Substitution, like other methods of psychological defense, helps reduce the negative impact of experiences and traumatic situations on the human psyche. You also practice it in your life. Remember the situations when you broke dishes in the heat of anger. Or, for example, they took out their bad mood on family and friends. So you tried to transfer negative emotions to the environment. Is it correct? Is there another way to use the substitution ability?
Psychological protection substitution - what is it?
Substitution is one of the psychological defense mechanisms when a person transfers his reaction from an unattainable object to an accessible one. Or it replaces unacceptable behavior with acceptable behavior. The so-called discharge occurs, the person relieves the tension that appeared due to an unsatisfied need.
We do not always have the opportunity to contradict those who have offended us or treated us dishonestly. That's why we lash out at those around us. These could be children, friends or pets.
If we cannot satisfy some of our needs, we compromise, that is, we choose what we can currently afford.
When a person cannot tell his boss (the hard-to-reach target) that he is treating him unfairly, the employee redirects the aggression to another colleague (the reachable target). That is, he finds someone who is supposedly to blame for everything.
The catch is that you can't replace indefinitely. True satisfaction can only be obtained when an action is consistent with its motives.
A random object can also become the object of replacement. The conductor on the bus could have been rude to you not because of personal hostility, but because she had quarreled with her husband half an hour ago.
Substitution and movement are closely related because this psychological defense involves some kind of action. For example, to cope with anxiety or aggression, many people choose to do crafts or go to the gym.
Basis of the concept
The most serious contribution to the study of substitution was made by the famous psychoanalyst S. Freud. He and his followers studied this phenomenon within the science of psychology, in psychology, and now this term is widely used.
Freud believed that substitution is a process that nature created in order to protect the human psyche from unwanted influences. Moreover, this phenomenon is often unconscious, because a person does not understand it, and it can cause bewilderment in him. The elements of the term we are considering, as the Austrian psychologist believed, can appear in a dream.
We recommend: Mechanisms of psychological defense of the individual
Another scientist, N.B. Berezansky, considered substitution as a mechanism that has two varieties:
- Need replacement.
- Object replacement.
Need replacement has a slightly different principle.
Perhaps the most obvious example of this is the love of men for their cars. They often carefully monitor them, care for them, give them a name and communicate more than with their spouse. The second form happens when a person cannot cope with his feelings and takes his anger out on something that is of no particular significance to him. For example, a husband may be angry with his wife and punch a wall to vent his aggression. Or students, offended by the teacher who gave them a bad mark, tear up their notebook or diary. Moreover, such behavior should be perceived precisely as replacement, and not as aggression. Psychologists say so.
Types of substitution
Experts distinguish four main types of substitution:
- the action is replaced by the opposite. A writer burns manuscripts because he cannot write better. The young man cannot improve his blog, so he decides to delete it for good;
- action is replaced by words. Screaming at another person so as not to hit him out of anger;
- words are replaced by action. Shake hands as a sign of greeting. Nod your head if you agree with something;
- sublimation. This type concerns libido energy. If a person experiences sexual attraction, but cannot realize it, he is actively involved in sports, work or creativity.
Substitution
Have you ever encountered a boss so bad that you wished he would disappear into the ground? Most likely, at work you held back, but at home, in your hearts, you could shout at your children for no reason. This is substitution: desires are shifted from the original object to a more suitable harmless substitute.
This often happens to children who are rude to teachers. A teacher is an authoritative figure who temporarily replaces a parent, and much depends on gender. For example, a child has a tense relationship with his father, but it is not safe to contradict him, and all the hidden hatred spills out on the male teacher.
Sometimes this serves a secondary purpose. Let's say the father works the second shift, and the child does not want to intersect with him. He learned that for being insolent towards the teacher he would probably have to serve an extra hour after school, which meant he would go home when his father was no longer there.
In such cases, in therapy, specialists help the client understand where the real problem lies and learn to resist it.
Another example from Anthony Smith is a boy with chronically poor behavior at school. Moreover, the aggression was directed at the teachers. The psychologist asked if he had hostile feelings towards his mother, which he had never talked about. And the boy said: he cannot forget that she did not protect him from his father when he attacked him with beatings.
