self-image.

Substitution in psychology: let's summarize

Replacement accompanies an adult throughout his life. Many psychologists believe that this is the most successful psychological defense mechanism. People who have reached a high level of intellectual and moral development most often take this defense into service. Now you know what substitution is in psychology and you can find examples of how this defense works in your own life!

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Reactive formations

This is the replacement of undesirable tendencies with the exact opposite.
For example, a child's exaggerated love for his mother or father may be the result of preventing a socially undesirable feeling - hatred of his parents. The child who was aggressive towards his parents develops exceptional tenderness towards them and worries about their safety; jealousy and aggression are transformed into selflessness and concern for others.

Certain social and intrapersonal prohibitions on the manifestation of certain feelings (for example, a young man is afraid to show his sympathy for a girl) lead to the formation of opposite tendencies - reactive formations: sympathy turns into antipathy, love into hatred, etc.

This inadequacy, often excessiveness of feeling, its emphasis is an indicator of reactive formation. If I show the same avalanche of feelings towards my boss as I do towards my family and friends, then this is a signal that this excessive attitude towards the boss is fundamentally reactive. The appropriate question here is: “Why do I want to sympathize with the leader so much and support him, what negative feelings are hidden behind this?”

Or the opposite situation: “Why do I look so ironically and coldly at the person I love? Why am I showing distance towards him (her)?”

And the “sweet lemon” type of defense is an exaggeration of the value of what you have (according to the well-known principle - “a bird in the hand is better than a pie in the sky”).

Most often, rationalization is achieved using two typical options for reasoning: 1) “green grapes”; 2) “sweet lemon”. The first of them is based on underestimating the value of an action that could not be performed, or a result that was not achieved.

Substitution in psychology: examples from life

We face replacement every day. Most often, this defense concerns unwanted feelings that society does not approve of.

Example No. 1

Petya got a bad grade at school. Mom yelled at him. He didn’t answer her and silently went to his room. When his beloved cat Vaska sat on his lap, Petya abruptly threw him off and even kicked him lightly. This is substitution. Petya could not answer his mother’s complaints; he had accumulated tension, which he “splashed out” on the pet. By the way, mom had no intention of yelling at Petya because of his grade. It’s just that today at work, the boss spoke to her disrespectfully in front of everyone, and she couldn’t answer him. She also had accumulated tension, which is why she lashed out at her son.

Example No. 2

Lena really wanted to buy expensive cookies at the pastry shop, but she couldn’t afford it. As a result, she found a similar recipe on the Internet, bought the necessary ingredients and baked it herself. It turned out no worse than in a candy store! This is a successful example of substitution, when a girl could not get what she wanted, but figured out how to create an analogue.

Example No. 3

Masha saw her boyfriend Seryozha holding hands with another girl. Masha came home and tore up the photograph she shared with Seryozha, and also broke the cup that he gave her. She transferred her resentment and anger towards Seryozha to other objects.

Substitution

This is a mechanism of psychological defense from an unpleasant situation, which is based on transferring a reaction from an inaccessible object to an accessible one or replacing an unacceptable action with an acceptable one.
Due to this transfer, the tension created by the unsatisfied need is discharged. Substitution is a defense that all people (both adults and children) necessarily use in everyday life. Thus, many people often do not have the opportunity not only to punish their offenders for their misdeeds or unfair behavior, but also to simply contradict them. Therefore, pets, parents, children, etc. can act as a “lightning rod” in a situation of anger.

Whims that cannot be directed at the leader (an unacceptable object for this) can perfectly well be directed at other performers as an object that is quite acceptable for this (“that’s who is to blame for everything”). In other words, substitution is the transfer of needs and desires to another, more accessible object. If it is impossible to satisfy a certain need with the help of one item, a person can find another item (more accessible) to satisfy it.

So, the essence of substitution is to redirect the reaction. If, in the presence of any need, the desired path to satisfy it is closed, human activity seeks another way out to achieve the goal. Protection is carried out through the transfer of excitation, unable to find a normal output, to another executive system. However, a person’s ability to reorient his actions from personally unacceptable to acceptable or from socially disapproved to approved is limited. The limitation is determined by the fact that the greatest satisfaction from an action that replaces what is desired occurs in a person when the motives for these actions are consistent.

