Self-Induced Failure, a Mechanism of Defense

The phenomenon that certain personalities seem compelled to destroy their chances of success, is totally compatible with established concepts of psychic structure (3, 4). If we regard human behavior as the product of interactions between the various domains of the psyche (id, ego, super-ego), then we can understand and predict under what circumstances and on the basis of which psychological processes self induced failure occurs. To put it differently, we can explain why certain people, who seem to desire success with special intensity, fashion their conduct in such a way that their own endeavours are thwarted, as soon as the first signs of success appear.

Self-defeating behavior, which we might also describe as one of the facets or manifestations of moral masochism, is the outcome of various facts among which the following might be specially mentioned: Firstly, the need for gratification of instinctual drives (pleasure principle). Secondly, the existence of a complex network of defenses, which have been acquired under the impact of the circumstances of life, for the purpose of mediating between the instinctual drives and the external world. The defense mechanisms proper, as described by Anna Freud (2), serve the purpose of preventing a great many anti-social instinctual drives and their derivatives from reaching consciousness. We may distinguish, in addition, other mechanisms which have also been evolved by the ego and which are used in the service of the ego. Their aim is less the repression of the instinctual drives than the prevention of the expression of these drives through acting out. These ego devices, we might say, concern themselves with the sphere of action rather than with the sphere of consciousness. As a third factor, which seems to lead to the emergence of self defeating behavior, we may mention the inability to distinguish between action in fantasy and action in reality. Many individuals with psychological pathology have knowledge of their emotional cr