Level IV

As defense mechanisms go, I have just learned that there are four levels. The residual knowledge from any high school counseling I endured or Psych classes I took in college had left me with just a few of these mechanisms and no mention of levels. (Or maybe I just wasn't paying attention.) Upon considering the notion that I may be using a defense mechanism lately, or more than one, the words "repression", "displacement", and "projection" swum in my head. The definitions of each are garbled and overlap one another. I wanted to know which mechanism I was using and how. To Wikipedia I went, on yet another search to define my behavior.

According to a man named George Eman Vaillant, the four levels of defense mechanisms exist on a continuum and are defined as:

1. Level I - psychotic defenses (i.e. psychotic denial, delusional projection)
2. Level II - immature defenses (i.e. fantasy, projection, passive aggression, acting out)
3. Level III - neurotic defenses (i.e. intellectualization, dissociation, repression)
4. Level IV - mature defenses (i.e. humor, sublimation, suppression, altruism, anticipation)

In spending the weekend at my Mom's and helping her as she recovered from shoulder surgery, I thought I was enacting displacement. That's how it went in my head. "I am focusing all of my efforts on helping someone else, instead of concentrating on my own problems. This must be displacement."

As it turns out, I had the definition all wrong. It sounded right, anyway.

After my visit to Wiki and meeting George and his levels, I learn that I am actually practicing one of the mature mechanisms of altruism, defined as "constructive service to others that brings pleasure and personal satisfaction." It turns out to be healthy. It is not a form of procrastination, as I suspected. Who knew?

In an attempt to tackle sublimation (the transformation of negative emotions or instincts into positive actions, behavior or emotion), I am taking back my attitude. It got away from me for a while and will undoubtedly scamper away again. By focusing on things that I can control, taking better care of myself, and facing issues head-on (instead of hiding on my couch), I hope to move into an undefined level - not of defense mechanisms - but of myself.