Defense mechanism responses to COVID-19

Nouf Altwaijri; Turki Abualait; Mohammed Aljumaan; Raidah Albaradie; Zahid Arain; Shahid Bashir

doi:10.7717/peerj.12811

Defense mechanism responses to COVID-19

PeerJ. 2022 Feb 11:10:e12811. doi: 10.7717/peerj.12811. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Nouf Altwaijri¹, Turki Abualait², Mohammed Aljumaan³, Raidah Albaradie⁴, Zahid Arain⁵, Shahid Bashir⁴

Affiliations

¹ King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
² College of Applied Medical Sciences, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
³ College of Medicine, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Neuroscience Center, King Fahad Specialist Hospital, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Liver Transplant Department, King Fahad Specialist Hospital, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a wide range of negative physical and mental impacts. This review begins with a theoretical explanation of the psychological defense mechanisms used to deal with the pandemic. It then discusses different categories of defense mechanisms and their roles in managing the impacts of psychological distress. The aim of this review is to highlight the various psychological defense mechanisms individuals use to deal with the pandemic and to discuss how adjustment mechanisms can protect individuals from internal and external threats by shielding the integrity of the ego (the mind) and helping individuals maintain their self-schema.

Keywords: Covid-19; Defense mechanism; Pandemic.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Defense Mechanisms
Humans
Pandemics / prevention & control
Psychological Distress*

Grants and funding

The authors received no funding for this work.