Substitution mechanism

The principle of substitution in psychology is associated with activity and the ability to move. The type of temperament plays a role here. A person with highly developed substitution comes to his senses, expresses feelings and negative emotions through some actions. Some people play sports for this purpose. This is a good opportunity to calm down, achieve spiritual harmony and, of course, increase physical activity.

An alternative to physical activity is an active lifestyle. Most often, a person with developed substitution is a leader, holds a leadership position, is respected by colleagues, and has some weight in society. However, there are also a number of negative aspects. The behavior of such people from time to time shows harshness and aggression. This happens if they fail to complete the planned tasks. Their behavior in this case should not be considered a desire to harm someone. This is just mental stress caused by unforeseen difficulties and interference.

If you have the ability to express your emotions and feelings through actions, substitution in you is developed normally. The more such opportunities you have, the easier it is to maintain harmony and balance in your inner world. Find a hobby that will help you relieve stress. Alternatively, throw yourself into work. Workaholism is rightfully considered one of the forms of substitution. People with developed substitution have 2 characteristics:

Often antisocial. Imagine a child who, from childhood, faces many restrictions, prohibitions, and conflicts with parents or teachers. Over time, he develops his own opinion, his own views on things happening around him. And in the future, when he fiercely defends them, there is no point in talking about his aggressiveness. This is just an attempt to be independent in your judgment.
Practical. The person knows how to quickly and effectively solve the tasks assigned to him. Thanks to this, he quickly climbs the career ladder, finds a common language with different people, and establishes interaction with them. Such people always work for a specific result and do not doubt their decisions.

It is interesting that Leonardo da Vinci and Mikhail Lomonosov were excellent at substitution. It was expressed in their active life position.

Irony

In ancient Greek, “irony” means “to tell a lie,” “to mock,” or “to pretend.”
An ironist is a person who “deceives with words.” The modern understanding of the dual nature of irony is as follows:

Irony is an expressive technique that is opposite to the idea being expressed. I say the opposite of what I mean. I praise in form, but in essence I blame. And vice versa: in form I humiliate, in essence I exalt, I praise, I “stroke”. Ironically, my “yes” always means “no,” and behind the expression “no” looms a “yes.”
No matter how noble the goal of irony may be, for example, to generate a high idea, to open eyes to something, including oneself, this idea is nevertheless affirmed in irony through negative means.
Despite the generosity of irony's intentions, or even despite its selflessness, irony provides self-satisfaction.
A person who uses irony is credited with the traits of a subtle mind, observation, slowness, and the inactivity of a sage (not instant reactivity).

As a mental state, irony is a changed sign of my experience of a situation from “minus” to “plus”.
Anxiety gave way to confidence, hostility to condescension... A person is in states that are autonomous relative to a situation, another person, an object: I am already a subject rather than an object of these situations, and therefore I have the ability to control these states. Irony as a mental process transforms what is terrible, scary, intolerable, hostile, alarming for me into the opposite.

Dream

These are unconscious actions of the “I” in a dream state, which may be accompanied by emotional experiences.
A dream can be considered as a special type of substitution, through which an inaccessible action is transferred to another plane - from the real world to the world of dreams. Suppressing the inaccessibility complex, it accumulates energy in the unconscious, threatening the conscious world with its invasion. Secret repentance, remorse, subconscious fears lead to their breakthrough in a dream.

The task of a dream is to express complex feelings in pictures and give a person the opportunity to experience them, thereby replacing real situations. However, feelings cannot be depicted directly. Only the action that reflects this feeling is visually representable. It is impossible to depict fear, but it is possible to depict such an expression of fear as flight. It is difficult to show the feeling of love, but demonstrating closeness and affection is quite achievable. Therefore, the actions unfolding in its plot have a substitutive character in a dream.

From the point of view of psychology, a dream is a message or reflection of the situations that a person faces, his history, the circumstances of his life, his inherent methods and forms of behavior, the practical results to which the choice he makes has led. In a dream, mistakes in a person’s behavior are reflected not only in relation to himself, but also towards others, including any organic failure from the point of view of physical health.

