The Defended Self

What does it mean to be a conscious self in contact with reality? In this third episode of Thinking Psychologically, we begin by exploring the conscious sense of self – the "I" or "me" we experience ourselves as being – and the challenge of maintaining its stability and coherence in the face of realities that may at times be distressing, disturbing, or destabilising. From this foundation, we develop a framework for understanding defence mechanisms: unconscious psychological processes that operate behind the scenes, helping us to negotiate this challenge. Building on this framework, the second half of the episode introduces eight commonly discussed defence mechanisms: denial, projection, splitting, repression, rationalisation, displacement, reaction formation, and sublimation. This episode considers what defence mechanisms are really defending - and defending against, and the remarkable psychological work involved in preserving the conscious sense of who we are. . . Music credit Music used in this episode is drawn from the royalty-free work of PaulYudin. Many thanks for making this music freely available for creators.