The Values and Cultural Characteristics of Defense Mechanisms in the COVID-19 Epidemic

Abstract

Over the past three years, people have suffered from unimaginable psychological stress and anxiety caused by the COVID-19 epidemic. These stresses and anxieties stem from the threat that COVID-19 poses to people’s health and lives, as well as the negative impact of the government’s lockdown and quarantine policies on social economy and development. All these factors may put people in a state of stress and anxiety for a long time. However, any perceived stress can trigger the individual’s self-defense mechanism. To reduce anxiety from the epidemic, the automatic psychological processes are involuntarily activated, and the defense mechanisms are at work. This paper examines the performance of defense mechanisms during the epidemic based on news reports and the theory of defense mechanisms and illustrates the practical role and significance of understanding defense mechanisms for the public. Additionally, this paper also takes into account the potential cultural features of defensive systems.