Defensive communication tactics
Defensive communication tactics are psychological and rhetorical strategies used to avoid accountability, redirect blame, and undermine critics. These range from unconscious psychological defense mechanisms to deliberate logical fallacies and manipulation techniques.
Psychological Defense Mechanisms
Deflection
Deflection is a psychological defense mechanism where an individual redirects focus, blame, or criticism away from themselves and onto someone else. This protects the ego from the discomfort of accountability. Instead of addressing the core issue, the deflector shifts the conversational focal point to a secondary topic or another person's flaws.[1]
DARVO
DARVO stands for Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender. It is a behavioral acronym describing a specific sequence of manipulation often observed in emotional abuse and institutional betrayal.[2] When confronted, the offender:
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Denies the behavior occurred.
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Attacks the credibility, competence, or character of the person bringing the accusation.
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Reverses roles, claiming they are the true victim of a smear campaign or misunderstanding, thereby forcing the actual victim into a defensive posture.
Logical Fallacies in Argumentation
Logical fallacies are flaws in reasoning that undermine the logical validity of an argument. In defensive communication, they are often deployed as a smokescreen to distract from the substance of a valid critique.
Ad Hominem
An ad hominem (Latin for "to the person") is a fallacy where someone completely ignores the substance of a criticism and instead attacks the character, motive, or past actions of the person making the critique. By attempting to invalidate the speaker, the attacker attempts to invalidate the speaker's argument without ever engaging with the evidence.[3]
Tu Quoque ("Whataboutism")
Tu quoque (Latin for "you also") is a specific type of deflection and a subset of the ad hominem fallacy. The individual responds to criticism by accusing the critic of the same or a similar offense. For example, responding to a critique about chronic lateness with, "How can you criticize my work ethic when you were late twice last week?" The primary goal is to discredit the source by framing them as a hypocrite.[4]
Idiomatic Deflections
Shooting the Messenger
"Shooting the messenger" is an everyday idiom for lashing out at the person who delivers bad news, rather than addressing the bad news itself. The person delivering the information is usually blameless and merely a conduit, but the recipient uses them as a convenient scapegoat to vent their emotional frustration or avoid dealing with the reality of the message.[5]
References
Anna Freud / The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence / Routledge ↩︎
Jennifer J. Freyd / Violations of Power, Adaptive Blindness and Betrayal Trauma Theory / University of Oregon ↩︎
Douglas Walton / Ad Hominem Arguments / University of Alabama Press ↩︎
Patrick J. Hurley / A Concise Introduction to Logic / Cengage ↩︎
Plutarch / Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans / Project Gutenberg ↩︎