Psychological defenses, their connection with psychological health and personality development

The paper reviews and analyzes theoretical and empirical studies on the relationship of psychological defense with psychological health and personality development. Its relevance derives from the increasing importance of adaptive capabilities of the personality psyche in stressful and conflict potential conditions of the modern world. The research program consists of a set of interrelated experiments concerning the relationship of psychological defenses with psychological health and personality development. The analysis shows that the constructive defense contributes to the harmonious personality development and psychological health, in turn personality development and psychological health contribute to the optimization and improvement of the constructive defense. Ten empirical studies of foreign and domestic authors were analyzed. The generalization of psychological health and personality development dependence on psychological defenses allow the formation of research programs for further research. In this case, the revised positive and negative effects of psychological defenses on personality health and development, objective life difficulties of people, intrafamily dependence, emotional sphere of a personality, and self-processes, including self-control, self-esteem, self-regulation, should be taken into consideration. It is also necessary to take into account the psychopathology of a personality and the accentuation of a character. The practical significance of the study is that the use of knowledge about interrelations of psychological defense with indicators of psychological health and personality development in psychologist’s practice will contribute to a more integral perception and accurate understanding of defense processes in diagnosis and consulting clients.