In psychoanalytic theory, an often unconscious mental process (such as repression ) that makes possible compromise solutions to personal problems or conflict s.
The compromise generally involves concealing from oneself internal drives or feelings that threaten to lower self-esteem or provoke anxiety . The term was first used by Sigmund Freud in 1894. The major defense mechanisms are repression, the process by which unacceptable desires or impulses are excluded from consciousness; reaction formation, a mental or emotional response that represents the opposite of what one really feels; projection, the attribution of one's own ideas, feelings, or attitudes (especially blame, guilt, or sense of responsibility) to others; regression , reversion to an earlier mental or behavioral level; denial, the refusal to accept the existence of a painful fact; rationalization, the substitution of rational and creditable motives for the true (but threatening) ones; and sublimation , the diversion of an instinctual desire or impulse from its primitive form to a more socially or culturally acceptable form. See also ego ; neurosis ; psychoanalysis .