Another early way to deal with adversity is to refuse to accept its existence. We all automatically respond with such denial to any catastrophe. The first reaction of a person who was informed of the death of a loved one: “No!”. This reaction is an echo of an archaic process rooted in children's egocentrism, when cognition is controlled by the prelogical conviction: "If I don't admit it, it means it didn't happen." Processes like these inspired Selma Freiberg to title her classic popular book about early childhood"Magic Years"

The person for whom denial is a fundamental defense always insists that "everything is fine and everything is for the best." The parents of one of my patients continued to give birth to one child after another, although already three of their offspring had died from what any other parents, not in a state of denial, would understand as a genetic disorder. They refused to mourn their dead children, ignored the suffering of two healthy sons, rejected advice to seek genetic counseling, and insisted that what was happening to them was the will of God, who knows their well-being better than themselves. Experiences of elation and all-consuming joy, especially when they occur in situations in which most people would find negative aspects, also speak of the effect of denial.

Most of us resort to denial to some degree, with the worthy goal of making life less unpleasant, and many people have their own particular areas where this defense prevails over others. Most people whose feelings are hurt, in a situation where crying is inappropriate or unreasonable, are more willing to give up their feelings than, fully aware of them, suppress tears with a conscious effort. In extreme circumstances, the ability to deny the danger to life at the level of emotions can be life-saving. Through denial, we can realistically take the most effective and even heroic actions. Every war leaves us with stories of people who "haven't lost their heads" in terrible, deadly circumstances and saved themselves and their comrades as a result.

Worse, denial can lead to the opposite outcome. A friend of mine refuses to have annual gynecological tests, as if by ignoring the possibility of uterine and cervical cancer, she can magically avoid these diseases. A wife who denies that a beating husband is dangerous; an alcoholic who insists that he has no problems with alcohol; mother ignoring evidence of sexual harassment to her daughter; old man not contemplating giving up driving despite a marked decline in ability to do so are all familiar examples of denial at its worst.

This psychoanalytic concept is more or less undistorted in everyday language, in part because the word "denial", like "isolation", has not become jargon. Another reason for the popularity of this concept is its special role in the 12 Steps (addiction treatment) and other activities aimed at helping their participants to become aware of their habitual use of this protection and to help them get out of the hell they created for myself.

The denial component can be found in most more mature defenses. Take, for example, the comforting belief that the person who rejected you actually wanted to be with you, but was simply not yet ready to give himself completely and formalize your relationship. In this case, we see the denial of rejection, as well as a more sophisticated method of finding justification, which is called rationalization. Similarly, defense by reactive formation, when an emotion turns into its opposite (hate - love), is a specific and more complex kind of denial of a feeling that needs to be protected from than simply refusing to experience this feeling.

The most obvious example of denial-driven psychopathology is mania. When in a manic state, people may be in incredible denial of their physical needs, the need for sleep, financial difficulties, personal weaknesses, and even their own mortality. While depression makes it completely impossible to ignore the painful facts of life, mania renders them psychologically irrelevant. People for whom denial is their primary defense are manic in nature. Analytically oriented clinicians classify them as hypomanic. (The prefix "hypo", meaning "few" or "few", indicates a difference between these people and individuals experiencing real manic episodes.)

This category has also been characterized by the word "cyclothymia" ("alternation of emotions"), since it tends to alternate between manic and depressive moods, usually not reaching the severity of clinically diagnosed bipolar disease. Analysts view these fluctuations as the result of periodic uses of denial, each time followed by an inevitable "crash" as the person becomes exhausted due to the manic state.

In psychology, there are such concepts as protection and coping strategies (cooperative behaviour). Very useful things in the life of every citizen. And very dangerous if used incorrectly!

One of the simplest and most powerful negation.

Denial can be included as an independent defense. Very often it is part of other, more complex psychological defenses.

Denial often works automatically, unconsciously. But sometimes, on the contrary, it is a conscious choice of the type of behavior, and we are talking More like a coping strategy.

