General concept of the development of defense mechanisms in adolescence
Adolescence is characterized by an increase in libido, which contributes to the development of the attitudes of one's own "I" into certain methods of protection and defense mechanisms. This explains the personality changes that occur during puberty.
All methods of psychological defense described in psychoanalysis at a given age serve to help the "I" in the fight against manifestations of instincts and are motivated by three types of anxiety inherent in the "I" of the individual:
📍neurotic anxiety;
📍moral anxiety;
📍real anxiety.
Among all periods of a person's life, it is during puberty that contradictions are formed in the mental life of a teenager and, accordingly, protective psychological mechanisms find a greater manifestation. Let's consider them in more detail.
Defense mechanisms characteristic of adolescence
Denial is one of the earliest and most primitive defense mechanisms that develops to contain emotional manifestations. As a result of its manifestation, a teenager gets the opportunity to freely express his feelings, while constantly attracting the attention of others in all available ways. The protective function of this mechanism is manifested in ignoring disturbing information.
Projection is a psychological defense mechanism that is associated with the transfer of existing unacceptable feelings and desires of a teenager to other people and this process proceeds at an unconscious level. At the heart of this mechanism is the need to reject existing experiences and doubts, and redirect them to the people around them in order to relieve oneself of responsibility for certain actions and conditions that are disapproved by society.
The projection is divided into several types:
📍attributive projection - manifested in the unconscious rejection of one's own negative qualities and their redirection to other people;
📍rationalistic projection - conscious recognition of one or another personality traits and projecting them according to the principle "everyone does it anyway";
📍complimentary projection - manifested in the interpretation of one's shortcomings as advantages;
📍simulative projection - the process of attributing existing shortcomings by similarity, for example, a child is the same as his parent.