Overview of Contemporary Counseling
Models
Overview of Contemporary Counseling Models
Ego-Defense Mechanisms
Defense
Uses for Behavior
Repression
Threatening or painful thoughts and feelings are excluded from
awareness.
One of the most important Freudian processes, it is the basis of
many other ego defenses and of neurotic disorders. Freud
explained repression as an involuntary removal of something from
consciousness. It is assumed that most of the painful events of the
first five or six years of life are buried, yet these events do
influence later behavior.
Denial
“Closing one’s eyes” to the existence of a threatening aspect of
reality.
Denial of reality is perhaps the simplest of all self defense
mechanisms. It is a way of distorting what the individual thinks,
feels, or perceives in a traumatic situation. This mechanism is