Defenses

There are many defenses that boil down to three
denial, shift and escape from harsh reality.
Projection is imputing disowned motive and thought
placing them on others to deny what's distraught.
Rationalization gives "good reasons for the real"
grapes the fox couldn't reach are denied to appeal.
Fantasizing substitutes for things that are actual
a way to escape truth and what is factual.
Intellectualizers talk escaping conformance
promises though heady are without performance.
Sublimation is a shift to make acceptable
indecent purposes to seem respectable.
Displacement directs impulse to another affect
shifting the responses from the usual object.
Defenses are protection against the crude and dark
they are shock-absorbers when life becomes too stark.