Denial, repression, and dissociation reflect different ways we manage what we know and feel. In denial, we face a fact that is too uncomfortable to accept and we reject it, insisting it is not true despite the evidence. In repression, we once recognized a wish, thought, or event, and then it moved outside conscious awareness while retaining symbolic form. In dissociation, awareness divides into compartments with weak links between them. Memories, affects, perceptions, and self-states can function in semi-independent ways, with only partial mutual access. In clinical work, these distinctions matter. Repressed material often returns as thoughts, images, or narratives that feel displaced, intrusive, or out of character. What we deny discharges its intensity through behavior, bodily symptoms, and slips of language. Dissociation can be observed in sudden mood shifts, shifts in viewpoints, or changes in the sense of identity. Contemporary relational theorists emphasize that some defensive operations maintain experience in an “unformulated” state; it has not yet been shaped into symbolized meaning. When we track which of these mechanisms predominates, we get a sharper map of how a person has coped and where integration work can begin.