Sociopath Community

Among projection I've noted that some people here have employed denial, acting out, repression, displacement, rationalization, compensation and even regression. Dissociation seems to be a major topic around here, as well.

Compensation, reaction formation and acting out along with projection seem to be the most common defenses here. Compensation is one of the mature defenses and as such I won't go into that. I wonder why there's so much acting out, though. Does mentioning that I notice some people act out help matters at all?

The way acting out presents itself here is that I notice that people don't talk about their feelings very much. Instead, when they're angry with someone they try to hurt that person as best they can.

Reaction formation seems to be very common here, as well. People think it's a weakness to show feelings and as such they usually build a mask around themselves to hide especially the feeling of anger.

Reaction Formation is the converting of unwanted or dangerous thoughts,
feelings or impulses into their opposites. For instance, a woman who is
very angry with her boss and would like to quit her job may instead be
overly kind and generous toward her boss and express a desire to keep
working there forever. She is incapable of expressing the negative
emotions of anger and unhappiness with her job, and instead becomes
overly kind to publicly demonstrate her lack of anger and unhappiness.

Anyway, that's all I have to say for now. I think. I didn't originally intend this post to be really anything like this but it kind of wrote itself.

I appreciate any thoughts you might have.

Here's something interesting. I've seen a lot of people here use these defense mechanisms:

Running, hiding, laughing, being vague, distancing myself, distracting myself, changing myself, returning insults with better ones, deliberately provoking criticism to laugh at and trivialize, admitting they have a point and just not caring,

These are the ways I defend myself. I don't feel like trying to research psychological terms to match them.

I believe that the most common defense mechanisms used on this forum are sarcasm and humor (though, that depends on the context and in what way the sarcasm and humor is expressed) and projection through insults, in most cases.

I would even classify trolling as a type of defense mechanism, especially with someone like emily, who is so insecure that she resorts to using separate puppets to try to get her point across.

I generally find a baseball works best irl but because this is the Internet..well I'm not giving away any secrets that could later be used against me :)

Having said that, having a verbal agreement and chatting to my ego, like a schizoid, often works best for the Internet.  This aint real life afterall. 

My current defense mechanisms are compartmentalization and incorruptible confidence

When I feel the need to become defensive, I tend to either taunt or marginalize, depending on the situation. Taunting's fun, while marginalization means I don't have to be a part of it. I stop being serious when there's nothing left for me to gain.

My view of the world is probably one giant defense mechanism in itself.


"People think it's a weakness to show feelings and as such they usually build a mask around themselves to hide especially the feeling of anger."

It's not so much a weakness to show feelings until those feelings can be used, controlled, or those feelings make a spectacle out of the person. The bottling of emotion in itself sometimes leads to larger emotional displays once they finally crack.

Defense mechanisms are inherent to everyone. Mine include rationalization & compartmentalization. They are all double edged swords being both constructive and destructive. How they are employed and to what degree could be a boon.

Of course there are several types of defense. The Freudian types are just BS though, most of them. And there is no freaking id, ego or superego in your brain. Do a freaking brain scan and see...