Mental activity is continuous, so the process of generating images during dreams does not stop.

Sleep can focus attention:

on a current situation or problem (a photographic snapshot of reality);
on the causes of the problem;
on ways out of the problem (its resolution).

Dreams allow you to bring out passions; in a dream, release, purification, and discharge of out-of-control emotions can occur; in a dream, you can realize the desired behavior, assert yourself and believe in yourself.
Dreaming is an alternative way to satisfy desires. In dreams, unfulfilled desires are sorted, combined and transformed in such a way that the dream sequence provides additional satisfaction or reduction of tension. It is not always important whether the satisfaction occurs in the physical and sensory reality or in the internal imaginary reality of sleep, if the accumulated energy is sufficiently discharged. Such a dream brings relief, especially when you are constantly thinking about something and worrying.

Methods of psychological protection

Denial is the desire to avoid new information that is incompatible with existing ideas about oneself.

Protection manifests itself in ignoring potentially alarming information and avoiding it. This is a barrier located directly at the entrance of the perceiving system.

A person rejects new ideas, often without even trying to give a rational explanation for this behavior. Denial selects information, rather than transforms it from unacceptable to acceptable.

Suppression - defense manifests itself in forgetting, blocking unpleasant, unwanted information either when it is transferred from perception to memory, or when withdrawn from memory to consciousness.

The subconscious mechanism of suppression is closely related to the coping strategy “trying to forget.”

Repression, unlike suppression, is not associated with turning off information about what happened as a whole from consciousness, but only with forgetting the true, but unacceptable for a person, motive for an action.

It is not the event itself (action, experience, situation) that is forgotten, but only its cause, the fundamental principle.

Repression is considered a primitive and ineffective psychological defense mechanism for the following reasons:

Ø the repressed still breaks through into consciousness;

Ø unresolved conflict manifests itself in a high level of anxiety and a feeling of discomfort.

Rationalization is a defense mechanism associated with the awareness and use in thinking of only that part of the perceived information, thanks to which one’s own behavior appears as well controlled and does not contradict objective circumstances.

The essence of rationalization is to find a “worthy” place for an incomprehensible or unworthy impulse or action in a person’s existing system of internal guidelines and values, without destroying this system.

Rationalization

- this is a pseudo-rational explanation by a person of his own aspirations, motives for actions, actions, in fact caused by reasons, the recognition of which would threaten the loss of self-esteem.

The most striking phenomena of rationalization were called “green (sour) grapes” and “sweet lemon”.

Reactive formations are the replacement of undesirable tendencies with the exact opposite.

For example, a child's exaggerated love for his mother or father may be the result of preventing a socially undesirable feeling - hatred of parents.

Sweet lemon type protection

- this is an exaggeration of the value of what you have (according to the well-known principle - “a bird in the hand is better than a pie in the sky”).

Rationalization can be carried out in different ways, for example, through self-discredit, “discrediting the victim,” “exaggerating the role of circumstances,” or “affirming harm for the good.”

"Green grapes"

is based on underestimating the value of an action that could not be performed, or a result that was not achieved.

Substitution is a mechanism of psychological defense against an unpleasant situation, which is based on the transfer of a reaction from an inaccessible object to an accessible one or the replacement of an unacceptable action with an acceptable one.

Thus, many people often do not have the opportunity not only to punish their offenders for their misdeeds or unfair behavior, but also to forgive them and contradict them. Pets, parents, children, etc. can act as a “lightning rod” in a situation of anger.

The essence of substitution is to redirect the reaction.

Protection is carried out through the transfer of excitation, which is not able to find a normal output, to another executive system.

Irony in ancient Greek means “to tell a lie,” “to mock.”

The question has always arisen as to what irony and deception are aimed at. According to Plato, “irony is not just deception and idle talk, it is something that expresses deception only from the outside, and something that essentially expresses the complete opposite of what is not expressed.

1. Irony is an expressive technique that is opposite to the idea being expressed. I say the opposite of what I mean.

2. No matter how noble the goal of irony may be, for example, to generate a high idea, to open eyes to something, including oneself, this idea is nevertheless affirmed in irony through negative means.

