전래의 속담에 나타난 과거 한국인의 자아방어기제

Korean’ s M ajor Defense Mechanisms Presented in T raditional Proverbs

This is a preliminary research to examine major defense mechanisms that are presented in Korean proverbs. Among 8,000 proverbs we found in a dictionary, there are 587 proverbs that illustrated defense mechanisms which were analysed individually and by maturity level. The results are as follows: 1) The most common defense mechanism is reaction formation and the content is to make a show of power and good appearance. 2) The other major defense mechanisms are identification, passive-aggressive behavior, and projection. 3) In terms of the level of maturity, it is found that reaction formation is at an intermediate level and identification, passive-aggressive behavior, and projeotion are at the immature level.