In psychology, a manic defense mechanism is a reflexive behavior that is ostensibly meant to protect our sense of self or identity from thoughts or perceptions that might damage them.
Such behaviors vary by individual and culture, because we’ve all been exposed to different norms and social mores, and because we exist within different contexts that espouse differing types of “correct” behavior.
As a result, some manic defense mechanisms that are more common in Westerners—like the tendency to laugh awkwardly when embarrassed, confused, or uncertain—are uncommon in folks from societies with other norms.
The behaviors we mimic in an attempt to conceal our embarrassment or uncertainty are predicated on what “normal” means to us and those we’ve grown up with, and thus will vary substantially from person to person and region to region.
This reflex, which is a sub-type of psychological defense mechanism, and by some estimations a variation of what’s called a “narcissistic defense mechanism”—meaning, a defense mechanism utilized to preserve one’s idealized sense of self—is labeled “manic” because it tends to manifest through upbeat, jubilant, even euphoric-seeming behaviors: laughing, wide smiles, or bursts of near-frantic activity.
The theory is that many of these manifestations are the consequence of the dominant Western ideal of overt happiness and productivity. Western cultures tend to romanticize and celebrate outward signals of joyfulness, friendliness, and a borderline self-sacrificing work ethic.
Consequently, when we feel diminished in some way or detect a stimulus that may make us feel diminished, our psychological reflexes kick in and parrot external behaviors that are associated with positive, upbeat, productive, and other socially acceptable internal states.
Research on this sub-field of inquiry are unfortunately very limited, and primarily relegated to Western sensibilities at this point (in psychology in particular, a lot of the data we’re working with is focused on so-called WEIRD subjects because of how such research tends to be conducted).
That said, it’s been proposed that this reflex may be responsible for the common tendency to seek out and perform small, comparably unimportant tasks when we actually need to sit down and write an important paper, complete a stressful project for a client, or even sit quietly with no distractions to meditate.
Our sudden desire to wash the dishes or re-organize our bookshelves when we should be doing something more structured and time-sensitive, then, may be connected to this type of psychological defense mechanism.
Facing such stressors, both external and internal, can push us to engage in frenetic, overtly productive behaviors so that we don’t feel diminished, and needn’t face tasks or ruminations that could lead to a damaged ego.
This concept, at the moment, because of the current lack of rigorous research beyond the Western world, is primarily useful as a shorthand label for a collection of behaviors and tendencies, not as a clear and definitive explanation for why we do those things.
Such shorthands can be useful, though, as they can help us identify and assess some of our behaviors and framings of things, even if they don’t provide us with clear reasons for those perspectives and actions, or reliable, practical methods of recalibrating them.
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