This week NST comes back to a beloved topic, Defense Mechanisms! In our third installment of this series Scott and Macie each sit down and share their insights after a week of deep diving. Today’s episode will be focusing on the defense mechanisms control and introjection!
DEFENSE MECHANISMS ARE PSYCHOLOGICAL STRATEGIES THAT ARE UNCONSCIOUSLY USED TO PROTECT A PERSON FROM ANXIETY ARISING FROM UNACCEPTABLE THOUGHTS OR FEELINGS.
Sigmund Frued
Whenever we talk about defense mechanisms we are also inherently talking about ego-development. These defense mechanisms not only shape who we are but how we see the world. This episode “gets real” as we name and explain some of these cringey habits each of us is using on a daily basis.
Scott shares first this week all about CONTROL. Control as a defense mechanism works in a myriad of ways, from overt control to stealthy control to controlling others through your image, this defense mechanism is complex and it seems potentially inescapable for us all.
Think of order, tradition, and routine as healthy defense mechanisms– small “lies” we tell ourselves to ward of existential anxiety in a largely unpredictable world. Taken to an extreme, however, these defense mechanisms create their own problem.
Joseph Burgo
Macie then takes the “teacher role” as they explain the defense mechanism of INTROJECTION. This one is close to Macie’s heart as it is the dominant defense mechanism for enneagram-type 4’s. If you have never heard of introjection it is when a person internalizes the ideas, voices, beliefs, emotions of other people or from their environment. When introjection occurs it is as if the person has swallowed up something from their surrounding and experiencing it as if it is coming from within. Big stuff! We unpack how introjection works then spend some time reading from Naranjo specifically discussing how introjection as a dominant defense develops into an enneagram four personality structure.
We close the night by reading some blessings, because after all of this deep diving work was incredibly exposing and somewhat painful. It seems that as look closer into our defenses the more we can see how they are affecting our everyday lives and shaping how we see and respond in the world.
We hope you enjoyed our third edition of defense mechanisms!! If you haven’t already check out episodes 24 and 39 where we deep dive other defense mechanisms (Projection, Thinking, Reaction Formation, and Splitting). Thanks for listening!
NO SMALL THING 