Denial is also used as an aggressive tool in manipulative techniques.

Denial like psychological protection works like this: some part of reality is simply ignored.

This is a very energy-intensive process for a person, and, as a rule, ineffective or completely destructive.

Sigmund Freud introduced the concept of psychological defense into psychology. Anna Freud offered a detailed typology and a more detailed study. Then, in one way or another, many scientists and practitioners worked with this topic.

It is believed that denial is one of the earliest psychological defense mechanisms. It is formed when the human cub is still small and helpless, and its ways of influencing the world are extremely limited.

"This" is NOT! is the negation formula.

When is denial justified as a defense mechanism?

1. A person defends himself from pain, fear, horror, from losses, denying the facts that have already happened. In the short term, this is an excellent adaptation mechanism. It allows you to operate outside world"despite ...", and meanwhile the deep layers of the psyche have time to assimilate new information about changing living conditions.

Very often the first reaction to the news of sudden death loved one– shock, and then “NO! THIS CANNOT BE!

Refusal to accept the terrible fact allows the survivors to take the necessary actions: finish work, put the children in for a while, take care of the burial, call friends, family and loved ones, ask for help, get to the place in the end, and so on.

During natural Disasters or fighting, a part of reality is also not allowed into the limits of consciousness. A person needs to save and preserve life, and all resources go exclusively to this.

And only when external environment and internal state allow this, the person, as it were, lets go of himself, and all the horror of what happened falls upon him. And then comes the time of suffering, restoration and acceptance of a new reality.

2. Denial also serves to preserve the personality and mind in the event of a severe incurable disease. Having accepted necessary measures(medication, hospitalization, etc.), person most time lives in the "it's not there" mode. Very often, such an output is one of the best. Not every person has the inner strength to meet with similar reality face to face.

Here the psychological defense in the form of a denial of reality is only partly unconscious. When conditions change (new methods of treatment, or vice versa approaching death), denial is discarded.

3. The third option, it would be more correct to attribute it to coping behavior, since it is applied for the most part consciously.

I remember Scarlett O’Hara saying: “I won’t think about it today, I’ll think about it tomorrow”, and went to bed in the old, unchanged reality, so that in the morning with fresh forces to start coping with the “news” that fell on her.

Sometimes conscious decision making I won’t think about it now, I will solve this issue then.” turns out to be quite effective. Provided that either the circumstances change and the need for a solution disappears, or at the appointed time (or under the prescribed conditions), the person accepts the fact of the problem and solves it.

An excellent example here is the parable of the "good worker", who does a third of the orders of the authorities immediately, a third does after the first reminder, and a third "hangs on a nail" - "they are not there."

When, how and why denial of reality harms a person

I think many can remember their feelings in such a situation:

You are watching intently interesting film(complete level 43, nailing the penultimate monster; reading a book at the place when the protagonist stretched his lips to the lips of the main character; focused deeply on their thoughts; enthusiastically rooting for your favorite team without taking your eyes off the TV…) and then someone abruptly, rudely interrupts you, bringing you down into everyday reality.

As a rule, a person will experience active irritation, discontent, anger.

The reason for this is the very unexpected transition from the state of “awake sleep” to the mode of conscious wakefulness, and the collapsed flow of information, and the need to somehow respond to all this.

Perhaps someone will remember situations when they denied him. Didn't hear, didn't see...

Now imagine that a person lives for years (!) in a world where part of reality is distorted. That is, part of his world and part of his psyche is blocked, frozen.

To maintain such an illusion sewn into the real picture of the world, a huge amount of psychic energy. Accordingly, it simply does not remain for anything else.

A woman over the age of fifty lost one of her three children ... A few years later (!) She continued to maintain the same order in his room that was with him, talking only about him. At the same time, she practically did not notice the other two children. She, like an insect in amber, almost froze at the moment when a terrible misfortune happened. Work, family, two other children, grandchildren, her health, friends, home and dacha… she did not see any of this, continuing to remain in the stop world.

