Freudian Defense Mechanisms and Empirical Findings in Modern.pdf

Recent studies in social psychology are reviewed for evidence relevant to seven Freudian defense mechanisms. This work emphasizes normal populations, moderate rather than extreme forms of defense, and protection of self-esteem against threat. Reaction formation, isolation, and denial have been amply shown in studies, and they do seem to serve defensive functions. Undoing, in the sense of counterfactual thinking, is also well documented but does not serve to defend against the threat. Projection is evident, but the projection itself may be a by-product of defense rather than part of the defensive response itself. Displacement is not well supported in any meaningful sense, although emotions and physical arousal states do carry over from one situation to the next. No evidence of sublimation was found. This research was supported by NIH grant #MH 51482. We wish to thank Len Newman, Constantine Sedikides, Tom Bruegger, and anonymous reviewers for helpful suggestions on an earlier draft. Address correspondence to R. Baumeister, Dept. of Psychology, Case Western Reserve University, 10900 Euclid Ave., Cleveland OH 44106-7123. Send email to rfb2@po.cwru.edu. Journal of Personality 66:6, December 1998. Copyright © 1998 by Blackwell Publishers, 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA, and 108 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1JF, UK. Nearly all adults hold preferred views of themselves. In most cases, these are favorable views of self—indeed, somewhat more favorable than the objective facts would entirely warrant, as nearly all writers on the self have observed. A recurrent problem of human functioning, therefore, is how to sustain these favorable views of self. Patterns of self-deception can help create these inflated self-perception