When everything is going well, most of us maintain a certain inner calm. It is when conflicts, losses or relational tensions arise that the psychological balance becomes disrupted and our reactions can surprise us. In the psychoanalytic tradition, the self has developed precisely to provide the link between our inner world, others and external reality.
Psychiatrist Grant H. Brenner describes these abilities as “the toolbox of mental life, the set of skills we use to manage reality, emotions, relationships, and stress.” Building on the framework of Cabannis et al. (2011), it presents the 11 classic functions of the ego and the classes of defense mechanisms that protect them, more or less well, when pressure mounts.
The 11 classic functions of the ego: a psychic survival kit
In this perspective, the self is neither the ego inflated with pride nor a simple “character”. It is a psychic agency which, according to Grant H. Brenner, “develops to mediate between the inner and outer worlds.” It arises from our temperament and environment, from cradle to end of life, and serves as the basis for how we think, feel, and relate.
Cabannis and his colleagues distinguish eleven major functions: reality testing, judgment, object relations, regulation of sensory stimuli, tolerance to affect and anxiety, impulse control, play capacity, self-awareness, regulation of self-esteem, cognitive functions and, finally, defensive functioning itself. The more these functions are integrated, the more likely the world is to be, according to Brenner, “our oyster”, that is to say a manageable and habitable place.
Defense mechanisms: more or less adaptive reflexes
Defenses are defined as “the many strategies the self uses to protect us from anxiety and internal conflict.” Grant H. Brenner organizes them into three levels. Among the least adaptive are splitting – “the psychological equivalent of ‘all or nothing’ thinking” – projection, denial, dissociation, acting out or regression. Then come more nuanced defenses, such as intellectualization, rationalization, displacement, somatization or compartmentalization.
Finally, the most adaptive include humor – “the safety valve of the psyche” -, altruism, sublimation and suppression. When the reality test is disrupted, defenses like denial, splitting or projection distort what is really happening. When tolerance to affect is exceeded, acting out, somatization or dissociation take over to escape an emotion deemed unbearable. Conversely, humor and sublimation use playfulness, self-awareness, and cognitive functions to transform anxiety rather than deny it.
Towards more mature defenses: strengthening the self
Grant H. Brenner recalls that, “generally speaking, as we age, our defenses become more sophisticated and adaptive.” He also writes: “As ego strengths develop, we use progressively more adaptive defenses.” His observation is consistent with an old clinical intuition: working on the ability to feel, name and think about one’s experiences strengthens all the functions of the ego and broadens the available defensive palette.
The same author finally notes that “the processes that build the capacity to contain negative experiences and give them meaning are the ladder we climb” to reunite the different parts of ourselves. Observing when we fall into all or nothing, denial or self-deprecation, and identifying the moments when we can instead mobilize humor, altruism or sublimation, then becomes a concrete way of supporting these 11 functions and soothing our inner life.