3. Despite the generosity of irony's intentions, or even despite its selflessness, irony provides self-satisfaction.

4. A person who uses irony is credited with the traits of a subtle mind, observation, slowness, and the inactivity of a sage. Aristotle even pointed out the “greatness of soul” of the ironist.

Dreaming is the unconscious actions of the “I” in the sleep state, which may be accompanied by emotional experiences.

A dream can be considered as a special type of substitution, through which an inaccessible action is transferred to another plane - from the real world to the world of dreams.

In ancient times, dreams were considered messages from the gods.

From a psychological point of view, a dream is a message or reflection of situations that a person faces. In a dream, mistakes in a person’s behavior are reflected not only in relation to himself, but also towards others.

A dream is a formalization of what a person needs, an objective truth of life.

Mental activity is continuous, so the process of generating images during dreams does not stop.

Sleep can focus attention:

Ø on a current situation or problem (a photographic snapshot of reality);

Ø on the causes of the problem;

Ø on ways out of the problem (its resolution).

There are several types of dreams:

Ø dream of transparency of reality (dream of a sage, dream – communication with one’s own nature);

Ø clinical-anamnestic sleep (what is relevant now (for example, if a person is sick, this is the first problem that needs to be solved, it allows him to take the next step));

Ø visionary dream (reflects the reality that already exists at the psychological level, but has not yet been embodied in reality);

Ø semantic dream (sometimes one dreams of someone else’s reality; if a person received a semantic request from another and did not realize it, it manifests itself in the reality of the dream);

Ø functional dreams (response to the natural needs of the body, to the problems of the body);

Ø dream-indication (dreams giving direction of development, tactical decisions; D.I. Mendeleev saw the periodic table of chemical elements in a dream).

Sublimation is one of the highest and most effective human defense mechanisms. It implements the replacement of unattainable goals in accordance with the highest social values.

Sublimation

– this is a switching of impulses that are socially undesirable in a given situation (aggression, sexual energy) to other forms of activity that are socially desirable for the individual and society.

Aggressive energy, being transformed, can be sublimated (discharged) in sports (boxing, wrestling) or in strict methods of education (for example, too demanding parents and teachers), eroticism - in friendship, in creativity, etc.

Z. Freud explained the creativity of the individual through sublimation. Sexual energy can be sublimated in creativity (as in artists and poets), in jokes, witticisms, and anecdotes.

Identification is a type of projection associated with the unconscious identification of oneself with another person, the transference of feelings and qualities that are desired, but unavailable.

Identification

- this is the elevation of oneself to another by expanding the boundaries of one’s own “I”. Identification is associated with a process in which a person, as if including another into his “I,” borrows his thoughts, feelings and actions.

An immature form of identification is imitation .

The identification situation has the following parameters:

Ø This is a situation of hierarchical relationships. The one I identify with is always on top. The one who is identified is always at the bottom.

Ø The one who is identified is in strict dependence on his superior.

Ø The superior sets and imposes a very strict algorithm of behavior and thinking, strictly controls and punishes for any deviation.

Fantasy (dream) is a very common reaction to disappointments and failures. For example, an insufficiently physically developed person can derive pleasure from dreaming of participating in the World Championship, while a failed athlete can derive pleasure from imagining all sorts of troubles happening to his opponent. What makes your feelings easier?

Blocked desire, actually experienced trauma, incompleteness of the situation - this is the complex of reasons that initiate fantasy.

In ambitious fantasies, the object of a person's desire is himself. In erotically colored desires, the object can become someone from a close or distant social environment, who in reality cannot be the object of desire.

Transference is a defense mechanism that ensures the satisfaction of desire on substitute objects.

The simplest and most common type of transfer is displacement - substitution of objects for pouring out the accumulated negative energy of “thanatos” in the form of aggression and resentment.

Projection is a psychological defense mechanism associated with the unconscious transfer of one’s own unacceptable feelings, desires and aspirations to another person.

It is based on the unconscious rejection of one’s experiences, doubts, attitudes and attributing them to other people in order to shift responsibility for what happens inside the “I” to the outside world.