Since his mother represented his only stable attachment, it was not in his interests to enter into conflict with her. Therefore, he found no better way than to take out his resentment on those who symbolize the mother figure. Joint therapy helped to cope with the problem, during which it was possible to figure out what happened when the boy’s father was still living in the family.
Substitution in psychology: examples from life
We face replacement every day. Most often, this defense concerns unwanted feelings that society does not approve of.
Example No. 1
Petya got a bad grade at school. Mom yelled at him. He didn’t answer her and silently went to his room. When his beloved cat Vaska sat on his lap, Petya abruptly threw him off and even kicked him lightly. This is substitution. Petya could not answer his mother’s complaints; he had accumulated tension, which he “splashed out” on the pet. By the way, mom had no intention of yelling at Petya because of his grade. It’s just that today at work, the boss spoke to her disrespectfully in front of everyone, and she couldn’t answer him. She also had accumulated tension, which is why she lashed out at her son.
Example No. 2
Lena really wanted to buy expensive cookies at the pastry shop, but she couldn’t afford it. As a result, she found a similar recipe on the Internet, bought the necessary ingredients and baked it herself. It turned out no worse than in a candy store! This is a successful example of substitution, when a girl could not get what she wanted, but figured out how to create an analogue.
Example No. 3
Masha saw her boyfriend Seryozha holding hands with another girl. Masha came home and tore up the photograph she shared with Seryozha, and also broke the cup that he gave her. She transferred her resentment and anger towards Seryozha to other objects.
Negation
Perhaps everyone is familiar with him. Sometimes we don’t believe what’s happening and say: “This couldn’t happen to me.” This is fine. However, there are people who literally live in denial, that is, they solve serious problems by simply refusing thoughts, feelings and obvious facts that are too difficult to comprehend.
“While working in a temporary detention center, I often heard prisoners clinging to illusory hope through life-saving denial,” recalls Anthony Smith. “The most incredible case that I have encountered is that a suspect in a high-profile murder case, where there were many witnesses, said: “After the trial, I will be immediately allowed to go home. My cousin did this. We are similar. The lawyer said our DNA might match, but they're keeping me here because of the testimony."
The therapist always notices denial, but it would be incorrect to call it simply a lie. This is an unconscious defense mechanism that at times reaches delusional proportions. The patient himself does not realize this. The specialist’s task is to bring a person closer to reality, or at least to offer alternative ways of perception.
With those who are mentally stuck in “It couldn’t happen to me,” the possibility that “it” happened is considered and it is worthwhile to behave differently. It took Dr. Smith a long time before the prisoner in question even accepted that he might be facing a life sentence and more or less realized that he would spend the rest of his days in prison.
Substitution in psychology: let's summarize
Replacement accompanies an adult throughout his life. Many psychologists believe that this is the most successful psychological defense mechanism. People who have reached a high level of intellectual and moral development most often take this defense into service. Now you know what substitution is in psychology and you can find examples of how this defense works in your own life!
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Substitution mechanisms
The mechanism of psychological defense is realized through the venting of irritation, aggression or other emotions on a foreign object. It is very difficult to independently monitor the use of a defense mechanism, but others notice that a person:
- acts out negative emotions on loved ones, colleagues - those who are lower in status, less physically strong or in a dependent position;
- tends to experience irritation towards oneself, others, and inanimate objects;
- needs detente, therefore he becomes the instigator of conflicts, disputes, contradicts his interlocutors, uses them as an object on which to vent irritation and aggression;
- Trying to avoid painful experiences and not wanting to openly demonstrate aggression, a person seeks its embodiment in virtual space, videos, and cinema.
Substitution often provokes sleep problems. A person is tormented by recurring nightmares, the plot of which is associated with aggression and destruction.
It is believed that the implementation of psychological defense of substitution is associated with the activity of the individual, which is influenced by temperament. A person with a stable nervous system expresses his emotions through actions - goes in for sports, does physical work. This allows you to restore peace of mind and calm down.
