The defence mechanisms we form in our early years are part of our “self Will”.  They are enduring protective patterns of behaviour that provide a defence against the awareness of what is anxiety producing.  If we are uncomfortable with feelings we develop these strategies to survive hurt, pain and fear.  There are so many endless examples its impossible to list.  The individuals who think they are not tolerated, may push others away, individuals with be strong and not feel may be workaholic and struggle to be intimate, the co-dependent matriarch is powerfully motherly for her own needs, the one who does not feel like he exists may sit back in silence but collect anger and be ready to explode due to overload.  The individual who has to be clever and hide behind intellectualisation rather then have relationships. The lovely lady who only thinks that she is worthy if objectified by the opposite sex due to lack of self worth as a person.  The talented individual who discounts what they are good at and feels shame if anyone sees.  The person who has tried to be so good all the time they have lost their sense of who they are.    We are all affected by defences to feel okay about ourselves to survive a world.  This world has other people  in who are also saving face.  This means a presentation that we can give over which protects the really vulnerable soft part.  Often this is so that no-one can hurt us.  The Psychologist Goffman often wrote about drama theory.  That we all have a role that’s handed to us from attachments and life experiences.  This role has regalia , etiquette, expectations, patterns, presentations and we practise it so much it becomes us.   Its a never ending game of life where we all have roles to play out which helps construct a false self.  This is so much so that we forget what the real self is about and wants and needs.  We can be hidden and this is not just from others, it is also “hidden from ourselves”.  I often see the world as an emotional jungle that can be emotionally intimidating to many and its no wonder so much armour is created to protect.  Understanding these games, defences and patterns can be so useful.  All human beings are vulnerable, it is universal, no matter what they have or what walk of life they come from.  Therefore, all human beings have defences to protect themselves from life itself and all that this may mean to them as an individual.  This  then relates to early life and the experiences collected during that journey.  This is the stuff of ones “life Scripts”  this includes  what defences one built which were often decided due to protection and useful to that certain period of that particular time.  However, what worked once upon a time does not mean to say it will work now.