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Sigmund Freud was a physiologist, medical doctor, and psychologist during the early twentieth century. Some of the main phenomenon Freud explored were stages of development or psychosexual development, dream theory, id, ego, superego, and defence mechanisms. In this article, defence mechanisms will be explored in further depth and described in a way to give the reader a better understanding on the topic.

Defence mechanisms may result in healthy or unhealthy consequences depending on the circumstances and frequency the mechanism is used. In Freudian psychoanalytic theory, defence mechanisms are psychological strategies brought into play by the unconscious mind to manipulate, deny, or distort reality in order to defend against feelings of anxiety and unacceptable impulses to maintain one's self schema. These processes that manipulate, deny, or distort reality may include the following: repression, or the burying of a painful feeling or thought from your awareness even though it may resurface in a symbolic form, identification, incorporating an object or thought into oneself, and rationalization, the justification of one's behavior and motivations by substituting "good" acceptable reasons for the motivations. Generally, repression is considered the basis for other defense mechanisms.