Recognizing Defenses in the Drawings and Play of Children in Therapy

Aug 26, 2026

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The article explains how children’s play and drawings in psychotherapy disclose inner concerns while simultaneously concealing them through defensive processes. It distinguishes resistances in verbal therapy from defense as the therapist must interpret or manage in play therapy. Drawing on Anna Freud and later theorists, it outlines defense mechanisms across instinct strength, objective anxiety, and superego anxiety, then expands lists of first- and second-order defensive activities and discusses conceptual distinctions and limitations.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages17

Reading Time43 min

AccessFree to download

Defenses in play and drawings

Verbal therapy vs play therapy

Anna Freud’s framework of defenses

Expanded classifications and critiques

Benveniste, D. (2005) Recognizing Defenses in the Drawings and Play of Children in Therapy. Psychoanalytic Psychology. Volume 22, Number 3, Summer 2005. Recognizing Defenses in the Drawings and Play of Children in Therapy Daniel Benveniste Defenses and Defense Mechanisms When children in psychotherapy are invited to express themselves by playing with toys or drawing pictures, they reveal their deepest concerns in the metaphors of their imagination. While the content of these drawings is often revealing , the process is often concealing. In a strictly verbal therapy the defenses enter the session as resistances and are, to a great extent, recognized as figures of speech and styles of speaking. In a play therapy, there is no fundamental rule, only an invitation to play. Consequently there is no resistance, only defense, which the therapist must interpret or at least manage. In The Ego and The Mechanisms of Defense (1936) Anna Freud contextualized her work by explaining that in the early days, psychoanalysis was a psychology of the id and was expected to: “… confine its investigations exclusively to infantile fantasies carried on into adult life, imaginary gratifications, and the punishments apprehended in retribution for these.” (Anna Freud, 1936, 1966 p. 4) With the publication of Sigmund Freud’s Beyond the Pleasure Principle, in 1920, psychoanalysis expanded, from a psychology of the id to a psychology of the ego and id. Thus, Anna Freud explained, the analyst’s first task is to recognize the defense mechanism.“His next task is to undo what has been done by the defense, i.e . , to find out and restore to its place that which has been omitted through repression, to rectify displacements, and to bring that which has been isolated back into its true context. When he has re-established the severed connections, he turns his attention once more from the analysis of the ego to that of the id.”(Anna Freud, 1936, 1966, p. 15) Anna Freud reminded us that defenses help us to manage 1) the strength of the instincts, 2) objective anxiety, and 3) superego anxiety. She lists nine defenses previously described in the literature-regression , repression , reaction formation , isolation , undoing , projection , introjection , turning against the self, and reversal. To these nine, she adds sublimation. These ten are the defenses available to the ego in its conflicts with the instinctual representatives and their affects. In the ego’s conflicts with objective unpleasure and objective danger, she says the ego employs denial in fantasy , denial in word and act and restriction of the ego. In the ego’s conflicts with superego anxiety she lists identification with the aggressor and a form of altruism. Subsequently, Arthur Valenstein and his co-workers formulated a list of 24 first order defensive activities and 15 additional complex, second order defensive activities. 1. BASIC (FIRST ORDER) Acting out, Affectualization, Avoidance, Blocking, Control through thinking, Denial (1 . Denial by exaggeration 2. Denial through fantasy), Desexualization, Detachment, Displacement, Intellectualization, Introjection, Isolation (1 . Compartmentalization 2. Splitting off), Magical thinking, Projection, Rationalization, Reaction formation, Regression, Repression, Restriction of ego function, Somatization, Sublimation, Turning against the self, Undoing, Withdrawal. 2. COMPLEX (SECOND ORDER) Aestheticism, Altruistic surrender, Asceticism, Clinging to object, Clowning, mocking and scoffing, Compliance, Controlling, Counterphobia, Depersonalization, Eating and drinking (a form of acting out), Falling ill, Identification (1 . With the loved object, 2. With the lost object, 3. With the aggressor, 4.Out of guilt), Ritualization, Formalization, Sexualization (libidinization), Whistling in the dark. (Valenstein’s work published in Bibring et al, 1961) Robert Wallerstein then “ drew a distinction between defense mechanisms , as constructs that denote a way

FAQs

How do children’s drawings and play function as defenses in therapy?

They can reveal deep concerns through imaginative metaphors while concealing the meaning through defensive processes. The therapeutic setting determines how these defenses are expressed and interpreted.

What was Anna Freud’s core task regarding defenses?

The analyst must recognize the defense mechanism, then undo what the defense has done by restoring omitted material, correcting displacements, and reestablishing connections to return content to its true context.

What are first-order and second-order defensive activities?

First-order defensive activities are basic ways the ego acts defensively, while second-order activities are more complex defensive behaviors. The text notes hierarchical complexity and later critiques that blur strict distinctions.

Aug 26, 2026

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