“I think the honorable thing for our species to do is deny our programming. Stop reproducing. Walk hand in hand into extinction, one last midnight. Brothers and sisters opting out of a raw deal.” -Cohle (writer Nic Pizzolatto)

A few years after the tragedy, his mind must have hit a “reset to last saved settings” button: he goes back to his last successful coping pattern- from his childhood (taking from Freudian theory). So what we see throughout the story, is a retrogressed state of his identity, of his personality: he’s shown to be vigilant and morose, distant, hyper attentive, easily hurt and overly responsible. His entire way of living becomes his defense. This could probably be the way he must have dealt with early life trauma of abandonment, ambivalence, an unmet need for nurturance, issues of neglect and possibly irrational guilt that he may have grown up with. He has a need for human connect but doesn’t pursue it; he excels at his work but doesn’t play by the rules and doesn’t get his due credit and respect. Such conflicting issues within him show that something is off about him – he says things his actions don’t back up. This is a sign that defenses are at play in an otherwise self-aware man.

This difference between what his needs are, and what he’s willing to admit (as Marty his partner understands) seem to help him distract against the things he doesn’t feel equipped to deal with. The twist is this- see what emotions he’ll be left with by living out these conflicts: difficult feelings of disappointment? anger? being wronged? loneliness? These same feelings in higher intensities become grief and helplessness. He cannot go through them directly- it’s not a part of his coping which has been ‘reset’. So instead, his unconscious creates a smoke screen (not a brick wall- he isn’t that incapacitated) to deal with certain emotions without reaching a panic.

“Sometimes I think I’m just not good enough for people, you know, that it’s not good for them to be around me” “I think human consciousness is tragic misstep in evolution.”

Most of his defenses are ‘mature’- he is not in complete denial: he doesn’t say no to grief. He probably just doesn’t know how to go ahead and take the next step so his mind uses some defenses to help him survive intellectually and emotionally. His defenses are not as simple as black/white, he is a complex character unlike Hart’s simple everyday Narcissistic and Immature defenses.