The idea of defense mechanisms comes from psychoanalytic theory, a psychological perspective of personality that sees personality as the interaction between three components: id, ego, and super-ego.

Originally conceived by Sigmund Freud, much of the development of the concept of defense mechanisms was fully developed by his daughter, Anna Freud in her book, The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense.

When you think of defense mechanisms, you probably think back to what you learned about Freud, and you can likely list many of them ... up from your grown-up ego as it tries to protect you from ...

While they discussed defense mechanisms in terms of ego and id, modern psychologists classify the mechanisms by how adaptive they are. Defense mechanisms have rankings from levels 1 to 7 ...

As I describe two mental techniques, two defense mechanisms, see if you can think of anyone you know who protects their ego, their sense of self, with that technique. Spoiler alert: Could it be you?