An alternative to playing sports can be high activity in society. A person takes a leadership position, strives to obtain a leadership position, and earns authority from colleagues and superiors. In his behavior with loved ones, he can show harshness and aggression. This happens when everything planned cannot be accomplished. In such a situation, irritation and aggression are a sign that the person is in a state of tension associated with the difficulties that have arisen.
If a person can realize negative emotions through creative actions, the replacement mechanism is well developed in him. The more options he has for realizing tension (hobbies, sports, work, creativity), the stronger his ability to maintain emotional balance.
Often the replacement mechanism is implemented in personal characteristics:
- tendency towards antisocial behavior - when faced with a ban on direct expression of emotions, a person begins to conflict with others, forms his own beliefs and fiercely defends them;
- practicality - the individual is determined to achieve results, is confident in his actions, and successfully achieves his goals.
A person who is able to implement a protective mechanism through practical actions quickly builds a successful career, knows how to find a common language and interact in a team.
Projection
If you were ashamed of something and it seemed that even strangers were looking at you disapprovingly, this is a projection. This is the name for a state in which it seems as if others perceive us in the same way as we ourselves. However, the pathological projection “turns on” unconsciously.
Consider avoidant personality disorder as an example. Patients with this diagnosis are characterized by extremely low self-esteem, which leads to social avoidance. They treat themselves like the last nonentity, but hide it with all their might, afraid of losing face.
Projections are often found in depressed patients who also believe that everyone treats them as bad as they do. With such irrational thinking, it is enough to ask for evidence that they really do not care. Almost no one succeeds.
The therapist must convey to the patient that his fears are far-fetched. He must at least admit the idea that others will be happy to accept him into their company.
Even a general knowledge of the three basic defense mechanisms helps to better understand oneself and others, and also enhances the effect of therapy.
Concept and functions of psychological defense
The concept of “psychological defense” was introduced into science in 1894 by the Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud within the framework of the psychoanalytic theory he developed and founded.
In psychoanalysis, a person’s personality was considered as consisting of three substructures: Id (It), Ego (I) and Super-Ego (Super-I):
- The id is a biological substructure, a set of innate instincts and drives, guided by the principle of pleasure.
- Ego is consciousness, a substructure of personality, based on the principle of reality and focused on “reasonable contact with the outside world” [3, p.86].
- Super-Ego is a social substructure that is formed in the process of educating an individual in society (mainly during early childhood) and includes social norms accepted in a given society and internalized by a given subject.
According to psychoanalytic theory, from the point of view of the Superego, many instincts and drives included in the structure of the Id (especially aggressive and sexual) are irrational, unacceptable for manifestation in living conditions in society, and therefore the Superego often does not allow the Id to express its impulses. The id, in turn, seeks to satisfy its tendencies. Thus, a conflict arises between the Id and the Super-Ego, which is almost impossible to eliminate without infringing on the interests of one or the other.
Such a conflict between personality substructures causes internal discomfort in a person, from which the person strives to get rid of it, but this conflict cannot be completely resolved, because it is inherently undecidable. It is then that psychological defense mechanisms begin to operate, designed to eliminate the psychological discomfort caused by such an insoluble internal conflict: “from the tension under which the I finds myself due to the pressure on it, on the one hand, blind desires, on the other - moral prohibitions, a person is saved protective mechanisms" [5, pp. 158-159].
Psychological defense is structured in such a way that it has the ability to influence the contents of the id in two ways:
- Blocking the expression of impulses in conscious behavior;
- By distorting them to such an extent that their original intensity is noticeably reduced or deviated to the side.
Defense mechanisms, thus, “are means of self-deception” and “distort, deny or falsify the perception of reality in order to make anxiety less threatening for the individual” [10, p. 129].
In modern psychology, the understanding of the main function of psychological defense remains unchanged: psychological defense is designed to relieve the individual from psychological discomfort, which cannot be avoided by other means. However, the essence of psychological defense is now understood more widely.
