Defenses That Arise in the Oral, Anal, and First Genital Phases of Psychosexual Development

Let’s restate the general rule: Defenses are mental operations that remove components of unpleasurable affects from conscious awareness. (Affect is the psychoanalytic term for an emotion.)

In looking through the following definitions, remember that any defense can act to relieve any affect by making some part of it unconscious. In addition, most of the time you will find groups of defenses acting together.