Regression is a return to a lower level of development, which involves less developed reactions and, as a rule, a decrease in claims. An adult, for example, begins to react like a very small child.
In classical concepts, regression is seen as a psychological defense mechanism, through which a person in his behavioral reactions seeks to avoid anxiety by moving to earlier stages of libido development. With this form of defensive reaction, a person exposed to frustrating factors replaces the solution of subjectively more complex tasks with relatively simpler and more accessible ones in the current situations. The use of simpler and more familiar behavioral stereotypes significantly impoverishes the general (potentially possible) arsenal of the prevalence of conflict situations. This mechanism also includes the “realization in action” protection mentioned in the literature, in which unconscious desires or conflicts are directly expressed in actions that prevent their awareness. The impulsiveness and weakness of emotional-volitional control, characteristic of psychopathic personalities, are determined by the actualization of this particular defense mechanism against the general background of changes in the motivational-need sphere towards their greater simplicity and accessibility.