Understanding Healthy Defense Mechanisms: Why Do People Compartmentalize?

Compartmentalization is a defense mechanism our psyche uses in order to protect us from emotional and psychological distress. Compartmentalization allows us to separate overwhelming situations or emotions from other aspects of our lives. While sometimes beneficial as coping mechanism, when overused, compartmentalization may be harmful to someone’s mental health. In this article, we’ll explore the concept of compartmentalization why people may do it.

Why do we compartmentalize?

For example, let’s consider a person who works in an emergency room, a relatively high-stress environment. They might naturally learn to compartmentalize the stress of their workday so they can enjoy an evening with their partner or go to the park with their child after work. Another person might compartmentalize a painful event from their childhood to avoid feeling weighed down or limited by their past.  

Regardless of the why behind this defense mechanism, compartmentalization can allow a person to focus on the task, event, or person in front of them without allowing unrelated stressors to interfere.

In psychology, compartmentalization is sometimes used interchangeably with isolation, which can be defined as a defense mechanism that keeps unwelcome thoughts and feelings from forming connections with other thoughts and feelings, preventing the activation of any undesired thoughts.

What is healthy vs. unhealthy compartmentalization? 

If you take a moment to reflect on your personal life, you may be able to identify examples of healthy and unhealthy compartmentalization. 

When talking about defense mechanisms, defining healthy can be challenging. However, the following information may help you assess whether compartmentalization is supporting your mental health or possibly preventing you from confronting important thoughts and feelings.

Healthy compartmentalization

Applied in a healthy way, some mental health experts describe compartmentalization as a form of emotional intelligence. While defense mechanisms are typically regarded as unconscious mental strategies, individuals can actively use compartmentalization to identify their stressors and make thoughtful, informed decisions, sometimes minimizing the effects of unrelated emotions on their choices. Research shows that creating mental compartments can reduce feelings of anxiety and stress while boosting your productivity, mental clarity. 

For example, if you’re heading to an important meeting after a disagreement with your friend or partner, being able to temporarily set aside those emotions may aid your performance during the meeting. Or, after a frustrating day at work, the ability to compartmentalize any negative emotions may help you be more present during dinner with your family or a meetup with a friend.

Of course, life can be unpredictable. Regardless of their emotional intelligence, most people can recall at least one instance when emotions clouded their performance, decision-making, or perception. Simply being aware of the potential value of compartmentalization may help you slow down during intense moments and ask yourself the following questions: 

• How am I feeling, and why do I feel this way?
• Are these emotions relevant to the task or decision in front of me?
• Is there anything I can do about how I’m feeling right now?

If the answer to the last question is no, it may be best to compartmentalize to reduce your stress until you’re able to address that concern.

With these questions in mind, creating mental compartments can reduce feelings of anxiety and stress while boosting your productivity, mental clarity, and ability to stay grounded in the present moment. 

Unhealthy compartmentalization

Compartmentalization can be helpful in many scenarios, but over-relying on this defense mechanism may have negative consequences for a person’s mental health and relationships.

In a healthy state, people can often consciously compartmentalize to organize their lives and thought processes. Compartmentalization can also narrow a person’s thinking, however, which may reduce their mental flexibility and ability to make meaningful connections between different mental compartments. 

In practice, some examples of dysfunctional or unhealthy compartmentalization may include the following:

• Compartmentalizing love and sex in a romantic relationship, which can make it difficult to create sexual intimacy and form a healthy romantic attachment
• Significantly changing your behavior in different settings (for example, work, home, and social groups), which can complicate your sense of identity and authenticity
• Pursuing a lucrative career or another monetary opportunity that conflicts with some of your values or beliefs and separating them from your financial decisions

When reflecting on your own tendency to compartmentalize, many therapists recognize that the categorization of healthy versus unhealthy is not always black-and-white. 

Depending on your life stage and other factors, compartmentalization may be a helpful defense mechanism to reduce feelings of stress, anxiety, and overwhelm. To an extreme, however, compartmentalization can prevent the processing and connection of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in a process known as integration, which generally refers to the harmonizing of different brain regions and of the brain with the body. 

