Our discussion has tended to emphasize the negative aspects of defense mechanisms. But some experts feel that not enough attention has been paid to the manner in which healthy, effective people handle their frustrations and conflicts. The behaviors we have been describing as defenses against anxiety can also be viewed as distorted adaptations of effective ways for coping with conflicts-that is, they are potentially adaptive processes that have gone astray.
Most mechanisms have a positive or coping aspect as well as a defensive aspect. Denial, the refusal to face painful thoughts or feelings, is a form of selective awareness or attention.
Its positive aspect is concentration, the ability to temporarily set aside painful thoughts in order to stick to the task at hand. Projection is an exaggerated and erroneous sensitivity to another person’s unexpressed feelings or thoughts. A positive form of sensitivity would be empathy, the ability to appreciate how another person feels.
Table lists some basic processes, or mechanisms, each followed by its defensive aspect and its coping aspect. For any given conflict situation an individual might use one or more of these mechanisms in its defensive form, its coping form, or a combination of both.
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One estimate of a person’s mental health would be based on the extent to which the habitually uses these mechanisms in a coping manner rather than a defensive manner.