The Concept of Defense Mechanism Development

Abstract

In this chapter, we consider defenses from a developmental point of view. To do so implies that defenses change over time. In fact, there are two different types of change to be considered. In the first instance, the concept of defense development refers to the idea that there may be a chronological ordering of the emergence of the different defenses. In this case, the appearance of each defense may be age- or stage-related. As in Piaget’s (1952) theory, which proposes that different cognitive operations are related to successive developmental cognitive stages, a developmental hypothesis regarding defenses suggests that different defenses may be typical of different periods of development. Research evidence for the age-or stage-related use of defenses is presented at the end of the chapter.

. . . each mechanism occupies the role of typical or predominant mode of defense only for a particular span of the course of development . . . each mechanism must have an earlier history, a period of genesis in the course of which it does not serve the defensive function as yet.

Gedo and Goldberg (1973), p. 9