Affect modulation may be problematic because of too much or too little expression. Mastery reflects the epigenetic view that individuals achieve more advanced levels of ego organization by mastering successive developmental challenges. By mastering stage-specific challenges the ego gains strength in relation to the other structures of the mind and thereby becomes more effective in organizing and synthesizing mental processes. Defense mechanisms are ego functions that allow the ego to protect the self from both real and perceived danger. According to Ego Psychology, they are among the most important of the ego functions.
Every defense mechanism is designed to keep unconscious content from entering conscious awareness.
While the defense mechanisms protect the self from perceived danger, they do so at a cost to overall functioning. An Ego Psychology perspective would view individuals as always using the most adaptive defense mechanism available. Defense mechanisms are automatically triggered when the ego becomes conscious of anxiety. As pain alerts the body of danger, anxiety alerts us to problems that are likely to affect our emotional well being. Because this type of anxiety threatens the total loss of ego functioning, contemporary ego psychologists refer to this as annihilation anxiety .