In psychology, there are 4 types of projection:

1. Attributive projection – attributing one’s own motives, feelings and actions to other people.

2. Autistic projection – determination of perception by human needs. Own needs determine how the subject perceives other people or objects. A hungry person may perceive an elongated object as a slice of bread, while an aggressive person may perceive it as a knife.

3. Rational projection is characterized by rational motivation. Instead of recognizing their own shortcomings, people tend to attribute responsibility for their failures to external circumstances or other people.

4. Complementary projection - a projection of traits additional to those that are inherent in the subject in reality.

Introjection is the inclusion of external values and standards into one’s own psychological structure of the “I” so that they cease to act as an external threat.

Introjection

- this is the tendency to appropriate the beliefs and attitudes of other people without criticism, without trying to change them and make them your own.

Introjects

– these are individual beliefs, values, thoughts that are accepted without analysis and restructuring.

The earliest introject is parental teaching, which is absorbed by a person without critically thinking about its value.

The man is trying to hold back his tears, because he has learned from his parents that an adult should not cry in the presence of strangers.

Assimilation is the transformation, “digestion” of that external material (norms of behavior, social attitudes, knowledge, etc.) that the social environment offers and imposes on the individual.

Depersonalization is the perception of other people as depersonalized, devoid of individuality, representatives of a certain group.

With depersonalization, other people are perceived only as the embodiment of their social role: they are patients, doctors, teachers. This allows doctors to treat their patients without experiencing their suffering.

Lecture 13. Psychology of the masses: the problem of social influence

Sublimation

It is one of the highest and most effective human defense mechanisms.
It implements the replacement of unattainable goals in accordance with the highest social values. Sublimation is the switching of impulses that are socially undesirable in a given situation (aggression, sexual energy) to other forms of activity that are socially desirable for the individual and society. Aggressive energy, being transformed, can be sublimated (discharged) in sports (boxing, wrestling) or in strict methods of education (for example, with too demanding parents and teachers), eroticism - in friendship, in creativity, etc. When the direct discharge of instinctive (aggressive) , sexual) desires is impossible, there is an activity in which these impulses can be discharged.

Sublimation realizes the replacement of an instinctive goal in accordance with the highest social values. The forms of substitution are varied. For adults, this is not only a retreat into a dream, but also a retreat into work, religion, and all kinds of hobbies. In children, regression reactions and immature forms of behavior are also accompanied by replacement with the help of rituals and obsessive actions, which act as complexes of involuntary reactions that allow a person to satisfy a forbidden unconscious desire.

According to S. Freud, relying on sublimation, a person is able to overcome the influence of sexual and aggressive desires seeking a way out, which cannot be suppressed or satisfied by directing them in another direction.

When a person feels weak and helpless, he identifies himself with successful or authoritative people. Thanks to subconscious protective processes, one part of the instinctive desires is repressed, the other is directed to other goals. Some external events are ignored, others are overestimated in the direction necessary for the person.

Protection allows you to reject some aspects of your “I”, attribute them to strangers, or, on the contrary, supplement your “I” at the expense of qualities “captured” from other people. This transformation of information allows us to maintain the stability of ideas about the world, about ourselves and about our place in the world, so as not to lose support, guidelines and self-esteem.

The world around us is constantly becoming more complex, so a necessary condition for life is the constant complication of defense and the expansion of its repertoire.

Identification

A type of projection associated with the unconscious identification of oneself with another person, the transference to oneself of feelings and qualities that are desired, but unavailable.
Identification is the elevation of oneself to another by expanding the boundaries of one’s own “I”. Identification is associated with a process in which a person, as if including another into his “I,” borrows his thoughts, feelings and actions. This allows him to overcome his feelings of inferiority and anxiety, to change his “I” in such a way that it is better adapted to the social environment, and this is the protective function of the identification mechanism.

Through identification, symbolic possession of a desired but unattainable object is achieved. By voluntarily identifying with the aggressor, the subject can get rid of fear. In a broad sense, identification is an unconscious desire to inherit a model, an ideal. Identification provides the opportunity to overcome one's own weakness and feelings of inferiority. With the help of this psychological defense mechanism, a person gets rid of feelings of inferiority and alienation.

