Defences - Denial

Denial is saying "I don't drink alcohol", when your blood alcohol level is 86mmol/L*

Anna Freud proposed that we have a range of possible psychological defences which protect us from extreme anxiety about our experiences and situations. Everyone uses them, and we have favourites. We learn them from those around us (either by imitation or reaction), and we use them without conscious reflection.

"Defenses operate to protect us from uncomfortable or unacceptable self-awareness."

Denial is believing that something has not happened (a death, a diagnosis, a disagreement, a failure) in order to avoid consequences of that information. Avoidance of the consequences is because they are too distressing to face.

Denial is a more 'primitive' defence and becomes difficult to sustain as an anxiety-provoking situation progresses and remains present. Denial may be part of a coping progression, with rates of denial falling as time from diagnosis with cancer elapses. Michael Kinsley reflected, in Time Magazine, on the role denial played in his experience of having Parkinsons Disease.


*0.05 (legal driving limit) = 10.9mmol/L