Defense mechanisms are rooted in Freud’s theory of personality. According to his model, the mind has three dueling forces: the id (unconscious and primitive urges for food, comfort, and sex ...

Defense mechanisms are primarily unconscious responses that allow people to protect themselves from anxious thoughts, strong feelings or emotions, unwanted impulses, or painful memories.

This remains the case even though in his later work, Freud revised his original concept of repression to argue that it ...