Just roughly estimate how much strength it takes to NOT notice the constant manifestations of those who were actually with her.

Part of the harm of denial lies in the enormous expenditure of vital energy to maintain the false belief that “it doesn’t exist.”

Another part of the harm from denial, often long-term, is due to purely material reasons. As part of reality is ignored, the disorder in it grows very, very much. What was once created and valued is being destroyed, skills and abilities are being lost. And when, one unexpected day, a person awakens from denial, among other things, he receives not just a problem, but a chic, overgrown quality problem. That is, his strength has become less, and the problem is much greater. And the need to solve it is more acute!

Examples

At thirty-two, Tatyana wondered: am I not an alcoholic? I drink only in a decent company, always on occasion, I drink good drinks ... She was frightened by the thought that she drinks alone a couple of times a week. True, still expensive quality booze.

Several times she decided to pause... BUT! Have you seen our calendar? Then you understand that the number of Holidays that celebrate the “holy cause” with alcohol, each time turned out to be too large for Tatyana.

And she just stopped thinking about it.

At thirty-eight, she was forced to turn to specialists, as she lost her job due to her addiction.

Elena raised her daughter, constantly struggling with betrayal and drunkenness of her husband. She suffered beatings from time to time. She was sure that he loved her. In his own way… That he appreciates her sacrificial love. In addition, she was too scared to think about an independent life. No work experience, with a little daughter in her arms…

Twelve years later, she had to face a difficult reality: a woman in her forties, with no work experience and with two children, learn to live and survive, as her husband considered her an “old jerky hysterical woman” and left for another family.

It is very painful and bitter to regret the years of “awake sleep”, the time of denial, the time of lost strength and opportunities.

And it's good that someone has time to wake up, when you can still change something for the better.

Now, please pay attention to this interesting fact: as a rule, in a sect, no matter a religious or business sect, there is an active introduction to adherents (followers) of the idea "do not communicate with such and such."

Part of reality is artificially distorted. People are persuaded to believe that "it is not." Under "this" are, as a rule, people who think differently. Expressing skepticism, doubts about the adequacy, correctness of the chosen line of behavior.

Regardless of everything else (teaching, group orientation, etc.), the very habit of ignoring a part of living life is harmful and dangerous.

How often do we deny reality over trifles

I suggest you conduct an interesting and instructive experiment. Watch the people around you and count how many times you hear such dialogues:

- He yelled at me!
- Yes? And I have five more reports to do!

- He yelled at me!

- Never mind! (Wave your hand, etc.)

- He yelled at me!
- Oh, my, my! And on last week... (text about twenty minutes).

- He yelled at me!
- What do you answer? Silent?! That's because you allow yourself to be treated like this ... (and again free text).

Instead of the first phrase, there can be any other. The bottom line is that in all these dialogues, the second interlocutor tells the first one “you are not”, your reality is not. He denies. Communicating in this way with children, we, imperceptibly for ourselves, teach them to live in a world where denial is the norm ...

Once you have completed your observations, try this conversation pattern.

- He yelled at me!
- Wow! You are furious.

In this case, the second interlocutor sees the first one, and helps him cope with unpleasant events, naming his feelings and showing that he is nearby.

There is no need to "jump" into reality if there is a problem with a good long term denial.

There is no need to continue to spend your life maintaining the illusion that there is no problem.

To begin with, you can explore the problem area in a detached, rational way. Understand the problem, evaluate your strengths, try on how it will be more convenient to take up its solution.

Then, gather your strength, “shake off the dust” from the resources previously set aside as unnecessary and slowly, like a responsible snail, I smile, step by step, begin to deal with the difficulties that have accumulated during the “waking dream” - the denial of a part of reality.

