Even though these happen in an unconscious level one can easily become aware of them by understanding what they are and carefully observing our behavior and the behavior of others. Some defense mechanisms I am guilty of committing are denial, reaction formation, displacement, and Rationalization. .
Denial is one of the most commonly known defense mechanisms used to describe a person who does not seem to accept the obvious truth. A person going through denial is guilty of selective forgetting. They are able to identify that the event happened in reality but they simply chose to not think about it. This is a person's way of minimizing the problem they are dealing with. I have a serious problem with selective forgetting. It usually only happens with people who are very close to me or I have been affiliated with for very long. They could be talking to me about something very important that has been going on in their life or simply having a normal conversation with me, but I will forget what they said within minutes. It's as if everything they just said to me goes through one ear and out through the other. I know we had that conversation but I wouldn't be able to tell you what it was about. .
Have you ever been so upset with someone that you wanted to do something really terrible to them but instead, you talk yourself out of it because you are aware of the consequences? Reaction Formation is when a person does the opposite of what they really want to do because their impulses are deemed unacceptable. As a sales associate at a retail store, I have to deal with some impossible people. Recently, a customer had asked me to find a top to match a skirt she had really fell in love with. I brought back a top that, in my opinion, looked absolutely perfect with the skirt she wanted. When she tried it on she had said she really liked it,but when she was leaving the fitting room she decided against both the items.