An immature form of identification is imitation. This defensive reaction differs from identification in that it is holistic. Her immaturity is revealed in her expressed desire to imitate a certain person, a loved one, a hero in everything. In an adult, imitation is selective: he singles out only the trait he likes in another and is able to identify separately with this quality, without spreading his positive reaction to all other qualities of this person.

Typically, identification manifests itself in the performance of real or imagined roles. For example, children play mother-daughter, school, war, transformers, etc., consistently play different roles and perform various actions: punish child dolls, hide from enemies, protect the weak. A person identifies with those whom he loves more, whom he values more highly, thereby creating the basis for self-esteem.

Fantasy (dream)

It is a very common reaction to disappointments and failures.
For example, an insufficiently physically developed person can get pleasure from dreaming of participating in the World Championship, and a loser athlete can get pleasure from imagining all sorts of troubles happening to his opponent, which makes his feelings easier. Fantasies serve as compensation. They help maintain weak hopes, soften feelings of inferiority, and reduce the traumatic impact of insults and insults.

Freud said that a happy person never fantasizes, only a dissatisfied person does this. Unsatisfied desires are the driving forces of fantasies; each fantasy is a phenomenon of desire, a correction of reality, which does not satisfy the individual in some way.

And finally, fantasy plays the role of a substitute action, since a person cannot solve the real situation or believes that he cannot. And then, instead of a real situation, an imaginary, illusory situation is imagined, which is resolved by the fantasizing person. If it is difficult to resolve a real conflict, then a substitute conflict is resolved. In defensive fantasy, inner freedom from external coercion is palliatively experienced. The result of the psychoprotective use of fantasy can be living in a world of illusions.

Transfer

This is a defense mechanism that ensures the satisfaction of desire on substitute objects.
The simplest and most common type of transfer is displacement - substitution of objects for the outpouring of accumulated negative energy of “thanatos” in the form of aggression and resentment.

The boss, in the presence of other colleagues, gave you a dressing down. You cannot answer him the same. You understand the situation: if I respond to my boss in the same way, stop him, besiege him, then the consequence could be even greater trouble. Therefore, your “wise self” is looking for objects on which you can take out your resentment, your aggression. Fortunately, there are many such objects “at hand”. The main property of these objects should be their silence, resignation, and inability to besiege you.

They should be as silent and obedient as you silently and obediently listened to reproaches and humiliating characteristics (“Lazy!” “Mediocr!” “Insolent!”) from your boss and, in general, anyone who is stronger. Your anger, unreacted to the true culprit, is transferred to someone who is even weaker than you, even lower on the ladder of the social hierarchy, to a subordinate, who, in turn, transfers it further down, etc. The chains of displacement can be endless. Its links can be both living beings and inanimate things (broken dishes during family scandals, broken windows of train cars, etc.)

Examples from life

Almost all people use a protective mechanism in everyday life. The simplest example is the desire to take out irritation or anger due to a quarrel in the family on inanimate objects. Broken plates, a door (which is slammed in rage) are objects to which an excited person redirects his impulse.

Another example is a woman’s desire to have a luxurious dress that she saw on the cover of a magazine. There is no opportunity to purchase an outfit, but the woman directs her efforts to find the right fabric, a good seamstress, and gets the dress of her dreams.

And a man, who has dreamed of owning an exclusive car all his life, buys a used car, does its repairs, exterior and interior decoration. As a result, he gets a car that others definitely don’t have.

Replacement in psychology is an example of a higher-order mental defense mechanism. If it is developed, a person has the ability to redirect impulses caused by uncomfortable emotions into a constructive direction.

Irina Sherbul

Projection

A psychological defense mechanism associated with the unconscious transfer of one’s own unacceptable feelings, desires and aspirations to another person.
It is based on the unconscious rejection of one’s experiences, doubts, attitudes and attributing them to other people in order to shift responsibility for what happens inside the “I” to the outside world. For example, if the subject or object with which the satisfaction of your needs and desires was associated is inaccessible to you, then you transfer all your feelings and opportunities to satisfy your needs to another person. And if your dream of becoming a writer has not come true, then you can choose the profession of a literature teacher as a substitute, partially satisfying your creative needs.