An exercise

Please select a problem that worries you, but for some reason you do not want to think about. Or a problem that some people, friends, relatives tell you about. And you think you don't have it.

• Write it down.
• Now write down 10 objective facts that are directly related to this problem. Even if you think about them unpleasantly, uncomfortable.
• Read them carefully and check if they are facts? Or maybe it's your beliefs, ideas. Correct and supplement, please, your list.
• Now draw conclusions from these facts that help in solving your problem.
• Now write down how you feel.
• And what else hinders the solution of the problem.

In the last paragraph, there may also be a record of what is already clear, how and what to do now. Then the steps towards implementation should follow almost immediately (taking into account the real circumstances).

IF YOU CANNOT FIND A SOLUTION TO YOUR SITUATION WITH THE HELP OF THIS ARTICLE, SIGN UP FOR A CONSULTATION AND WE WILL FIND A SOLUTION TOGETHER

• • THIS IS A DESCRIPTION OF THE CHARACTER OF THE "UNHAPPY" PERSON

    Its 2 main problems: 1) chronic dissatisfaction of needs, 2) the inability to direct his anger outward, restraining him, and with it restraining all warm feelings, every year makes him more and more desperate: no matter what he does, it does not get better, on the contrary, only worse. The reason is that he does a lot, but not that. If nothing is done, then, over time, either the person will “burn out at work”, loading himself more and more - until he is completely exhausted; or his own Self will be emptied and impoverished, unbearable self-hatred will appear, a refusal to take care of oneself, in the long term - even self-hygiene. A person becomes like a house from which the bailiffs took out the furniture. Against the background of hopelessness, despair and exhaustion , energy even for thinking. Complete loss of the ability to love. He wants to live, but begins to die: sleep is disturbed, metabolism is disturbed ... It is difficult to understand what he lacks precisely because we are not talking about the deprivation of possession of someone or something.

    On the contrary, he has the possession of deprivation, and he is not able to understand what he is deprived of. Lost is his own I. It is unbearably painful and empty for him: and he cannot even put it into words. This is neurotic depression.. Everything can be prevented, not brought to such a result.If you recognize yourself in the description and want to change something, you urgently need to learn two things: 1. Learn the following text by heart and repeat it all the time until you can use the results of these new beliefs:

    • I am entitled to needs. I am, and I am me.
    • I have the right to need and satisfy needs.
    • I have the right to ask for satisfaction, the right to get what I need.
    • I have the right to crave love and love others.
    • I have the right to a decent organization of life.
    • I have the right to express dissatisfaction.
    • I have a right to regret and sympathy.
    • ... by birthright.
    • I may get rejected. I can be alone.
    • I'll take care of myself anyway.

    I want to draw the attention of my readers to the fact that the task of "learning the text" is not an end in itself. Auto-training by itself will not give any sustainable results. It is important to live each phrase, to feel it, to find its confirmation in life. It is important that a person wants to believe that the world can be arranged somehow differently, and not just the way he used to imagine it to himself. That it depends on him, on his ideas about the world and about himself in this world, how he will live this life. And these phrases are just an occasion for reflection, reflection and search for one's own, new "truths".

    2. Learn to direct aggression to the one to whom it is actually addressed.

    …then it will be possible to experience and express warm feelings to people. Realize that anger is not destructive and can be presented.

    WANT TO KNOW WHAT IS NOT ENOUGH FOR A PERSON TO BECOME HAPPY?

    YOU CAN SIGN UP FOR A CONSULTATION FROM THIS LINK:

    FOR K EVERY “NEGATIVE EMOTION” IS A NEED OR DESIRE, THE SATISFACTION OF WHICH IS THE KEY TO CHANGE IN LIFE…

    TO SEARCH THESE TREASURES I INVITE YOU TO MY CONSULTATION:

    YOU CAN SIGN UP FOR A CONSULTATION FROM THIS LINK:

    Psychosomatic diseases (it will be more correct) are those disorders in our body, which are based on psychological causes. psychological causes are our reactions to traumatic (difficult) life events, our thoughts, feelings, emotions that do not find timely, correct expression for a particular person.

