Defense Mechanisms: From Freud to Klein (Psychoanalysis)

Freud’s Original Defense Mechanisms

Sigmund Freud (and later his daughter Anna Freud in The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence, 1936) described defense mechanisms as unconscious strategies the ego uses to protect us from anxiety, conflict, or painful emotions.

Freud’s early set was small, but Anna Freud expanded and systematized them.

Freud’s core defenses:

1. Repression – pushing painful thoughts into the unconscious.

2. Denial – refusing to accept reality.

3. Projection – attributing one’s feelings to someone else.

4. Displacement – redirecting feelings to a safer target.

5. Sublimation – channeling unacceptable impulses into acceptable actions.

6. Regression – returning to an earlier stage of development.

7. Reaction Formation – acting opposite to one’s real feelings.

Anna Freud added more detailed observations, but most lists today (via ego psychology and later psychodynamic schools) include around 15–20 commonly accepted defenses.

Other Key Contributors

• Ambivalence

  • Coined by Eugen Bleuler (1911), a Swiss psychiatrist who also introduced the term schizophrenia.

  • Ambivalence refers to holding contradictory feelings (love and hate) toward the same person or object.

• Splitting

  • Coined by Ronald Fairbairn and later elaborated by Melanie Klein (object relations theory).

  • Splitting means seeing people or situations as “all good” or “all bad” — common in borderline dynamics.

• Intellectualization

  • First described within Anna Freud’s catalog of defenses (1936).

  • It means avoiding feelings by focusing on abstract logic or reasoning.

• Projective Identification

  • Coined by Melanie Klein (1946, in Notes on Some Schizoid Mechanisms).

  • Goes beyond projection: the person unconsciously pressures the other to embody the projected feelings.

Who Coined What

• Sigmund Freud → repression, denial, projection, displacement, sublimation, regression, reaction formation.

• Anna Freud → systematized + added defenses like intellectualization, rationalization, undoing.

• Eugen Bleuler → ambivalence.

• Ronald Fairbairn & Melanie Klein → splitting.

• Melanie Klein → projective identification.

1. Repression (Sigmund Freud)

Repression means burying painful thoughts, feelings, or memories deep in the unconscious so we don’t get overwhelmed.

Example: A person who faced abuse as a child may have no conscious memory of it because their mind locked it away.

2. Denial (Sigmund Freud)

Denial is refusing to face a hard truth, even when the evidence is obvious. It feels safer than accepting reality.

Example: Someone addicted to alcohol insists they don’t have a problem, even as it damages their health and family.

3. Projection (Sigmund Freud)

Projection is when we push our own uncomfortable feelings onto someone else.

Example: A person feeling jealous accuses their partner of cheating, even without proof.

4. Displacement (Sigmund Freud)

Displacement is redirecting emotions toward a safer target when the real target feels too risky.

Example: Someone angry with their boss comes home and yells at their children instead.

5. Sublimation (Sigmund Freud)

Sublimation is channeling unacceptable impulses into something socially useful or creative.

Example: A person with aggressive energy takes up boxing or paints bold, fiery canvases.

6. Regression (Sigmund Freud)

Regression is slipping back into childlike behaviors when life feels overwhelming.

Example: An adult under stress throws a tantrum or curls up sucking their thumb.

7. Reaction Formation (Sigmund Freud)

Reaction formation means acting the opposite of how we really feel, to hide our true emotions.

Example: Someone who feels angry might become overly sweet and polite to cover it up.

8. Ambivalence (Eugen Bleuler, 1911)

Ambivalence is holding opposite feelings toward the same person or situation at the same time.

Example: A child feels both love and resentment toward a strict parent.

9. Splitting (Ronald Fairbairn, later elaborated by Melanie Klein)

Splitting is seeing people or situations as “all good” or “all bad,” without shades of gray.

Example: A person praises their partner one day as perfect, and the next day calls them terrible when disappointed.

10. Intellectualization (Anna Freud, 1936)

Intellectualization is avoiding emotions by focusing only on logic or facts.

Example: Instead of grieving, someone talks about the medical details of a loved one’s illness in a detached way.

11. Rationalization (Anna Freud, 1936)

Rationalization is making excuses that sound logical to cover up uncomfortable truths.

Example: A student who fails a test says, “The teacher didn’t explain it well anyway.”

12. Undoing (Anna Freud, 1936)

Undoing is trying to “cancel out” guilt by doing something nice.

Example: After saying something cruel, a person buys the friend a gift or showers them with kindness.

13. Projective Identification (Melanie Klein, 1946)

Projective identification goes beyond projection — the person unconsciously pressures another to actually feel or act out the emotion they can’t handle.

Example: Someone who feels unworthy acts defensive and apologetic until others start treating them as if they really are unworthy.

Closing note, defense mechanisms are like skeletons that rise up when we’re triggered, showing themselves as symptoms. They work like band-aids — they may cover the wound and make it look like it’s healing, but underneath the hurt is still there. In therapy, the work is not about tearing them away, but gently uncovering what lies beneath, so true healing and growth can begin.