The effectiveness of substitution depends on how similar the replacement object is to the previous one, with which the satisfaction of the need was initially associated. Maximum similarity of the replacement object ensures that more of the needs that were first associated with the previous object will be satisfied.

No matter how wrong a person himself is, he is ready to blame everyone except himself. Declares that he is not loved, although in reality he does not love himself, reproaches others for his own mistakes and shortcomings and attributes to them his own vices and weaknesses. By narrowing the boundaries of the “I,” this allows the individual to treat internal problems as if they were happening outside, and to overcome displeasure as if it came from outside, and not due to internal reasons.

If the “enemy” is outside, then more radical and effective methods of punishment can be applied to him, usually used in relation to external “harmful” people, rather than gentle, more acceptable methods for oneself.

Thus, projection manifests itself in a person’s tendency to believe that other people have the same motives, feelings, desires, values, and character traits that are inherent in himself. At the same time, he is not aware of his socially undesirable motives.

Such, for example, is the mechanism of religious-mythological worldview. Primitive perception is characterized by a person’s tendency to personify animals, trees, and nature, attributing to them their own motives, desires, and feelings. The writer transfers his own needs, feelings, and character traits to the heroes of his works.

Projection is carried out easier on someone whose situation, whose personal characteristics are similar to the projector. A person using projection will always see an offensive hint in a harmless remark. He can even see evil intent and intrigue in a noble act. A person who is immensely kind, the one who is popularly called “holy simplicity,” is not capable of projection. He does not see malice or ill will in actions towards himself, because he himself is not capable of this.

Types of substitution

Experts distinguish four main types of substitution:

the action is replaced by the opposite. A writer burns manuscripts because he cannot write better. The young man cannot improve his blog, so he decides to delete it for good;
action is replaced by words. Screaming at another person so as not to hit him out of anger;
words are replaced by action. Shake hands as a sign of greeting. Nod your head if you agree with something;
sublimation. This type concerns libido energy. If a person experiences sexual attraction, but cannot realize it, he is actively involved in sports, work or creativity.

Introjection

This is the tendency to appropriate the beliefs and attitudes of other people without criticism, without trying to change them and make them your own.
A person endows himself with traits and properties of other people. For example, he takes on the functions of an annoying mentor, because the manifestation of such a trait in other people annoys or traumatizes him. In order to relieve internal conflict and avoid psychological discomfort, a person appropriates the beliefs, values and attitudes of other people. The earliest introject is parental teaching, which is absorbed by a person without critically thinking about its value.

An example of introjection: an impressionable man tries to hold back his tears because he has learned from his parents that an adult should not cry in the presence of strangers. Or a person constantly criticizes himself because he has internalized (introjected) his parents’ attitude towards him.

The likelihood of this method of protection occurring is the higher, the stronger and (or) longer the influence of external or internal blockers of desires, on the one hand, and the more impossible it is to remove these blockers and more fully fulfill one’s desires and achieve one’s goals, on the other. In this case, the impossibility of eliminating the frustrator is accompanied by the displacement of negative energy on the replacement object.

The subject's turning against himself results in the formation of physical and mental symptoms, i.e., signs of illness. Physical bodily symptoms include: cold feet and hands, sweating, cardiac arrhythmia, dizziness, severe headaches, high or low blood pressure, muscle spasms, dermatitis, bronchial asthma, etc.

Substitution mechanism of psychological defense

Having been exposed to negative influences from the outside or fearing them (this could be a threat to security, the experience of humiliation, as well as an external or internal ban on the fulfillment of a desire, “driven into one’s head”), a person often resorts to strange reactions that neutralize the internal conflict, and proceed they are on an unconscious level.

These reactions are produced involuntarily and are called defense mechanisms of the psyche. The primacy of identifying the protective mechanisms of the psyche belongs to Sigmund Freud. The authors of most theories about defense mechanisms were also psychoanalytically oriented researchers. Today, science knows about 30 psychological defenses. (We will limit ourselves to the “Miller formula”, i.e. the number “seven plus or minus two”. This will be enough to generally get an idea of the problem.) So, the protective mechanisms of the psyche are psychological strategies with the help of which people reduce the intensity such negative states as internal conflict and frustration. Frustration is a mental state that arises as a result of a collision with a real or imaginary obstacle to achieving a goal. (Literally translated, “frustration” means “deception” or “vain expectation.”)