Psychological protection in the modern understanding is a way for a person to unconsciously protect his inner world from traumatic experiences, “a system of regulatory mechanisms that are aimed at eliminating or minimizing negative, traumatic experiences associated with internal or external conflicts, states of anxiety and discomfort. ... a subjective threat can be generated by a conflict of contradictory tendencies within a person or by a discrepancy between incoming information and the person’s existing image of the world and self-image” [6, p. 409].
The concept of “psychological protection” is mainly associated with the concept of “motivation”. Human behavior begins with a motive, a motive with a need, and a need with a lack of something that a person needs at the moment. The emergence (actualization) of a need is accompanied simultaneously by a feeling of lack of something and a feeling of tension, which reflects the fact that the human body has prepared energy for the person to carry out certain actions to satisfy this need. The behavioral act is aimed at obtaining what is missing and satisfying the need [1].
If a behavioral act does not achieve its goal, then the need remains unsatisfied, the person continues to experience a feeling of deficiency, tension aimed at satisfying the need remains, and negative emotions or emotional states arise, leading to general psychological discomfort [1].
Psychological defense mechanisms make it possible to create the illusion of the absence or satisfaction of a need, thereby relieving a person of the feeling of deficiency that causes psychological discomfort, and relieving need tension. Therefore, in certain situations (for example, when there are objective insurmountable obstacles to satisfying a need), psychological defense plays a positive, constructive role in regulating a person’s psychological state and behavior.
However, in other cases, psychological defense has an extremely adverse effect on the functioning of the human psyche: continuously operating psychological defense gives rise to the formation and strengthening of a person’s distorted, inadequate ideas about himself and the world around him and thereby disrupts the process of psychological adaptation of a person, for the effectiveness of which it is most appropriate , as a rule, is objectivity.
Psychological defense can play a negative role not only for the psyche, but even for the human body. The founder of psychosomatic medicine, Franz Alexander, while studying the causes of psychosomatic diseases, assigned a special role to continuously operating super-intense defenses, such as repression and denial [4]. Another famous scientist, a representative of the psychoanalytic movement, Eric Berne, shared the same point of view: “Sometimes we experience anger or fear without being able to do anything about it, and then we are not able to use excess energy. This energy has to go somewhere, and since its normal pathway is blocked, it affects the heart muscles or other internal organs, causing palpitations and other unpleasant sensations. In any case, excess energy cannot simply disappear. In addition, it is stored until the moment when it can manifest itself in direct or indirect form. If a person has a certain tension, conscious or unconscious, that is not satisfied for a long time, it can be partially relieved by sending impulses along the gastric nerves until he gets a stomach ulcer” [E. Bern; cit. from: 4, p.12].
Thus, psychological defense is, on the one hand, a positive potential of the human psyche, contributing to the resolution of internal conflicts and the removal of psychological discomfort, and on the other hand, a negative force that gives rise to false ideas about oneself and about elements of the environment, disrupting the process of psychological adaptation and leading to the development of psychosomatic diseases.
Sublimation
This is the redirection of destructive energy (sexual attraction, negative or positive, but unexpressed emotions) into creativity.
Sports, music, drawing, writing poetry - all this and any other creativity is an example of sublimation. This is the most harmless and useful defense mechanism.
It is believed that one cannot completely get rid of defense mechanisms. Periodically they will still turn on, and sometimes several at once. However, if they are included in the work too often, then they need to be replaced with conscious coping strategies. Otherwise, the person will be a hostage to neurosis.
Identification with the aggressor
What is the operating principle of this mechanism? To stop being afraid of someone, a person becomes just like that someone.
Let's look at it with an example. The child is systematically beaten by his father. Screams, assault, threats - all this is frightening. To stop being afraid, the child himself becomes aggressive. It is possible that next time the father will be beaten.
Another example. Identification with the aggressor is an essential element of Stockholm syndrome. In order not to go crazy under conditions of forced communication with the tyrant, the hostage begins to identify himself with him. This helps to accept the aggressor, which reduces fear. And it also seems to the hostage that the criminal will not touch “his own.”
