The 12 Most Common Defense Mechanisms

Repression/Suppression

These two are by far the most common defense mechanisms a person employs. These two are very similar in description but are totally different in nature. These ego defense mechanisms are characterized by the person shoving the stressor or the memory of the stressor deep within his or her unconscious. The difference with them is that suppression is the conscious effort to forget about the particular stressor, like for example, when you’ve experienced a really embarrassing job interview; you choose not to think about it. Repression is the unconscious forgetting of the traumatic experience. A great example would be when someone forgets the details of a fight between her and her best friend. This can be alluded to the start of dissociative amnesia, but it’s already in extreme cases.