And this is my life, so unique, so unique.

From the film “Border. Taiga novel"

Substitution (displacement) is one of the most famous and well-described defense mechanisms. For example, young people (and sometimes not so young people, but also with an unsettled personal life) love to visit discos and restaurants where they can relax and dance. Dancing is a type of substitute activity where unrealized sexual energy finds an outlet in rhythmic body movements and playful touches with a partner. You've probably already noticed that married men don't really care about dancing (meaning in a narrow family circle). For children, among other things, in dance (only in dance and nowhere else), society lifts the ban on physical contact between boys and girls. In the pioneer camp, every fourth dance is slow and teenagers of both sexes shout hysterically: “Just don’t do slow dancing,” but as soon as the smooth music turns on and the lights are dimmed, everyone’s hands automatically rise to a 90-degree angle and the children take steps towards each other, closing their eyes like zombies. (How could it be otherwise? Tell me, where else can a 13-year-old boy hug a 13-year-old girl?)

There are two types of displacement. The first is called "object displacement". This is when a person shows feelings for one person or object that he actually feels for another person or object. For example, a person, angry at his boss, may come home and behave aggressively towards his children or wife. (I wanted to buy a Khokhloma painted goose on the Arbat, but I bought a cheap birch bark salt shaker.) Usually, the displacement of the object occurs when it is impossible to express feelings towards the primary figure. Research data shows that of the majority of feelings inherent in a person, it is aggression that is most often mixed with others. By releasing aggression onto a “similar” object, a person experiences something like catharsis (purification), the tension in him becomes less (i.e., he seems to be “safely discharged in a more suitable environment for this”).

The visible increase in aggression (or anger) in a modern middle-aged person has attracted the attention of many psychologists. Igor Vagin in his book “The Psychology of Evil” writes that it is the negative characters who make the most vivid impression on us (as consumers of film products). No matter how much you deceive yourself, the manifestation of evil (in literature and art) often turns out to be more interesting than quiet (insipid) meekness, calmness and Virtue. (Just remember Captain Nikita from the acclaimed TV series “Border. Taiga Romance.” What a delight!) Tough, caustic, rude assessments of other people and their actions are probably one of the most common manifestations of a midlife crisis (especially in men). And this anger (and sometimes cruelty), as a form of defensive reaction of the wounded psyche, first of all hits our loved ones.

With the second type of displacement, the object does not change (the target does not change), but the energy associated with one feeling passes into another feeling, different from the original one. Here the energy itself is transformed (or sublimated), by analogy with dance. (Of course, the individual himself does not understand where the new feeling could come from.) The most typical case of displacement according to the second type in the practice of psychoanalysis is the displacement of the sexual and aggressive drive. This means that the energy associated with sexual arousal can be expressed as aggression, or, conversely, aggressive energy towards a specific person begins to manifest itself in sexual activity. And if we continue the theme of the indignant subordinate and the boss who annoyed him (although it may be the other way around), then here we can draw a wonderful plot by analogy with Eldar Ryazanov’s film “Office Romance”. (Remember, Myagkov plays there a lonely man who has “a boy and another boy.”) But Eldar Ryazanov’s heroes are free people, and in practice we see stories that make every “Santa Barbara” pale in comparison. Five children are abandoned! (You can’t order a defense mechanism around.) By the way, a lady-boss mistress is very fashionable now.

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Depersonalization

This is the perception of other people as impersonal, devoid of individuality, representatives of a certain group.
If the subject does not allow himself to think of others as people who have feelings and personality, he protects himself from perceiving them on an emotional level. With depersonalization, other people are perceived only as the embodiment of their social role: they are patients, doctors, teachers. The act of depersonalizing other people can “protect” the subject to a certain extent. This makes it possible, for example, for doctors to treat their patients without experiencing their suffering. In addition, this allows them to hide their real feelings (like or dislike) behind a professional mask.

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