    Mental defenses work, we forget about this event after a while, and sometimes instantly, but the body and the unconscious part of the psyche remember everything and send us signals in the form of disorders and diseases

    Sometimes the call may be to respond to some events from the past, to bring “buried” feelings out, or the symptom simply symbolizes what we forbid ourselves.

    YOU CAN SIGN UP FOR A CONSULTATION FROM THIS LINK:

    The negative impact of stress on human body, and especially distress, is colossal. Stress and the likelihood of developing diseases are closely related. Suffice it to say that stress can reduce immunity by about 70%. Obviously, such a decrease in immunity can result in anything. And it's good if it's just colds, and if oncological diseases or asthma, the treatment of which is already extremely difficult?

denial) A PROTECTIVE mechanism whereby:

a) some painful experience is denied;

b) some impulse or part of SELF is denied.

It is clear that a) and b) are different processes. According to Freud, the denial of painful PERCEPTIONS is a common manifestation of the PLEASURE PRINCIPLE, where denial is part of the hallucinatory WISH FULFILLMENT (see also HALLUCINATION). As a result, all painful perceptions are forced to overcome the resistance of the pleasure principle. The denial of some aspects of the self is something more complicated, because, according to Klein, this is followed by SPLITTING and PROJECTION, as a result of which the patient denies that he has such and such feelings, but continues to convince that someone else has them. (see KLEINIAN). the denial of psychic reality is a manifestation of MANIC PROTECTION; it consists in denying the intrinsic importance of the experience, in particular DEPRESSIVE feelings (see also REALITY). Denial must be distinguished from REJECTION, in which the painful perception is allowed into consciousness in negative form, for example, the first sign of a headache is the thought: "It's good that I haven't had a headache for so long."

NEGATION

A primitive or early defense mechanism by which an individual overrides some or all of the meanings of an event. In this way, the ego avoids awareness of certain painful aspects of reality and thereby reduces anxiety or other unpleasant affects. Explicitly or implicitly, denial is also an integral aspect of all defense mechanisms. Since the late 1970s, the term has been used not so much to describe a particular defense mechanism as to describe the reality-denying aspect of defense actions.

To eliminate the perception of reality, fantasy comes to the rescue, smoothing out inconsistent and undesirable moments of the situation. Tok, a frightened and defenseless child, may imagine himself strong or all-powerful. Denial is also often achieved through action, although it is also based on unconscious denial fantasies.

AT childhood denial is normal, and a moderate degree of denial at any age is an expected and usually natural response to stress, injury, or the loss of a loved one. Denial may involve massive or relatively mild and selective distortion of reality. In extreme cases, the denial may take the form of a delusion (the mother is convinced that the doll is hers). dead baby), indicating but psychosis. To a certain extent, reality is distorted and denied in all neuroses; persistent denial often indicates serious problems. On the other hand, in the realm of feeling or affect, persistent denial is sometimes normal and adoptive. (We continue to fly planes despite plane crashes; we act like there is no threat nuclear war, etc.) In the psychoanalytic literature of the past years, the pathological aspects of denial, manifested in psychoses, were considered predominantly. There is currently a trend towards a broader definition of denial that includes both normal and neurotic forms.

Strictly speaking, negation usually refers to external reality, while repression is associated with internal representatives. Often regarded as a synonym for denial, refutation includes aspects of repression, isolation, and denial. Refutation admits the repressed into consciousness, but in a negative form. Freud (1925) gives an example: a patient who has a dream about a woman says: "Are you asking who the person I dreamed about could be? This is not my mother." "Negative judgment is an intellectual substitute for repression" (p. 236), enriching thinking, but isolating it from affect and thus negating its emotional impact.

