The 12 Most Common Defense Mechanisms

Intellectualization

Sometimes the phrase ‘mind over heart’ is taken literally. And as a result, we tend to acknowledge our emotions less and less. This kind of approach can also be taken as an ego defense mechanism. This happens when a person avoids emotions that are unacceptable to him or her by focusing on the cognitive aspect of the stressful environment. The person would most probably have difficulty in dealing with the volatile emotions that would usually respond to stress (i.e: anxiety, grief), and would just opt to focus on the facts at hand.

Here’s a scenario to fully illustrate this. Supposing a close friend of yours had died in an accident. Instead of crying your heart out, you instead focus on how that person die, or what time did he die, or other facts like where, who was at the funeral, etc. It allows you to acknowledge the happening, without necessarily dealing with the emotions coupled with the event.