Four alternatives to unhealthy compartmentalization

If you notice that you tend to compartmentalize, there may be several alternative strategies to address conflicting thoughts and feelings, cultivate a more integrated state of mind, and improve your self-understanding. 

1. Develop a mindfulness practice

As a practice, mindfulness typically relies on compartmentalization to reduce feelings of stress and anxiety. By bringing a person’s attention to their current experiences, sensations, thoughts, and feelings, mindfulness exercises can help a person distinguish between controllable and uncontrollable sources of stress.

Two key pillars of mindfulness tend to include letting go of things outside your control and bringing your attention to the things that truly matter. These might include your relationships, creative pursuits, other hobbies, and current feelings of happiness or fulfillment. Common forms of mindfulness usually include meditation, breathing exercises, and active listening, all of which tend to emphasize a person’s attention and capabilities in the present moment. 

Mindfulness does not necessarily equate to the complete dismissal of unwelcome feelings or thoughts. Alternatively, a mindful moment can simply allow a person to regain perspective and return to (or even challenge) those thoughts and feelings later or from a different perspective. 

2. Use compartmentalization to set healthy boundaries

As noted previously, compartmentalization can be a healthy strategy to improve your organization, productivity, and overall sense of mental clarity. By learning about this defense mechanism and reflecting on your own life, you may be able to create useful separations between different areas of your life.

For many people, one of the most useful applications of compartmentalization can be the establishment of clear, healthy boundaries. For example, you may set a boundary between yourself and a beloved but demanding family member by limiting your interactions to once a week. In other areas of life, you can create clear, reasonable boundaries to fulfill your own needs—and the needs of others—while conserving your mental and physical energy.

3. Explore other ways to manage stress

When people unconsciously compartmentalize, they may be seeking an escape from a specific stressor or challenging period of life. In some scenarios, compartmentalization may allow a person to temporarily release that stress. In other contexts, however, you may prefer stress management techniques that help you identify and resolve the underlying source of stress.

Suggested emotional management strategies can vary widely depending on the specific stressor and your own preferences. That said, the following exercises may help you manage stress while reflecting on its potential causes, potentially giving you more insight into your needs and goals for stress management. 

• Journaling can naturally encourage reflection on your behavior, thoughts, and feelings. Over time, journaling may help you recognize your defense mechanism patterns.
• Yoga may reduce stress, anxiety, and depression.
• Meditation is often seen as a time-tested strategy to become more relaxed and aware of the connection between your mind and body.
• Creative outlets like painting and drawing may help you draw connections between certain thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

When you use compartmentalization as a conscious tool, you may be able to recognize certain stressors that impact your decision-making and set boundaries that prevent those stressors from interfering with your well-being.

When compartmentalization isn’t an option, however, you may be able to rely on alternative emotional management strategies, like the ones listed above, that provide both temporary and long-term relief from stress and anxiety.

4. Talk to a mental health professional

If you’re interested in learning more about defense mechanisms and sustainable ways to manage stress, you may benefit from speaking with a licensed mental health professional. Depending on your goals, a therapist may help you establish clear boundaries and generally support your mental health and well-being. 

Whether you’re in a stressful period of life or simply looking for extra support, both in-person and online therapists can be powerful sources of guidance and stability. Some people prefer to begin therapy with face-to-face sessions, while others appreciate the flexibility of online platforms. 

When going through stressful situations, it can feel difficult to fit therapy into your schedule. Online therapy allows you to connect with a board-certified therapist from the comfort of your own home, without the need to travel to in-person sessions.

While more research may be needed regarding the efficacy of online therapy for developing healthy defense mechanisms, the existing evidence suggests that, in general, online therapy tends to be as effective as traditional in-office therapy. A meta-analysis of 20 studies show that there is no significant difference in treatment outcomes when comparing the results of remote therapy and in-person therapy.