Holden Caulfield, the main character in the classic novel The Catcher in the Rye, imagines himself standing in a field of rye, catching children before they fall over the edge of a cliff—a protector of innocence, shielding them from the harsh realities of adulthood. Yet, the scene reveals a more profound truth: his fear of falling and of facing life’s challenges and uncertainties head-on. Detachment and cynicism protect him from this fear; however, the price of this protection is emotional isolation, an inability to fully engage with life, stagnation, and loss of meaning.
Sometimes, the protections we build to save ourselves become the walls that keep us limited and disempowered. But what if they also held the key to living more fully and freely?
According to early Freudian theory, defenses are pathological distortions that shield the ego from unconscious conflict and anxiety. The therapeutic goal was to break down these defenses, bringing unconscious material into awareness to resolve internal conflict. Early psychodynamic therapy focused on interpretation to expose and address repressed material and unresolved conflicts. The therapist’s role was generally analytical, aiming to bring hidden material into consciousness. Modern psychodynamic theory has softened (e.g., relationality), but some roots still linger.
The Existential-Humanistic (E-H) perspective views defenses as understandable, adaptive protective patterns that guard against vulnerability. The goal is to explore and illuminate these patterns, using them as a starting point to make core issues “alive”—a portal for deeper work and healing beyond mere identification. The therapist, deeply attuned to the client’s experience, works with the protective content and processes and, in so doing, helps clients recognize how they are currently living and, what is more, how they want to live. Key interventions include vivifying defenses, seeking to understand the core wounds behind them, and helping clients navigate healing and transformation. The goal is to help clients live more consciously and adaptively, aligned with personal choice.
Still, reframed psychodynamic insights about defenses may deepen Existential-Humanistic work. For example, psychodynamic theory classifies defenses by type, i.e., functional categories (e.g., denial, projection). Reframed, generalized types become protective styles that are useful as orienting touchstones for the therapist. For instance, denial and repression become distancing, postponing, avoiding, etc. Projection becomes attributing or assigning, making others into a mirror or canvas. Each serves to protect. That said, it’s essential to approach these patterns with curiosity and neutrality, recognizing them as meaningful expressions of the client’s lived experience rather than fixed, detached, pathological labels.
Overall, defenses serve a protective function in both psychodynamic and E-H modalities, managing vulnerabilities—at heart, core human anxieties such as self-condemnation, meaninglessness, and mortality. In both cases, defenses are signposts for the therapist, inviting deeper exploration into the underlying truths, terrors, paradoxes, tensions, etc., they conceal and protect. As such, they point the way to essential areas of inner work. Engaging with them offers the potential for healing and growth, as revelation opens a door of freedom and possibility.
Links to Related Blog Posts:
Explore the therapeutic relationship in E-H therapy in previous posts.
Read more posts about protections and working in the here-and-now in E-H therapy on EHI’s blog.
View all the Existential Moment series posts on EHI’s blog.
Existential Moment Author: Scott Gibbs, LMFT, EHI Board Member-at-Large | Website: www.mscottgibbs.com | Twitter: @Novum_Organum