Negation

A defense mechanism by which a person can deny one aspect of reality. For example, if someone cannot come to terms with the death of a loved one, they still talk to him, set the table for him, even wash and iron his linen.

NEGATION

A defense mechanism that simply denies or rejects the thoughts, feelings, desires, or needs that cause anxiety. The term is used exclusively to refer to unconscious actions aimed at "denial" that cannot be carried out consciously.

Negation

The denial of reality (or conflict) is manifested in the fact that a person does not perceive individual real situations, their parts, objects, conflicts, etc. In psychoanalysis, denial is seen as special form resistance. On this occasion, Z. Freud wrote that there are patients who behave "somewhat strangely." The deeper the analysis goes, the more difficult it is for them to recognize the memories that arise and deny them even when they already emerge in the memory.

In general, the described mechanism of psychological defense includes the distortion of information (its form or meaning) at the beginning of perception, which can injure the individual.

In this regard, Z. Freud described the operation of three aspects of this mechanism (due to the fact that the psychosemantics of this term in different languages ​​is ambiguous, we use it in this manual in the psychoanalytic interpretation of Z. Freud):

1. denial is a means of understanding the repressed;

2. negation eliminates only individual consequences of the process of repression;

3. Through negation, the psyche is freed from the restrictions associated with repression.

Z. Freud argued that denial is the earliest ontogenetically and most primitive defense mechanism, which is considered as ancient as the feeling of pain. The ability to deny the unpleasant aspects of reality serves as a kind of temporary addition to the fulfillment of desires and the preservation of affective balance, in which the conflict is not allowed inside the personality, one's Self.

NEGATION

A defense mechanism in which the subject's ego avoids awareness of certain painful aspects of reality, as occurs in the apparent ignorance of anatomical differences by a young boy.

NEGATION

a way of rejection by a person of his unconscious inclinations, desires, thoughts, feelings, in fact, testifying to the presence of a repressed unconscious in him. In classical psychoanalysis, the patient's denial of unconscious desires and painful manifestations is perceived as a kind of defense, and the denial of the analyst's interpretations as resistance to treatment.

The problem of denial attracted the attention of Z. Freud at the beginning of his research and therapeutic activities. In the work “Studies of Hysteria” (1895), jointly written with J. Breuer, he noted that thanks to the cathartic method, the patient reproduces thoughts that he refuses to recognize as his own, although he agrees that they are certainly required by logic. Not infrequently, a pathogenic memory is recognized precisely because the patient labels it as insignificant, and there are cases when the patient tries to renounce this memory already when the repressed unconscious returns to consciousness. "A particularly clever kind of denial is to say, 'Now, it's true, something has occurred to me, but it seems to me that I added it arbitrarily, it seems to me that this is not a reproduced thought.' In the process of therapeutic activity, the doctor learns to distinguish the absence of memories from the signs of affect, with which, according to Z. Freud, "the patient tries to deny the emerging reminiscence in order to fight back."

The phenomenon of denial was subjected to special consideration in the later period of research and therapeutic activity of the founder of psychoanalysis in the article "Negation" (1925), he revealed the psychological source of the function of denial and its significance in the therapeutic process. From the point of view of Z. Freud, "the repressed content of a representation or thought can break through to consciousness - provided that it is denied." Thus denial is a way of taking note of the repressed. Thus, we are talking about the recognition of the psychological origin of this function. “To deny something in a judgment is, in essence, to say: “This is something that I would most like to repress. Condemnation is an intellectual substitute for repression, its “no” is the stigma of this latter.” In the understanding of Z. Freud, through the symbol of negation, thinking is, as it were, freed from the restrictions imposed by repression, and enriched with content, without which it cannot do. The creation of the symbol of negation endows thinking with the first degree of independence from the results of repression and from the pressure of the pleasure principle.

