Anna Freud

Anna Freud was the sixth and youngest child of Sigmund Freud. Rather than simply living in her father's shadow, she pioneered the field of child psychoanalysis and extended the concept of defense mechanisms to develop ego psychology.

In 1934 she published The Ego and Mechanisms of Defense in which she introduced the idea that we instinctively try to protect our ego with a variety of defenses. A defense mechanism takes immediate action to avoid pain or threat. But the problem is that in the act of defending ourselves in the immediate term, we harm our long-term chances of dealing with reality and therefore of developing and maturing as a result. Of the ten key types of defense mechanism that Freud highlighted, rationalization—a smart sounding excuse for our actions—seemed very relatable to our lives. For example, in Korea there's a saying that if a food is tasty, it's zero calories. When bad things happen to ourselves or when we do bad things, we defend our ego to feel innocent, nice, worthy. But using this defense mechanism constantly would harm our chances of dealing with reality, or in the food example, losing weight.