As for the study of judgment from the point of view of affirmation and negation, it allows, as Z. Freud believed, to consider the emergence of an intellectual function through the prism of the play of primary instinctive impulses: confirmation belongs to Eros, denial to destructive attraction. "The general passion for denial, the negativism of many psychotics, should obviously be understood as a sign of the stratification of drives due to the withdrawal [from their mixtures] of libidinal components." With such an interpretation of negation, the fact previously established by Freud that the recognition of the unconscious by the ego is expressed in a negative formulation is quite consistent. Explaining this circumstance, he emphasized: “There is no stronger evidence of a successful discovery of the unconscious than the case when the analysand reacts to it. following words: "I didn't think about that" or: "I [never] thought about that."

The process of denial was also correlated by Z. Freud with those experiences that, in his opinion, a little girl experiences when she discovers that she has no penis. This process begins in the child's mental life and is not fraught with danger, in contrast to the adult, whose denial may mark a psychosis. “The girl refuses to acknowledge the fact of her castration, is firmly convinced that she has a penis and, as a result, is forced to behave as if she were a man.” It was from this angle that the problem of negation was comprehended by the founder of psychoanalysis in his article "Some Psychic Consequences of the Anatomical Difference Between the Sexes" (1925).

In the work "Constructions in Analysis" (1937), Z. Freud considered the problem of denial from the point of view of the patient's disagreement with the assumptions and interpretations that the analyst gives in the course of therapy. The need for such a consideration was caused by the fact that some researchers criticized the analytic technique for the fact that if the patient agreed with the psychoanalyst, then this was taken for granted, but if he objected, then this was interpreted as a sign of resistance. In any case, the analyst was always right with the patient being analysed.

In response to this critical consideration, S. Freud noted that the analyst does not accept the patient's "no" as completely reliable and recognizes his "yes" as unconvincing, and it would be wrong to accuse him of reinterpreting the patient's expressions in all cases in support of his opinions, interpretations, constructions. The "no" of the patient does not prove anything in the fidelity of the construction. It may be resistance or the result of some other factor in the analytic situation. Since any analytical construction is incomplete, it can be assumed that “the analyzed person does not actually deny what was communicated to him, but strengthens his protest against the part of the truth that has not yet been fully disclosed”, that is, “the only reliable interpretation of his “no” is a hint of incompleteness.”

In general, denial in psychoanalytic therapy has an important psychological and symbolic meaning. It allows, with a high degree of probability, to judge the effectiveness of the repressed unconscious and resistance, as well as to track the corresponding reactions of the patient, indicating that behind his negativism lies an affirmative meaning that is directly related to both unconscious desires, thoughts, feelings, and to the success of psychoanalytic treatment, since the patient often does not react in response to the false construction of the analyst, while he may experience a negative therapeutic reaction to the correct construction, accompanied by a clear deterioration in his state of health.

Freud's ideas about negation have been further developed in the studies of some psychoanalysts. In particular, on the example of the analysis of children's fantasies and their comparison with psychotic illusions, A. Freud (1895-1982) came to the conclusion that in some acute confused psychotic states, patients can use such a defense mechanism as denial. Such patients are able to deny the facts, to replace the unbearable reality with a pleasant illusion, that is, to resort to the mechanism of "denying the existence of objective sources of anxiety and displeasure." The denial of reality is also, in her opinion, one of the motives underlying children's games. In the work "Self and Defense Mechanisms" (1936), A. Freud demonstrated how and in what way young children can resort to defense through denial in fantasy, word and action, and emphasized that when this method is used excessively, it is such a mechanism, which provokes eccentricities and idiosyncrasies in the ego, from which it is difficult to get rid of after the period of primitive denial has ended.

Denial can manifest itself in both normal and pathological forms. Psychoanalysis takes into account both. And although in the process of analytic treatment one has to deal primarily with the neurotic aspects of denial, nevertheless, modern analysts give denial a broader sound. This is partly also due to the difficulty of distinguishing between the Freudian concepts of "Verneinung" (denial) and "Verleugnung" (rejection).

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Psychological protection: mechanisms and strategies